OU Men Rout Rival Huskers

Feb. 1, 2008

NORMAN, Okla. - Sophomore Ian Jackson won his first all-around title of the season as the Oklahoma men's gymnastics team defeated No. 12 Nebraska 355.500-337.750 Friday night at the Lloyd Noble Center. The sixth-ranked Sooners moved to 3-0 on the season against their Mountain Pacific Sports Federation rivals. OU also defeated the Huskers at the Rocky Mountain Open, Jan. 12 in Colorado Springs, Colo., and in a tri-meet with the Air Force Academy in Lincoln, Neb., on Jan. 20.

In a dominating performance in front of a crowd 1,238, the Sooners claimed team titles on all six events and OU gymnasts won at least a share of each individual event crown. Oklahoma set team season highs on the floor exercise (60.250), pommel horse (55.850), still rings (60.800) and vault (63.200) en route to the victory.

"We tried to hit a few markers in this meet," OU head coach Mark Williams said. "We definitely improved on pommel horse. Overall we had a good enough performance to have a season high team score. We're still not quite there in terms or everyone being where we need them to be, but I think at this point in the year we're satisfied that we're headed in the right direction."

The Sooners swept the top four spots on floor, with junior Russell Czeschin winning the event title with a season-best 15.450. Freshman Bobby Shortle was second with a 15.300, while sophomore Reed Pitts and freshman Steven Legendre tied for third (14.750).

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Oklahoma also took the top four places on rings, vault and high bar. Jackson was the vault champion, tying Shortle's team season high with a 15.900. Senior co-captain Jonathan Horton took the rings crown for the second straight week with a 15.750 and also won the high bar title with a 14.700.

OU's other event titleists were senior co-captain Taqiy Abdullah-Simmons on p-bars (14.900) and junior Jason Laughton, who tied Nebraska's T.J. Schmidt for first on the pommel horse with a score of 14.350.

Junior Kyle McNamara, all-around runner-up to Legendre in OU's first two meets, finished second once again, this time to Jackson. The Littleton, Colo., native recorded an 84.900 total to finish just behind Jackson's 85.400. McNamara was fourth on both rings (14.550) and vault (15.700), while Jackson earned top-five finishes on pommel horse (13.700), rings (14.400) and high bar (13.900) in addition to his vault title.

"I was really happy with the way Kyle and Ian performed," Williams said. "Those guys have been working hard and they're starting to get the job done. If we can get Jon and Taqiy back to 100 percent, I think we're going to be a very hard team to beat."

The Sooners take two weeks off from collegiate competition before visiting No. 10 Iowa on Feb. 16. Select members of the OU squad will compete at the 2008 Winter Cup Challenge, a USA Gymnastics re-ranking event, Feb. 7-9 in Las Vegas, Nev.

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