Select Sooners Travel To Vegas For Winter Cup

2004 Winter Cup
February 6-7, 2004
Las Vegas, Nevada
Sports Center Arena

Preview
The No. 4 Sooners will have a week off before tangling with No. 1 Ohio State in Columbus, Ohio. In the meantime, four current Sooners, a former Sooner (Daniel Furney) and assistant coach Guard Young will be competing in Las Vegas, Nevada, for the Winter Cup Individual Competition.

OU's four competitors include senior co-captain Heath Mueller, juniors David Henderson and Mubarak Abdullah Simmons and sophomore Jamie Henderson.

The first day of competition (Friday, Feb. 6) will feature two sessions and the top eight gymnasts will qualify for the event finals on Saturday. The schedule of events is listed below:

Friday, Feb. 6 Session I, 3:30-5:30 p.m. (Pacific)
Event qualifers & all-around Finals
Heath Mueller (AA), Guard Young (AA), Daniel Furney (PH, SR, PB, HB)

Friday, Feb. 6 Session II, 8-10 p.m. (Pacific)
Event qualifers & all-around Finals
David Henderson (AA), Mubarak Abdullah-Simmons (AA), Jamie Henderson (AA)

Saturday, Feb. 7 Session III, 8-10 p.m. (Pacific)
Event Finals
Top Eight Qualifers Per Event

For more information on the Sooners competing at the Winter Cup stay tuned to www.SoonerSports.com and the official site of the Winter Cup, www.usa-gymnastics.org/events/2004/wintercup.

OU's next meet will take place on Feb. 13 in Columbus, Ohio with current No. 1 Ohio State. The next home meet for the Sooners will occur in McCasland Field House on Feb. 21 with No. 6 Michigan, No. 7 Nebraska and No. 9 Minnesota at 2 p.m.

Top 15
The Oklahoma men's gymnastics team remained at the No. 4 position after a 217.500 score last weekend at current-No. 6 Iowa. The second highest score of the season for OU bumpedits season average to 215.517.

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 16 individuals ranked in their respective events, including Josh Gore (First-parallel bars) and David Henderson (Tenth-all-around).

Streaks
OU extended their winning streak up to 43 straight wins overall over their opponents with their latest victory over No. 5 Iowa in Iowa City, Iowa. That includes 28 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.

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.

Sooner Notes
Mubarak Abdullah-Simmons- Junior college transfer made collegiate debut at Iowa still rings (8.150), vault (8.925) and parallel bars (8.200).

Brian Carr- Freshman made his Sooner debut last weekend against Air Force. In his lone event, pommel horse, Carr recorded an 8.900.

Kyle Fernandez- Made the most of his home debut scoring a 9.475 on rings, a new career high.

Mike Gehart - Recorded career highs on the rings (8.8) and high bar (8.650) against Air Force at home.

Josh Gore- Won the parallel bars against Iowa, tying his career-high (9.350). Also placed second on pommel horse (9.200) and fifth on the high bar (9.100)

David Henderson- Won all-around against Air Force at home with new career high, 54.125

Jamie Henderson- Won the still rings competition at Iowa with a 9.250.

David Iammatteo- Scored a new career-high on the vault against Air Force at home, 9.100.

Heath Mueller- Finished second in the all-around last weekend with a new career high, 53.450. He also recorded new career-highs on floor (9.3), and rings (8.75) in the home meet against Air Force.

James Myers- Scored a career high of 9.200 on high bar in event finals at RMO.

Curtis O'Rorke- Made his 2004 debut against Air Force, scored 8.3 on floor and a 9.050 on vault.

Quinn Rowell- Finished second on high bar against Iowa with a 9.625, a new career high for the 2002 All-American on that apparatus breaking his old mark set last week against Air Force, a 9.525.

Jock Stevens- Took second at Iowa on the floor exercise, 9.100.

Brian Trause- Won second place against Air Force at home on the parallel bars with a 9.075.

Williams Approaches 100
Already ranked second among all-time winningest coaches for OU men's gymnastics, current head coach Mark Williams approaches another milestone in his fifth season. Williams currently owns 98 wins and it is likely that he can reach his 100th victory at home on Feb. 21 vs. Minnesota, Michigan and Nebraska. OU faces Ohio State the week before in Columbus, Ohio. 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.

