Men's Gymnastics Adds More Hardware During Event Finals

April 13, 2003

PHILADELPHIA, Pa. - The Oklahoma men's gymnastics team added a little icing to the cake Sunday, in the form of three individual national championships and 11 All-America honors, both Oklahoma gymnastics records. Oklahoma was the only team to have an individual qualify on every event during the NCAA Event Finals and Sooners walked away with an All-American performance on every routine except one (11 of 12). The number of individuals, six, ties the record of gymnasts to receive All-Amerca honors, which they set last season.

"Daniel Furney was my first national champion as a coach," said OU Head Coach Mark Williams. "To get four NCAA titles in one year is amazing. It has been an honor to be Daniel and Josh Lanids' coach. I hope that their future holds a lot more success. If they use their Sooner careers as a blue print, it is hard to see them not doing beig things."

On his final day of collegiate competition, senior co-captain Josh Landis put together the best floor exercise routine of his career. His score of 9.675 earned the Norman native his first NCAA Individual Championship. Three competitors later, Landis was up on pommel horse, where he scored a 9.687 and claimed his second NCAA title.

"I couldn't have picked a better way to finish," said Landis. "I had ot show Daniel what I could do. It is a great honor to be the only Sooners in Oklahoma history to win two individual titles in the same season."

OU, who went without an individual national champion since 1999 when Todd Bishop won the high bar title, claimed the first two events of the afternoon. Landis was the first gymnast in Oklahoma history to claim two individual national championships in the same year and the fourth OU gymnast to win multiple titles, until Daniel Furney got going a few events later.

NCAA All-Around Champion Daniel Furney added to his list of accolades by matching Landis and taking the NCAA title on parallel bars (9.475). Furney now has two individual NCAA Championships in his career (including the all-around title from last night) and nine All-America honors, which ties Bart Conner for the most in Sooner history.

"I am glad that Josh Landis wasn't able to do it himself," said Furney. "We always compete. I think it showed how much depth this team really has. It was great to tie Bart Conner and now I can rib him about it. Unfortunately I missed out on pommels or I would have passed him."

Freshman Jamie Henderson was the first Sooner during the still rings final and scrapped the rookie nerves to score a 9.450 claiming All-America honors for himself. Jamie's brother David was the last freshman to accomplish the feat, doing it in 2002 on still rings. Brett Covey received the second All-America honor of his career with a 9.662 and third place finish on rings.

Jock Stevens who landed the highest vault score of the weekend (9.700) team finals, finished third on the event (9.500) Sunday for his second consecutive All-American honor on vault. Heath Mueller and Josh Landis finished in third (9.00) and fourth (8.87) on parallel bars, respectively. Landis received three All-American honors on the afternoon.

The top six finishers on each event receive All-American honors if they are an American citizen.


NCAA Championship Event Finals Results
April 13, 2003

Floor ExercisePommel Horse
1. Josh Landis (OU)9.6751. Josh Landis (OU) 9.687
2. Graham Ackerman (Cal)9.6502. Zack Roeder (Penn State)9.600
3. Kerry Adderly (Ohio State) 9.3123. Peter Shostchuck (Illinois) 9.575
4. Justin Spring (Illinois)9.2874. Clay Strother (Minnesota)9.550
5. Clay Strother (Minnesota) 9.1255. Ryan Schartzkopf (Ohio State)9.537
6. Bob Rogers (Illinois) 9.1006. Raj Bhavsar (Ohio State) 9.362
7. Dan Gill (Stanford) 9.0877. Scott Vetere (Michigan) 9.312
8. Cody Trobaugh (Ohio State)8.6758. Daniel Furney (OU) 8.600

Still RingsVault
1. Kevin Tan (Penn State)9.762 1. Andrew Digliore (Michigan)9.650
2. Marshall Erwin (Stanford)9.7502. Zack Roeder (Penn State)9.625
3. Nyika White (Temple)9.6873. Jock Stevens (OU)9.500
4. Brett Covey (OU)9.6624. Dan Gill (Stanford)9.462
5. Conan Parzucho (Michigan)9.5505. Daniel Furney (OU)9.425
6. Raj Bhavsar (Ohio State)9.4876. Ludwig Kern (Penn State)9.362
7. Jamie Henderson (OU)9.4507. Kevin Donohue (Penn State)9.262
8. Cody Trobaugh (Ohio State)9.4378. Dustin Greenhill (Army)9.200
9. Brian Lee (Army)9.212 9. David Eaton (Cal)8.950
10. Randy Monahan (Ohio State)8.725

Parallel BarsHigh Bar
1. Daniel Furney (OU)9.4751.Linas Gaveika (Iowa)9.712
2. Dustin Greenhill (Army)9.0752. Kevin Tan (Penn State)9.625
3. Heath Mueller (OU)9.0003. Scott Wetterling (Illinois)9.600
4. Justin Landis (OU)8.8874. Daniel Furney (OU)9.475
5. Steven Friedman (Nebraska)8.8375. Kevin Donohue (Penn State) 9.312
6. Luis Vargas (Penn State)8.8006. Luis Vargas (Penn State)9.125
7. Justin Spring (Illinois)8.6507. Mike Reavis (Iowa)9.025
8. Raj Bhavsar (Ohio State)8.5508. Justin Spring (Illinois)8.775
9. Ronnie Ferris (Ohio State) 8.450

University of Oklahoma Athletics

Men's Gymnastics Adds More Hardware During Event Finals

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