No. 3 Sooners In Action On Saturday At 2 p.m.

MEET 5
February 21, 2004 (2 p.m. - CST)
Norman, Okla.
McCasland Field House

Teams:
No. 3 OKLAHOMA
No. 7 Michigan
No. 8 Nebraska
No. 9 Minnesota

Preview
The No. 3 Sooners return home to face three of the nation's top teams in No. 9 Minnesota, No. 7 Michigan, No. 8 Nebraska and No. 9 Minnesota. The meet will be held at McCasland Field House on Saturday, Feb. 21 and is scheduled to start at 2 p.m.

The Sooners (7-0) are coming off a win over No.1 Ohio State and No. 2 California this past Friday in Columbus, Ohio. The victories gave head coach Mark Williams his 100th career win at OU and he currently holds a record of 100-7. The team has now won 45 straight (30 on the road) dating back to the 2002 season. The Sooners have also rattled off 27 straight triumphs at home with their last loss in Norman occurred against Ohio State on Jan. 28, 2000.

Complete Release | Season Results

"It has been awhile since we have had four teams in here at once," said Williams. "We are looking forward to the opportunity of having three quality teams come in and having all four teams ranked in the top ten should make for an interesting meet. The environment at McCasland Field House should be exciting and we hope the fans come out and enjoy some quality gymnastics."

OU faced Nebraska in the first meet of the season at the Rocky Mountain Open and defeated the Cornhuskers by a score of 211.400-204.825. NU's season average stands at 211.156.

Michigan is averaging 213.931 and won their last time out giving head coach Kurt Golder his 150th victory in his eight years at the helm. Minnesota comes in averaging 208.425 and lost in dual action to Michigan 214.600-209.350 in Ann Arbor, Mich.

Tickets are $5 per adult and $2 for children. OU students are admitted free with a valid OU ID. Group rates can be obtained 24 hours in advance for 10 or more people ($2 per ticket) by calling the OU ticket office at 800-456-GoOu. The first 250 fans will receive Sooner Trading Cards.

Next weekend, OU will travel to Palo Alto, Calif., to face Stanford in a MPSF showdown at 7 p.m. (PST) on Saturday, Feb. 28.

Top 15
The Oklahoma men's gymnastics team moved up one spot to the No. 3 position after posting a season best 219.600 score thier last time out at then-No. 1 Ohio State.

OU is coming off a NCAA National Championship undefeated season in 2003 and 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.

The Sooners are also ranked in the top six of every event with 15 individuals ranked in their respective events, including Josh Gore (2nd-parallel bars) and Quinn Rowell (9th-high bar).

EVENT National Rank Average

Floor Exercise	5	35.737
Pommel Horse	4	35.825
Still Rings	3	36.062
Vault	5	36.562
Parallel Bars	1	35.594
High Bar	2	36.756

Williams Reaches 100

Oklahoma head coach Mark Williams earned his 100th career win at OU after defeating Ohio State and California last weekend and he currently holds a record of 100-7, in his fifth season. Williams is the fastest coach in the NCAA to reach the 100-win plateau in the sport. Williams only trails Greg Buwick (224) in wins at the school and Buwick earned his 100th victory near the end of his 10th season at OU. Buwick compiled a 224-74-1 in 16 seasons at OU before giving the reigns over to Williams.

Mark Williams Record At Oklahoma

Year	Record	Conference Finish	NCAA Finish
2000	15-4	MPSF (First)	NCAA (Fourth)
2001	24-2	MPSF (First)	NCAA (Second)
2002	28-1	MPSF (First)	NCAA National Champion
2003	26-0	MPSF (First)	NCAA National Champion
2004	7-0

Total: 100-7 (.935 Winning Percentage)

Records Are Meant To Be Broken
Last weekend against No. 1 Ohio State and No. 2 California the Sooners broke two records. The first was the team's high bar score of 37.550. OU recorded a 38.250 breaking the old mark set on March 7 of last season. Senior co-captain also broke a record set back on that same day last season by breaking Daniel Furney's 9.700 with a 9.850 against the Buckeyes and Golden Bears.

Streaks
OU extended its winning streak up to 45 straight wins overall over their opponents with their latest victory over No. 1 Ohio State and No. 2 California. That includes 30 on the road, where the Sooners last lost at Stanford on March 9 of 2002. At home, the Sooners have rattled off 27 straight victories. The last time an OU team lost in Norman was Jan. 28, 2000, against Ohio State. The school record for consecutive victories is held by the football team, which won 47 straight from 1953-1957.

Last Time Out | Ohio State - Feb. 13
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.

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.

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.

Sooners Sign Three For 2005
The Sooners' incoming class for next season includes Taqiy Abdullah, Joseph Weaver and Jonathan Horton. All three rank amongst the best gymnasts coming out of high school and Horton is regarded as No. 1 prospect.

