Stormin in Norman
Fansided

Oklahoma gymnastics: Sooner men come up short in bid for 5th straight NCAA title

By Chip Rouse

DOHA, QATAR - NOVEMBER 02: Yul Moldauer of The United States reacts in the floor exercise during day nine of the 2018 FIG Artistic Gymnastics Championships at Aspire Dome on November 2, 2018 in Doha, Qatar. (Photo by Francois Nel/Getty Images)
DOHA, QATAR - NOVEMBER 02: Yul Moldauer of The United States reacts in the floor exercise during day nine of the 2018 FIG Artistic Gymnastics Championships at Aspire Dome on November 2, 2018 in Doha, Qatar. (Photo by Francois Nel/Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit

The men’s Oklahoma gymnastic squad’s bid for a perfect season and an unprecedented fifth consecutive NCAA championship came up just short at the 2019 NCAA Men’s Gymnastics Championship in Champaign, Illinois, over the weekend.

The four-time defending national champion Sooners narrowly lost out to Stanford in their quest to win a 13th NCAA national title and ninth since 2002. The Stanford Cardinal posted a total score of 415.222 to 414.556 for runner-up Oklahoma. Nebraska finished third, followed by Michigan, Illinois and Penn State.

Oklahoma captured top team honors in two of the six events (pommel horse and parallel bars).

Sooner senior co-captain Yul Moldauer took third place on the pommel horse, second-place on still rings and in sixth place in the all-around to earn three more All-America honors, bringing his career total to 18 All-America recognitions. With seven individual national titles in his career (but none at this year’s NCAA Championships), Moldauer ends his career tied for the most in collegiate gymnastics history.

“It’s hard to have a streak of victories over such a long period of time, and we were a little off tonight.” — OU men’s coach Mark Williams

Senior teammate Genki Suzuki also earned a pair of All-America honors at this year’s championships (on the horizontal bar and in all-around).

In true championship form, the meet came down to the sixth and final rotation. Oklahoma was on the high bar, and Stanford’s final rotation was on still rings. The Sooners scored below their season average on the high bar, putting up a score of 66.065. That left the door open for Stanford, and the Cardinal took full advantage of the opportunity, posting the highest team score on still rings and earning enough points to unseat Oklahoma out of first place.

It was the first national championship for Stanford in men’s gymnastics since 2011.

As the popular saying goes, “All good things must come to an end.” And for Oklahoma that meant the end of an historic journey of 121 consecutive wins, including four consecutive national titles and eight consecutive Mountain Pacific Sports Federation conference championships. The 121 consecutive wins is the third most in NCAA history.

"“It was an amazing run,” OU men’s coach Mark Williams told reporters after Saturday’s championship final.“Unfortunately, we just didn’t have the night we needed to win another national championship.”"

Home/Oklahoma Sooners