Rings And Parallel Bars Leads The Way
The Sooners are ranked No. 2 in the nation on rings with a scoring average of 36.150, just short of Penn State's 37.012. In addition OU had two individuals ranked amongst the top 20 in the nation. Jamie Henderson is no stranger to success on the apparatus, the 2003 All-American is tied for 11th in the nation. The other culprit is Penn State transfer Kyle Fernandez. The junior opened up the season with a 9.200, a mark that qualified for the Rocky Mountain Event Finals.

OU is also ranked No. 2 in the nation on the parallel bars. Junior Josh Gore is averaging a 9.125 on the apparatus and is ranked No. 1 in the nation. Senior Brian Trause is also ranked (8.856-11th) along with junior David Henderson (8.850-12th).

Record Home Crowd
When the men opened their season at homeon 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 faithful fans attended the meet against Air Force, also featuring the OU women against the Falcons' 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 and Nebraska. The Sooners are 3-0 against those teams, beating Air Force on two occasions. The next conference foe for OU is Nebraska at home on Feb. 21 at McCasland Field House. Seven days later, OU will travel to Palo Alto, Calif., (home of this year's MPSF Championship) to face Stanford.

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.

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 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.

NCAA Record
Ever 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 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. Penn State, Ohio State and Illinois are the only other members in the top 20.

Where Are They Now
After a short retirement, 2003 Nissen Emery Award Winner Daniel Furney emerged back on the gymnastics scene two weeks ago in Colorado Springs at the Rocky Mountain Open. Furney limited to four events was only able to compete on pommel horse but made the most out of his appearance qualifying for the event finals and taking first with a 9.250 competing for OU's club team, also featuring assistant coach Guard Young. Young and Furney will again see action at the Winter Cup in Las Vegas, Nev. on Feb. 6-7. Other departed Sooners from last year's National Championship team are still contributing to the team as team managers, Josh Landis and Shannon Carrion. That leaves Brett Covey who was last competing on the national stage for Canada.

Last Time Out | at Iowa - Jan. 31
The No. 4 Oklahoma men's gymnastics team travelled to Iowa City, Iowa on Saturday, Jan. 31 and came out victorious against the No. 5 Iowa Hawkeyes. The Sooners (5-0) scored their second consecutive 217 score (217.500) to defeat Iowa (214.550) for the second time in 2004. The two met in the season opener at the Rocky Mountain Open and the Sooners won by a tenth of a point.

“We are always pleased with a victory, especially one on the road,” said Oklahoma head coach Mark Williams. “This is definitely a better performance than the last time we travelled (211.400 at Rocky Mountain Open) but that does not mean we did not mistakes today. There are some things we still need to work on to become more consistent.”

The Sooners posted their high event score on the high bar, with a 36.975. OU won every event as a team including the high bar except for the floor exercise and the vault. The Sooners have now defeated 43 straight opponents, including 28 now on the road. The last time OU lost a collegiate meet occurred back on March 9, 2002 at Stanford.

OU's top performer in the all-around was junior David Henderson. The 2002 All-American on still rings was third in the competition with a 51.700.

Junior Josh Gore was the other Sooner to collect first place honors. Gore recorded a 9.350 on the parallel bars for the victory. That mark tied Gore's career high and it was also the second time this season that he has scored a 9.350 on the parallel bars. Gore was also second on the pommel horse (9.200).

Other top five finishers for OU included senior Quinn Rowell setting a career-high on the high bar (9.625-2nd) and sophomore Jamie Henderson (9.350-3rd) also on the high bar. Henderson also won the still rings competition with a 9.250. Senior Jock Stevens' 9.100 on the floor exercise gave him second place and senior Brian Trause was also second with a 9.075 on the parallel bars and fourth on the pommel horse with a career-high 9.100.

“We are looking forward to a week off before our next team meet,” said Williams. “Some of our individuals will compete at the Winter Cup in Las Vegas but as a team we will use this time to improve upon our mistakes made today. Our next meet at Ohio State will be a challenge and we are looking forward to this week off to prepare and perform better in that meet.”

Sooners' Remaining Home Schedule
*Saturday, Feb. 21 vs. Minnesota, Michigan and Nebraska
(McCasland Field House) 2 p.m.

*Saturday, March 6 vs. Illinois
(McCasland Field House) 7 p.m.
-Senior Day

University of Oklahoma Athletics

Select Sooners Travel To Vegas For Winter Cup

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