No. 1 OU Opens Season in Colorado

NORMAN, Okla. -- The defending NCAA Champion Oklahoma men's gymnastics team opens the 2007 season on the road with its annual trip to Colorado Springs, Colo. for the Rocky Mountain Open hosted by the Air Force Academy, Jan. 12-13.

The Sooners will face MPSF rivals Air Force and Nebraska, as well as Arizona State and a squad composed of members from the U.S. Olympic Training Center. The team competition is scheduled for an 8 p.m. (CST) start at the Cadet West Gymnasium on Friday, while the event finals will be at 2 p.m. on Saturday.

OU will be without two of its returning All-Americans, Jonathan Horton and Reed Pitts. Horton, the reigning NCAA all-around champion, is with the U.S. Senior National Team at a training camp in Japan. Pitts, who took All-America honors on the floor exercise and vault as a freshman walk-on in 2006, will miss the 2007 season due to injury.

Two other OU All-Americans, Chris Brooks and Taqiy Abdullah-Simmons, will see limited action as both are nursing minor injuries.

“We're excited to once again begin defending our national championship with the start of a new season,” OU head coach Mark Williams said. “We'll have a lot of new faces in the lineup from what we had to finish last season. In a lot of ways that can be good and we're excited to give some guys the opportunity to step up, but we certainly recognize that it's going to be a stepping off point.”

Roster | Photos | Meet Notes | 2007 Media Guide

The top 10 finishers on each event (with no more than three from each team) in Friday's team finals will advance to Saturday's event finals. OU will begin its rotation on the pommel horse.

Oklahoma has won seven consecutive Rocky Mountain Open team titles, including a 208.85-196.1 triumph over runner-up Nebraska last season. Eleven Sooners advanced to the event finals, earning 12 top three finishes. Horton took the all-around title and was also the event medalist on the floor exercise. Joseph Weaver was crowned parallel bars champion, while Chris Brooks took the high bar title.

Air Force is in its second year under head coach Kip Simons. The Falcons return nine members of last year's squad that finished fifth in the MPSF.

The Nebraska Cornhuskers enter the season ranked 10th in the GymInfo preseason poll. Head coach Francis Allen, in his 36th year at the helm, welcomes back six letterwinners from the 2006 team that finished 10th at the NCAA Championships. The Huskers are led by All-American Jason Wassung who won the pommel horse title at the 2006 Rocky Mountain Open.

OU will face both Air Force and Nebraska again next week. The Falcons and Cornhuskers travel to Norman for the Sooners' home opener on Jan. 20 at 1 p.m. (CST) in the Howard McCasland Field House.

University of Oklahoma Athletics

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