Sooners Take Second At NCAA Championships

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. The University of Oklahoma men's gymnastics team finished second (222.300) in the 2004 NCAA Championship on Saturday, April 3, in Champaign, Ill., behind No. 3 Penn State (223.350). Following the No. 2 Sooners was No. 2 Illinois (222.225), No. 5 Ohio State (221.350), No. 7 Michigan (220.425) and No. 4 California (220.325).

The 222.300 was OU's fifth highest score in school history and the sixth highest in NCAA history. OU now owns five of the top six NCAA scores and Penn State with tonight's score sits fifth.

Complete Results

“Today was an absolute turnaround from the performance we had yesterday,” said Oklahoma head coach Mark Williams. “Even though we did not win the title, I am thrilled because we gave a 100 percent effort. We had a fantastic meet but Penn State was better tonight and they deserve a lot of credit. This was a great competition and I am extremely proud of my team for coming back the way they did after qualifiers.”

Senior co-captain Heath Mueller finished fourth in the all-around with a 55.000 and junior David Henderson was eighth with a 53.875.

“Heath had a fantastic night and was on from the beginning and really set the tone for us on a lot of events,” commented Williams. “There was a huge improvement from David Henderson and until late last night he was not even going to be in the all-around. But I talked with him and he told me he would have a better meet if he competed on all the events and he was solid.”

The Sooners came roaring out of the gate with a 37.825 on the high bar in the first rotation. Sophomore James Myers set the pace for OU scoring a 9.325. Senior co-captains Heath Mueller and Quinn Rowell scored team-highs with a 9.625 and 9.500 respectively. A 9.300 and 9.000 were the Sooners two lowest scores on the apparatus giving them the lead after the first set ahead of Michigan with a 37.750.

Oklahoma (24-4) enjoyed a bye before resuming action on the floor exercise. Senior Jock Stevens came close to breaking his school record on the event with a 9.700 to finish off the second rotation for OU. His score was the highest of the night among all the competitors. The event produced a 37.200 which put OU in first place among teams with two events completed. After three rotations, Cal led with a 110.775, followed by Michigan (110.375) and Illinois (109.250).

In Friday's qualifier, the pommel horse was one of the Sooners' weakest events but on Saturday in the finals OU produced a solid 37.025 score. OU scoring almost two points higher on the apparatus compared to Friday's score was due to sophomore Jamie Henderson's 9.375 and senior Brian Trause's 9.300. Freshman Brian Carr and Mueller also posted good solid scores of 9.125 and 9.225 respectively. After the fourth rotation, OU (112.050) only trailed Illinois (146.850) and Cal (146.050) after four events.

“I have to tip my hat to my coaching staff for making the changes we did after the qualifiers,” added Williams. “We talked a lot about pommel horse, changed some routines and shifted the lineup. This morning in practice they went six for six on routines and we scored over a point higher tonight compared to Friday.”

Still rings was OU's fourth event and junior David Henderson and Jamie Henderson recorded the Sooners' highest scores. Both All-Americans on rings in previous years, David posted a 9.475 and Jamie a 9.575 to total a 36.875. After completing four events, OU held a 148.925 total and trailed Penn State (149.350-after four events) and California (183.300-after five events).

The Sooners used the vault to take their first lead of the night with an event total of 37.500. OU's 186.325 had them sitting in first place with one event to go ahead of Penn State (186.150). Key scores for the Sooners included Stevens' 9.575 and junior David Iammatteo's career-high 9.500.

Parallel bars concluded action for OU in the competition and it closed the night with a 35.975 making the Sooners the national runner-ups. Unfortunately, the Sooners' chances of winning three straight national titles was halted by Penn State who over took OU with its 37.200 on vault in the final rotation.

Oklahoma has now finished as runner-ups on five occasions with the last taking place in 2001. Under Mark Williams (five years), OU has finished no worse than fourth and own two NCAA Championships.

“The enthusiasm was great today, it is a privelage for me to be around guys that can will themselves to compete hard and elevate their performances,” Williams said. “To be in the hunt for a national championship is what its all about and it would have been great to win our third straight, but these guys are all champions in my mind. We gave everything we had today and that is all I could have asked for. We are not disappointed at all. This team has improved more than any other that I have coached. My early season expectations was to qualify for the team finals. For them to have the kind of meet they had today was huge. They represented the university well and exceeded all my expectations.”

The Sooners finish the 2004 season with a 24-4 mark and advance seven competitors into tomorrow's individual competition with a total of eight chances to win individual NCAA Championships. Jock Stevens (floor, vault), Jamie Henderson (rings), David Henderson (rings), Josh Gore (parallel bars), Brian Trause (parallel bars), Quinn Rowell (high bar) and Heath Mueller (high bar) all finished in the top ten of their respective events and will all try to win titles at Assembly Hall on Sunday, April 4, at 2 p.m. (CST). The Sooners have 17 individual titles in their history of competing at the NCAA Championships.

“Now we switch over to individual events and it is exciting to have this many guys in position to compete for All-America status and for National Championships,” said Williams. I would like to see them excited to compete tomorrow and see how many awards they can come away with.

“Jock Stevens was excellent on floor and it has taken him three years to get to the finals on that event and his vault was awesome today too.

“Quinn (Rowell) and Heath (Mueller) showed why they were tremendous leaders tonight. They pulled this team together and they deserve to be competing in the individual competition tomorrow. The number of spots we nailed down for tomorrow is a testament of the work, will and persistence these guys have displayed all year.”

University of Oklahoma Athletics

Sooners Take Second At NCAA Championships

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