Oklahoma Sooner Fans: Ten Things to Be Thankful for in 2016
By Chip Rouse
Men’s and Women’s Gymnastic Squads Sweep National Championship
Gymnastics at Oklahoma has long been one of the country’s premier college programs. The men have won 10 national titles, including seven since 2000) and the Sooner women own two national championships.
This past spring, the Oklahoma men and women swept the national championships in both divisions, the first time that has ever been done in the same year.
For the men, it was back-to-back national titles (2015 and 2016), and for the Sooner women, it was their first outright national crown. The Sooners shared shared the women’s national title with Florida in 2014, and in 2015 they entered the NCAA Championships undefeated and as the No. 1 seed, but finished third.
Mark Williams has been the men’s coach at OU for 17 seasons, and K.J. Kindler has been in place on the women’s side for a decade. Williams was the coach of the U.S. men’s team at the 2016 Summer Olympic Games in Rio De Janeiro. That team included three former Oklahoma Sooners (Chris Brooks, Jake Dalton and Alex Naddour). Naddour won a bronze medal in Rio on the pommel horse in the individual competition.