A Closer Look

March 24, 2001

OU qualified the maximum two athletes per team, per event to Saturday's event final competition (ties within teams were left to the discretion of team coaches) and left Berkeley, Calif., with three new conference champions and four runner-ups.

Top-ranked Brendan O'Neil (senior), who has held the national number-one ranking on floor all season, walked away with the floor title scoring a 9.6, three tenths better than second-place Cody Moore of Cal.

"This was definitely one of Brendan's most dominant performances on an event he has dominated all season," coach Mark Williams said proudly. "I was excited to see him end his conference career as a champion once again." (O'Neil also earned the conference floor crown as a sophomore.)

Sophomore Josh Landis finished third on floor for the Sooners but couldn't maintain his first place-qualifying position on the next event, pommel horse, falling three times on what is usually his best event.

As in the team competition, the Sooners owned the still rings. Sophomore Brett Covey continued to show the other strongmen how it is done, earning a 9.6 for first place. Fellow OU sophomore Shannon Carrion followed with a 9.425.

"Not only was it impressive to claim first and second on rings, we actually had the top four rings performances of the meet, but only two guys could qualify to finals," Williams said. "At this time last year I would never have imagined that either of these kids would be racking up the scores they have. They've both worked very hard to get this strong -- lots of early morning strength sessions went into this title. I'm glad they could be rewarded for that here at the conference championships."

Vault was another one-two punch for OU, with Steve Van Etten (senior) claiming the top spot with a stuck Kas (9.2) and junior Everette Bierker a close second with a Kas-1/2 (9.175).

Daniel Furney (sophomore) was OU's top parallel bars performer, finishing second with a 9.05. Furney added an extra, ultra-difficult element (peach to giant Diamadov, giant double back) to his routine in finals to up his Start Value two-tenths to a 9.6.

On high bar, Van Etten notched another second place for the Sooners, earning a 9.2 for his solid 9.7 Start Value set. "Steve did a great set," Williams said. "I really thought he could have won it.

"Except for some trouble on pommel horse I think this was a great finals for OU. My congratulations go out to our three conference champions."

University of Oklahoma Athletics

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