Defending Champs Set For Home Opener Against Air Force On Friday

MEET 2 - OU vs. Air Force
January 23, 2004, 7 p.m.
Norman, Okla.
Lloyd Noble Center

Teams:
No. 6 OKLAHOMA
No. 16 Air Force

The Sooners open up the home portion of their 2004 schedule with Mountain Pacific Sports Federation foe, Air Force. The two met last week in the Rocky Mountain Open, where OU defeated the Falcons, 211.400-192.850.

The Sooners enter Friday's meet, ranked No. 6 in the nation, after scoring a 211.400 at the Rocky Mountain Open last weekend, winning the event among college teams to start the season 3-0. The Air Force Academy is No. 16 in this week's poll.

Despite a rough weekend of travel, OU still managed to record the top NCAA score at the Rocky Mountain Open last weekend and will look to get back into that 214-215 range head coach Mark Williams is looking for.

"We had a number of guys finish in the top ten of the event finals in Colorado, which is encouraging," said Williams. "Obviously we need to be more consistent and that is not a big concern this early in the season but we look forward to and expect to do better this weekend at home."

Head coach Lou Burkel enters his 21st season at the helm of the Falcon's gymnastics team, who finished in last place at the MPSF Championships a season ago.

The Falcons have a number of veterans on this years' squad with five seniors and three juniors. Amongst them are senior co-captains, Jeff Anderson and Mike Berry. The rest of Air Force's roster consists of three sophomores and seven freshmen.

The meet is scheduled to start at 7 p.m. at Lloyd Noble Center and gates will open one hour prior to the event. Tickets are $5 for adults and $2 for children and fans presenting a military ID will receive a discounted rate of $2. In addition, groups of ten or more will receive the discounted group rate of $2 a ticket (group tickets must be ordered 24 hours in advance). The first 350 fans will receive OU men's gymnastics trading cards and after the meet, fans are encouraged stick around for an autograph session.

Streaks
OU opened the 2004 season at the Rocky Mountain Open by extending their winning streak up to 41 straight wins overall over their opponents. That includes 27 on the road, where the Sooners last lost at Stanford on March 9 of 2002. At home, the Sooners are even better rattling off 26 straight victories. The last time an OU team lost in Norman was on January 28 of 2000, against Ohio State. The school record for consecutive victories is held by the football team, who won 47 straight from 1953-1957.

Sooner Notes
*Mubarak Abdullah-Simmons- junior-college transfer, looking to make collegiate debut.
*Brian Carr- Only freshman on the squad and will compete primarily on parallel bars and pommel horse.
*Kyle Fernandez- Impressive in OU debut at Rocky Mountain Open (RMO), scored 9.200 in team finals and 9.075 on rings in event finals.
*Michael Gehart- 9.050 at RMO put him in Saturday's event finals, where he scored 8.950 (7th).
*Josh Gore- Placed in the RMO parallel bars event finals, scoring the highest collegiate score that day at the meet (9.3), 9.35 (career high) the day before in team finals.
*David Henderson- Placed fifth (9.150) on vault at RMO event finals.
*Jamie Henderson- One of two all-arounders for OU at RMO. Placed fifth in collegiate division for the all-around (50.650). Made event finals on still rings, placed seventh with 9.050.
*David Iammatteo- Made floor exercise event finals, placed sixth.
*Heath Mueller- One of two all-arounders for OU at RMO. Took first in the collegiate division with 52.850. Also participated in the event finals of pommel horse (6th), parallel bars (5th) and high bar (10th).
*James Myers- Scored a career high of 9.200 on high bar in event finals at RMO.
*Curtis O'Rorke- Potential all-arounder after competing in every event last season as a freshman.
*Quinn Rowell- 2002 All-American on high bar and is co-captain with Heath Mueller. Finished seventh in event finals at RMO in high bar.
*Jock Stevens- Placed in the RMO event finals in two events; took fifth in floor exercise and sixth in vault.
*Brian Trause- Advanced to event finals of RMO, and finished eighth with a 8.750 score.

NCAA Record
Ever since the new scoring system's inception in 2001 in college gymnastics (Federation de Internationale Gymnastics Code Scoring System), Oklahoma has dominated the top team scores around the nation. Not only did the Sooners break the record twice last season, but they also own nine of the top-20 scores. On March 7, 2003 at home against Stanford and Ohio State, OU topped their old mark of 220.650 with a 222.500. That record would only last till the end of the month, when at the MPSF Championships the team recorded a 223.500. The only other schools to hold top 20 scores are Penn State and Ohio State.

Preseason Top 15
The Oklahoma men's gymnastics team, coming off a NCAA National Championship undefeated season in 2003, was voted No. 2 in the GymInfo Coaches' preseason top-15 poll. The Sooners got three first-place votes and trailed only Ohio State, which received nine first-place votes. OU has ranked in the top five of the preseason poll over each of the last seven seasons and were No. 1 in 2003 and 2002.

