Men Fall at Home to No. 4 Ohio St.

NORMAN, Okla. The third-ranked Oklahoma men's gymnastics team fell to No. 4 Ohio State Saturday night in front of 1,357 fans at the McCasland Field House. The Buckeyes recorded a 218.650 team total to best the Sooners' 213.550.

Oklahoma had not lost a regular season dual at home since losing to Ohio State on Jan. 28, 2000.

“I think Ohio State came in with the thought of knocking off the defending national champions, and I have to applaud their efforts because they got the job done,” said OU head coach Mark Williams. “In some places we beat ourselves, so my team needs to go back to the gym and get better.”

OU junior Taqiy Abdullah-Simmons claimed his first all-around title of the season with a 54.4. OSU's Tai Lee was second with a 52.5.

The Buckeyes swept top honors on all six apparatuses. Oklahoma's Chris Brooks was the runner-up on floor with a 9.5, while Kyle McNamara (8.8) was second on vault and Jason Laughton (9.4) finished second on the high bar.

Final Scores

Freshman Ian Jackson continued to impress for the Sooners, scoring career highs on floor (9.15) and rings (9.4).

Also setting career marks for OU were Abdullah-Simmons (9.35 on floor) and Garrett Carr (8.5 on p-bars).

Oklahoma struggled on pommel horse, posting a season-low 32.600 on the event.

“We have got to stay on the pommel horse,” Williams said. “The bottom line is we can't give away an event. I know that we're a better team than that. Once one guy fell, it seemed like guys were tightening up and they just didn't get back on track. It took us a couple events to really get back into what we know we can do. You just can't afford to do that and still stay competitive with the best teams.”

The Sooners were without junior co-captain Jonathan Horton for the meet. OU's top all-around competitor was in Jacksonville, Fla., where he won his second straight Tyson American Cup title Saturday afternoon.

“These guys are expected to get the job done no matter who's out there,” Williams said. “Jonathan did a great job at American Cup, but the Oklahoma team that was on the floor should have been able to handle things and they didn't.”

Oklahoma has a week off before hosting Iowa on March 17 in the team's regular season finale. The meet is scheduled for a 7 p.m. (CST) start from the McCasland Field House in Norman.

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