"This may be the best class I have recruited in my tenure here at OU. And only time will tell if these three guys can equal up to what last year's seniors (Daniel Furney, Josh Landis and Shannon Carrion) accomplished in their OU careers.”

Parallel Bars Ranks No. 1 In The Nation
Oklahoma is ranked No. 1 in the nation on the parallel bars with a scoring average of 35.594. The Sooners feature five individuals ranked in the top 20 on the apparatus. Junior Josh Gore is the highest ranked invidual for Oklahoma. He is averaging a 9.140 on the parallel bars and is ranked No. 2 in the nation. Senior Brian Trause is also ranked (8.865-12th) along with junior David Henderson (8.850-13th), Jock Stevens (9.750-15th) and Quinn Rowell (8.687-20th).

Record Home Crowd
When the men opened their season at home on Jan. 23, they posted their season best score in front of a new regular season record crowd for an Oklahoma Gymnastics meet. Some 1,475 fans attended the meet against Air Force, also featuring the OU women against the Falcon women. The old record for a Sooner gymnastics meet was set last year when the men hosted Ohio State and the women hosted Penn State on March 7, 2003 in front of 1,227 at the Lloyd Noble Center.

The MPSF
The Sooners have won the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Championship five years in a row, four straight under Williams. This season OU is looking to do much of the same en route to defending its national championship as well. So far in 2004, OU has competed against the likes of two MPSF teams, Air Force, California and Nebraska. The Sooners are 4-0 against those teams, beating Air Force on two occasions. The next conference is when OU travels to Palo Alto, Calif., (home of this year's MPSF Championship) to face Stanford.

Sooners' Recap At The 2004 Winter Cup
DAY ONE
Senior co-captain Heath Mueller finished 22nd in the all-around with a 52.175 and also took 10th in the high bar (9.275). Junior David Henderson was 10th on the vault with a 9.475 and 30th in the all-around (51.200). Sophomore Jamie Henderson ended up 28th in the all-around (51.400).

“I was really happy with how we performed,” said Oklahoma head coach Mark Williams. “We competed very well and the guys represented the university.”

DAY TWO
Assistant coach Guard Young was the only qualifier for the event finals and he took second on the vault (9.600) a day after finishing 10th in the all-around with a 53.625. He also competed on floor and rings.

Events	HEATH MUELLER	DAVID HENDERSON	JAMIE HENDERSON	GUARD YOUNG
FL	8.600	8.400	8.650	9.275
PH	8.650	8.150	8.650	8.650
SR	7.950	8.950	8.800	9.200
VT	8.950	9.450	8.900	9.275
PB	8.750	7.900	8.600	8.600
HB	9.275	8.350	7.800	8.175
AA	52.175	51.200	51.400	53.625

Sooners Named NCAAsports.com Team of the Week
The Oklahoma men's gymnastics team was named this week's NCAAsports.com Team Spotlight of the Week. The men are coming off back-to-back victories at the Rocky Mountain Open (Jan. 16-17) and over the Air Force Academy in Norman on Jan. 23.

In their victory over Air Force, the Sooners scored a season-high 217.650 and junior David Henderson won the all-around with a career-high 54.125. Henderson was also tops on parallel bars, pommel horse and still rings.

Overall, 13 different career-highs were tied or broken when the defending national champions defeated Air Force. Among some of those individuals to score well were OU's senior co-captains Heath Mueller and Quinn Rowell. Mueller, fresh off winning the all-around at the Rocky Mountain Open, recorded career highs on the floor exercise (9.300) and still rings (8.75). Rowell, a 2002 All-American on high bar, set a new mark in that event with a 9.525 score that earned him a tie for first place on the apparatus with Henderson.

“It is nice to be recognized for our effort and we are just staying focused on the task at hand and that is our match-up on the road with Iowa this weekend,” said Oklahoma head coach Mark Williams. “Iowa should be an interesting challenge due to the fact that at the Rocky Mountain Open there was one tenth of a point separating us. It will also have implications towards national rankings and we just want to keep the momentum going from our victory in the home opener against Air Force and post a solid score on the road.”

Last week, OU track and field's DaBryan Blanton was NCAAsports.com Spotlight Athlete of the Week. It marks the first time since the awards have been given out that a school has been awarded in consecutive weeks for different sports.

NCAA Record
Since the new scoring system's inception in 2001 in college gymnastics (Federation de Internationale Gymnastics Code Scoring System), OU has dominated the top team scores around the nation. Not only did the Sooners break the record twice last season, but they also currently own 11 of the top 25 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. Penn State, Ohio State and Illinois are the only other members in the top 25.

Next Home Meet
The Sooners conclude their home portion of the schedule with a showdown with current No. 1 Illinois on Saturday, March 6 in the McCasland Field House at 7 p.m.

University of Oklahoma Athletics

No. 3 Sooners In Action On Saturday At 2 p.m.

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