Sooner Men's Gymnastics Upsets No. 1 Ohio State & No. 2 California

Columbus, Ohio The No. 4 Oklahoma Sooners recorded their 45th straight men's gymnastics win Friday night by defeating No. 1 Ohio State and No. 2 California. OU posted a season-high 219.600 to top Cal (218.175) and OSU (217.400). It was the 100th win in Oklahoma head coach Mark Williams' career.

“Ohio State is a great rivalry and Cal is always a top team,” said Williams. “I kind of wanted this one. I am just real pleased with our prospects for the rest of the season. We are in thick of it.”

Williams is now 100-7 (.935) in his fifth year at the OU helm and is the fastest coach in the sport across the NCAA to reach that plateau. He is second all-time at Oklahoma in wins behind Greg Buwick who had 224 in 16 seasons. Buwick did not reach his 100th victory till the end of his 10th season.

Complete Results

Oklahoma (7-0) started slowly but roared back in the last three events.

“We were not very good on the rings tonight,” Williams said. “We had to kind of claw our way back into the meet. We really turned it on in the last three events. We scored a school-record 38.250 on the high bar and jumped in the lead from there. Our guys finished strong and showed a lot of heart.”

Rowell keyed the effort on the bar with a school-record 9.850 to win the event.

Junior David Iammatteo came out on top in the floor exercise with a 9.35, a career-best. Josh Gore was first in the parallel bars with a 9.20.

Senior co-captain Heath Mueller finished third in the all-around with a 52.500.

“This was one of this Let's find out where we are' kind of meets, so you feel pretty good when you look at the final results,” Williams said.

TEAM RESULTS

Place	Teams	FX	PH	R	V	PB	HB	TOTAL
1.	OKLAHOMA	36.750	35.850	35.800	36.700	36.250	38.250	219.600
2.	California	36.400	36.150	36.200	36.925	35.550	36.950	218.175
3.	Ohio State	35.350	35.350	36.650	37.150	33.900	38.000	217.400

Over the past two years, Ohio State finished second in the NCAA Championships behind OU and in 2001 when the Buckeyes won the title, the Sooners were second behind them. The two met last year in Norman and OU prevailed 222.500-218.500.

This season, Ohio State (preseason No. 1) has been at the top of the polls for the past two weeks and has the highest national team score of the season, 220.200 posted on Jan. 31 versus Illinois. Cal finished second in the MPSF Championships last season behind the Sooners.

Gymnastics rankings are based solely on average scores, so the Sooners will not know their new spot among the top 25 until Tuesday morning.

The Sooners return to action on Saturday, Feb. 21, at home in the McCasland Field House against Minnesota, Michigan and Nebraska at 2 p.m.