Oklahoma Finishes Second At MPSF Championships

PALO ALTO, Calif. The University of Oklahoma competed in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Championships hosted by Stanford in Palo Alto, Calif., on Friday, March 19 and finished second behind No. 5 California (220.225). Behind the No. 2 Sooners (219.600) was Stanford (214.675), Nebraska (211.525) and Air Force (204.900).

The Sooners entered the meet winners of five straight conference titles and six overall MPSF titles in the conference's eight years of existence. OU had also recorded 52 straight wins before the conference meet with its last loss consequently coming at Stanford to the Cardinal, March 9, 2002.

Complete Results

OU took its first lead following the floor exercise (fourth rotation) after California had lead the meet for the first three events. OU was able to maintain the lead after the fifth rotation before Cal passed the Sooners to claim the title.

“Cal deserved to win that meet, they performed well and were prepared,” said Oklahoma head coach Mark Williams. “They looked like they were competing at a championship level and in order for us to compete with that we needed to perform like we did in our record breaking performance against Illinois two weeks ago. My hat goes off to head coach Barry Weiner and his team and now we are going to go back home and try to work harder.”

Junior David Henderson finished third in the all-around with a 53.700 behind Cal's Randall Heflin (54.000) and Stanford's Dan Gill (54.475).

Oklahoma (17-1) started off on vault and scored a 36.850 (its third highest score of the season). Senior co-captain Heath Mueller (9.200), senior Jock Stevens (9.350) and junior David Henderson (9.400) keyed the Sooners' vault performance. After one rotation, OU trailed only California and its 37.450 on pommel horse.

The second rotation saw the Sooners fall further behind with a 35.500 on the parallel bars. Ranked No. 1 in the nation on the apparatus, OU was led by junior Josh Gore. Gore, ranked No. 3 in the nation, finished off the rotation for OU with a 9.250, the highest p-bars score on the night amongst the rest of the field. After two sets, the Sooners remained in second with a 72.350 and trailed Cal (73.875).

Also No. 1 on the high bar, the Sooners narrowed the gap after three rotations scoring a 37.775 (third highest in the season). OU was able to count scores no lower than a 9.250 and was led by the nation's third ranked individual, senior co-captain Quinn Rowell (9.675). Sophomore James Myers recorded a career-high with an impressive 9.600.

A 36.650 on the floor exercise gave OU their first lead of the night after four sets. The floor is the third event that OU entered the meet ranked No.1 on in the nation. Again, Mueller and Stevens led the Sooners with a 9.350 and 9.750 respectively. Stevens' 9.750 broke the school record (9.725) that he set against No. 1 Illinois two weeks ago in Norman and was the highest score of the night.

With two events left, OU competed on the pommel horse and posted a 36.000 which kept them in the lead by three tenths. Freshman Brian Carr recorded OU's second highest score on the apparatus with a career-high 9.350 behind sophomore Jamie Henderson's 9.400. Going into the final rotation, OU was in first place with a 182.675 and Cal was second with a 182.375.

The deciding event for OU was the still rings while Cal finished off the meet on the floor exercise. The Sooners' 36.925 was not enough to hold off Cal who posted a 37.850. David and Jamie Henderson were OU's top performers on the final event, posting a 9.500 and a 9.700 respectively.

OU outscored the opposition on the high bar, parallel bars and rings and had the top individual scores on the floor (Stevens), still rings (J. Henderson) and parallel bars (Gore).

“We did ok, but we struggled enough all the way around where things never got on a roll,” added Williams. “It is hard to score well when you are struggling to finish routines. I was relatively happy that we got a qualifying score that will probably keep us in the top group of teams (for NCAAs) but I am obviously disappointed that we were not able to earn another conference championship. This is not the last meet of the season and now we have two weeks where we can go home and refocus our energy and come out hoping to make some improvements by the time we compete for NCAAs.”

The Sooners will conclude the MPSF Championships on Saturday, March 20 with the individual event finals where nine Sooners will compete. Among those who qualified by finishing in the top eight on Friday are: Jock Stevens (floor and vault), Heath Mueller (floor, pommel horse, vault), Brian Carr (pommel horse), Jamie Henderson (pommel horse, still rings), Brian Trause (pommel horse and parallel bars), David Henderson (still rings, vault, high bar), Josh Gore (parallel bars), James Myers (high bar) and Quinn Rowell (high bar).

“The individual finals are a time for the guys to take themselves away from the team concept and step forward as an individual and compete for a conference title,” commented Williams. “We got guys that are in great position to do just that. It is not that often where they get to compete for individual awards. So in a lot of ways it is fun for them and it is their opportunity to shine in the respective events. Maybe it will take a little bit of the sting away from tonight and they can go out with a clean slate.”

After Saturday's event finals, the OU men will return to Norman and have two weeks to prepare to defend its national titles on April 2, 3 and 4 in Champaign, Illinois.

Oklahoma Finishes Second At MPSF Championships

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