“This is obviously just a preseason ranking but it still was kind of a surprise to be this high with the seniors graduating from last year,” said Oklahoma head coach Mark Williams. “I think that we will have a strong team this season. We will do our best to be in the mix come March and April and contend again for a NCAA Championship with a nice combination of experience and fresh talent on this squad.”

Head Coach Mark Williams
One of the most respected gymnastics authorities in the nation, Mark Williams has coached at every level of the sport, from beginners to Olympians. Williams was named head coach of the program in 2000 and produced immediate results. With the 2003 and 2002 squads claiming national championships, he now has the program positioned as a legitimate national contender every year.

Williams has done a lot of winning during his stint as head coach, producing five conference titles, in addition to being named “Coach of the Year” by the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation four times and NCAA National Coach of the Year twice. In 2003, the Sooners went 26-0 winning the NCAA National Championship in Philadelphia, Pa. Williams was named NCAA Coach of the Year and became the first coach in NCAA history to win two national titles in his first four years as head coach. Williams reached the 90-win plateau (93-7 career) faster than any other coach in NCAA history and owns the highest winning percentage of any active NCAA coach at 93 percent. Wiliams' squad will enter the 2004 season with winning streaks of 38 overal over opponents, 24 on the road and 26 at home.

Wiliams owns the NCAA record for wins (93) and winning percentage (.930) in a coach's first four seasons. In his 23 years as a professional gymnastics coach, Williams has guided gymnasts to World Championship, Pan American Games and University Games teams.

Career Highs
Six Sooners recorded new career highs in the season opener in Colorado Springs at the Rocky Mountain Open (RMO). Junior Michael Gehart scored a 7.850 on still rings, his first recorded time competing for OU on that event. Junior Josh Gore came close to breaking the school record of 9.500 on the parallel bars, when he recorded a 9.35 on the apparatus. Sophomore Jamie Henderson beat his previous score of 8.150 on the vault with an 8.800. Junior David Iammatteo returned to competition for the first time since 2001, and set a new career high on the floor, with a 8.850 and James Myers scored the highest high bar score for OU at the RMO with a 9.200. Finally, Brian Trause scored a 9.200 on parallel bars which topped his old mark of 9.050.

Travel Woes = Road Success
On their way out to Colorado Springs for the RMO, the OU men's gymnastics team had some changes in their travel plans before arriving late Friday night to win the meet. Their scheduled flight out of Oklahoma City that day was cancelled (fog) and the team had no choice but to drive down to Dallas, Texas to catch a re-scheduled flight from there to Colorado Springs, Colo. From Dallas, the flight was delayed for an hour due to maintenance issues on the runway and the team did not arrive in Colorado till after 6 p.m., with the meet scheduled to start at 7 p.m. Fifteen minutes before the RMO started, the two time defending champions arrived and won the meet by a tenth of a point to keep their winning streak of 41 victories alive.

Last Time Out (Rocky Mountain Open - Jan. 16-17)
The Oklahoma men's gymnastics team opened up its title defense by taking first in the team finals of the collegiate division at the Rocky Mountain Open in Colorado Springs, Colo. With a team score of 211.400, the No. 2 Sooners defeated No. 6 Iowa (211.300), No. 10 Nebraska (204.825) and No. 15 Air Force (192.850). The only team to defeat the back-to-back champions was the U.S. Olympic Training Center, a team that consists of former Olympians and world champions.

Despite a long day of travel, OU extended its current win streak over NCAA opponents to 41, including 27 now on the road. What looked to be an easy day of travel for the men's team turned into a long day that resulted in a cancelled flight, a three hour drive to Dallas, a flight delay and arriving to the meet just 15 minutes prior to start time.

“I am very proud of the guys on the team that were able to take an adverse situation and turn it around and make it a positive,” said head coach Mark Williams about Friday's travel. “They were determined to not give up until we got there and got our team score. I am very thankful that we came out with a victory and realize we have a lot of work to do in order to move forward and put ourselves in a position to defend our national championship.”

Oklahoma placed 10 men's gymnasts in individual competition at the Rocky Mountain Open in Colorado Springs, Colo., on Saturday. The individual events came a day after the two-time defending National Champion Sooners took first in the team finals on Friday.

OU was led by junior Josh Gore who finished third on the Parallel Bars with a score of 9.35, a new career high for the Texas native. Sophomore James Myers also recorded a solid score for OU. Myers scored a 9.200 (career high) on the high bar, good enough for fourth place.

Every gymnast who competed for OU in the team event on Friday also competed in the six individual events on Saturday. Ten Sooners placed, finishing in the top six.

“I think we still had some ill effects of a difficult day of travel the day before,” said Oklahoma head coach Mark Williams. “We had a number of guys finish in the top ten, which is encouraging, but we need to be more consistent. This early in the season it is not a big concern, but we look forward to and expect to do better next weekend in our home opener.”

Sooner's Home Schedule
Fri., January 23, 7 p.m. (Lloyd Noble Center)
Sat., February 21, 2 p.m. (McCasland Field House)
Sat., March 6, 7 p.m. (McCasland Field House)

Complete 2004 Schedule

University of Oklahoma Athletics

Defending Champs Set For Home Opener Against Air Force On Friday

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