Oklahoma gymnastics: OU men enter MPSF Championships nation’s No. 1
By Chip Rouse
The men’s Oklahoma gymnastics team is exactly where it wants to be heading into the most important part of its season.
The three-time defending national champion Sooners rank No, 1 in the country heading into the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation conference championships this weekend in Colorado Springs.
The MPSF Championships is the only thing that stands between OU and the NCAA Men’s Gymnastics Championships April 20-21 in Chicago. The Sooners will be going after a fourth consecutive national title and 12th in program history.
Oklahoma has won eight national championships in 18 seasons under head coach Mark Williams, and 11 in program history. The Sooners were national runners-up on seven other occasions under Williams.
Williams’ teams have won 15 MPSF championships, including the last six. and the Sooners are a heavy favorite to make it seven consecutive conference titles this weekend.
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Led by All-American and 2018 American Cup champion Yul Moldauer, the Sooners go into the postseason and the MPSF Championships with a nation-best “four-score average” of 414.933.
The four-score average is used to determine the national rankings and is determined by factoring a team’s best four scores from the regular-season competition schedule. Two of the scores must be in events away from home. A team’s overall high score is dropped off, and the remaining four scores are averaged.
In addition to the No. 1 overall ranking, Oklahoma sits atop the national rankings in two team events (high bar and parallel bars) and in the top three in three other events (pommel horse, still rings and vault).
Moldauer, a junior, ranks in the top 10 in the country in three individual events (No. 1 on still rings and parallel bars and No. 6 on pommel horse). Junior Gene Suzuki ranks No. 1 on high bar and is No. 8 nationally on pommel horse and parallel bars. Jumior Levi Anderson is No. 4 in the country in the all-around score with an 82.300 average.
Only two schools in the history of the NCAA Men’s Gymnastics Championships have won as many as four consecutive national titles: Illinois (1939-42) and Nebraska (1980-83). And only Penn State (12) has more national championships in men’s gymnastics than Oklahoma.