Oklahoma gymnastics: No. 1 OU men runners-up in NCAA Championship
By Chip Rouse
The year didn’t end the way the Oklahoma gymnastics program had hoped with both the Sooner women and men falling just short as NCAA Championship runners-up.
Several hours after the OU women had finished second to Michigan in the NCAA Women’s Championship, the Sooner men were dealt the same fate in the men’s championship finals, hosted by the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis.
The Sooners took the lead in the first rotation of the night, recording a season-best score of 72.965 in floor exercise.
Much like the women’s national championship in Ft. Worth, Texas, earlier in the day, the men’s championship came down to the final rotation in the competition. The Sooners held a narrow lead of three-tenths of a point over Stanford, with OU finishing on the high bar and Stanford concluding the competition on still rings.
Stanford scored 70.097 on still rings, while the Sooners put up a respectable score of 66.832 on the high bar, which was enough to tilt the final standings in the Cardinal’s favor and and award the West Coast school its seventh national championship in men’s gymnastics.
Stanford finished with a final composite team score of 414.521, followed by Oklahoma (411.591), Michigan (410.358), Nebraska (406.624), Minnesota (406.291) and Illinois (397.991).
OU senior Gage Dyer was the NCAA individual champion in floor exercise and on vault
It was the second consecutive NCAA Championship in which Stanford and Oklahoma finished one-two. No championship was held in 2020 because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The Sooners remain tied with Penn State for the most men’s national championships with 12 apiece. Oklahoma has also finished as runner-up 10 times.
OU concludes its men’s gymnastics season with a 17-2-1 record, as champions of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation and national runner-up. All and all, another outstanding season for head coach Mark Williams’ program.