Sooner sports: OU spring sports setting high bar

By Chip Rouse | Mar 1, 2018

NORMAN, OK - NOVEMBER 11: Oklahoma Sooners fans cheer during the game against the TCU Horned Frogs at Gaylord Family Oklahoma Memorial Stadium on November 11, 2017 in Norman, Oklahoma. Oklahoma defeated TCU 38-20. (Photo by Brett Deering/Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** /

Basketball season has been a roller coaster ride for the Oklahoma Sooner faithful, but several other Sooner sports programs are off to championship starts.

The men’s and women’s Oklahoma gymnastics teams, reigning national champions three and two-times running, respectively, have yet to lose a competition this season.

The Sooner men’s team is 4-0 and ranked No. 1 in the nation. Hosting Navy last weekend, the Sooners posted a team score of 429.550, the highest score in NCAA men’s gymnastics this season. It was the third consecutive meet that Oklahoma has posted the best score in the nation.

OU is first overall in NCAA men’s gymnastics and also ranks No. 1 in three individual events: pommel horse, parallel bars and high bar. The Sooners are No. 2 in the country in still rings and vault. Junior Yul Moldauer ranks first in the nation on parallel bars and second in floor exercise and still rings. In addition, senior Genki Suzuki owns the nation’s highest average this season on the high bar.

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The Oklahoma men’s gymnastics program has enjoyed a long run as one of the nation’s elite program. The Sooners have won eight national titles since 2000, all under current coach Mark Williams.

In women’s gymnastics, the Sooners are exhibiting the same dominance. The two-time defending national champions began the season as the nation’s top-ranked team and they remain so seven weeks later.

The OU women are 6-1 in competition in 2018, losing only to fifth-ranked Florida. Their wins include victories over No. 4 UCLA and No. 12 Nebraska, and they host No. 7 Nebraska this weekend.

Sophomore Maggie Nichols ranks No. 1 in three individual categories: All-Around, uneven bars and balance beam and is tied for third place nationally in floor exercise.

In addition to ranking No. 1 overall, the Sooners are No. 1 in vault, No. 2 in bars and beam and rank fifth in the country in floor exercise.

The NCAA champion men’s golf program is back on the course for the second half of the 2017-18 season, and has a first-place finish, three seconds and a third place in six tournaments so far in 2018. OU’s tournament win was in the Nike Collegiate Invitational, which featured seven schools ranked in the top 25. The Oklahoma men’s team is presently ranked eighth in the country.

A week ago, Sooner junior golfer Brad Dalke learned that he had been added to the watch list for the prized Haskins Award, which recognizes the “Most Outstanding Collegiate Golfer of the Year.”

This past weekend, the Sooner women’s golf team recorded its first tournament win of the season, finishing with a school-record three-round team score of 25-under-par 839. It was the third time the OU women have placed in the top-two this season.

In that same tournament, OU freshman Kaitlin Milligan fired an opening round score of 10-under 62. That represented the lowest 18-hole score in program history, the lowest in Big 12 history and the lowest score in the NCAA Division I this season. Milligan finished the tournament with a three-round score of 17-under 299 and placed second on the individual leaderboard.

A third reigning Oklahoma national championship team, the Sooner softball team, has begun the new season right where it left off last season in winning its second consecutive national crown and third in the last five seasons. The Sooners are 9-2 to begin the season and tied for sixth in the latest ESPN.com/USA Softball rankings.

There is a long season still to go, but the OU softball squad shows every indication of making another championship run in 2018.

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