No. 3 OU Meets Nation's Elite at PCC

2008 Pacific Coast Collegiate Classic
Date	Saturday, Feb. 23 at 9:30 p.m. (CT)
Location	Oakland, Calif. \| Oakland Convention Center
TV	FSN Bay Area \| Air Dates
Online	Live Scoring \| USA-Sports.org

NORMAN, Okla. - Up to No. 3 in the latest GymInfo rankings, the Oklahoma men's gymnastics team faces its biggest test of the season at the Pacific Coast Classic, Feb. 23 in Oakland, Calif. Five of the top 11 teams in the country, including No. 1 Stanford, will join the Sooners at the Oakland Convention Center. The meet, hosted by USA Sports Management, is scheduled for a 7:30 p.m. PST (9:30 CST) start and will be broadcast by Fox Sports Net nationwide via satellite at a later date.

Oklahoma enters this year's Pacific Coast Classic as the two-time defending team champion, while senior co-captain Jonathan Horton boasts consecutive PCC all-around titles. The Sooners won last year's event with a score of 218.450, besting Stanford's 216.650 and avenging an early season loss to then-No. 1 Michigan, while the 2006 squad claimed victory with a 217.300 total. Horton is also the two-time defending PCC rings champion, and claimed the floor title at last season's meet.

This year's OU squad heads to Oakland with an undefeated 7-0 record that includes victories over Pacific Coast opponents Michigan and Iowa. This weekend's meet will be the Sooners' first look at Mountain Pacific Sports Federation rivals No. 1 Stanford and No. 4 California. The Sooners will not see the Cardinal and Golden Bears again until the MPSF Championships, April 5 in Lincoln, Neb.

Media Guide |

Notes

"This meet gives us a great opportunity to meet some of the West Coast teams we haven't seen yet this year," OU head coach Mark Williams said. "It also helps that the meet format is very similar to the conference and NCAA championships. We've had pretty good success there in the past and we're hoping to continue to improve on what we've done so far this season."

Fans can access live scores from the meet at SoonerSports.com, as well as on the official site of USA Sports Management and the Pacific Coast Classic, usa-sports.org.

The goal of the USA Sports Management Group is to provide direct assistance in preserving men's collegiate gymnastics programs and increase scholarship and training opportunities in the United States.

In 1969 approximately 230 collegiate gymnastics programs existed. Today only 19 NCAA programs remain in the U.S. Proceeds from the Pacific Coast Classic benefit two organizations that significantly impact the future of men's gymnastics in the United States: Men's Intercollegiate Gymnastics Support Program (MIGSP) and the National Gymnastics Foundation Men's Scholarship Program.

No. 1 Stanford	No. 3 Oklahoma	No. 4 California
2008 Record: 9-1	2008 Record: 7-0	2008 Record: 3-1
Head Coach: Thom Glielmi	Head Coach: Mark Williams	Head Coach: Barry Weiner
Top Gymnast: David Sender	Top Gymnast: Jonathan Horton	Top Gymnast: Tim McNeill

No. 5 Illinois	No. 6 Michigan	No. 11 Iowa
2008 Record: 6-3	2008 Record: 6-3	2008 Record: 1-8
Head Coach: Yoshi Hayasaki	Head Coach: Kurt Golder	Head Coach: Tom Dunn
Top Gymnast: Wes Haagensen	Top Gymnast: Joe Catrambone	Top Gymnast: Curtis Kleffman

Men's Gymnastics Notes

What's next
After a week off following the Pacific Coast Classic, the Sooners wrap up the regular season sandwiching road trips to No. 7 Ohio State (March 8) and No. 2 Penn State (March 22) around their home finale, March 15 against No. 8 Minnesota.

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Stats masters
When your team is ranked third in the nation, it's fair to say that you have a team full of solid individual performers. The GymInfo individual event rankings seem to back up that statement.

In the latest rankings released on Feb. 18, Oklahoma gymnasts accounted for 18 top-20 event rankings. The Sooners lead all teams with five top-20 gymnasts on vault, while OU's three top-20 high bar and rings competitors are second-most in the nation.

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Record day
Not only did Oklahoma post a season-high score of 357.750 in its Feb. 16 road victory over Iowa, it set some records in the process. As a result of the new scoring system in place for 2008, every season high score also establishes a school record. Against the Hawkeyes, OU recorded new program marks on the floor exercise (61.100), vault (63.800) and p-bars (59.300), in addition to its final total. The Sooners' vault tally was the highest score by any NCAA team on the apparatus this season.

OU gymnasts also set or matched a combined 17 season and career highs against Iowa. Jonathan Horton set a program record with a 15.450 on high bar, while Russell Czeschin tied his own OU mark shared with Steven Legendre with a 15.450 on floor.

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Men land 10 on Big 12 honor roll
Ten members of the men's gymnastics team earned spots on the Big 12 Commissioners's Honor Roll for the Fall 2007 term. Junior health and exercise science major Russell Czeschin was one of 37 OU student-athletes to earn a perfect 4.0 grade point average. The other Sooner honorees were Chris Brooks, Brian Carr, Corey English, C.J. Grimes, Jason Laughton, Steven Legendre, Reed Pitts, Bobby Shortle and Joseph Weaver.

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Winter Cup highlights
Five OU gymnasts competed in the 2008 Winter Cup Challenge in Las Vegas, and all five advanced to the finals competition. Highlighting the Sooners' weekend in the desert were third-place performances by Jonathan Horton on rings and Steven Legendre on floor exercise. Taqiy Abdullah-Simmons tied for fifth on rings, while Ian Jackson made it to the event finals on rings and pommel horse in his Winter Cup debut.

Perhaps the most balanced performance, however, came from Jacob Messina, another Winter Cup newcomer. The Matthews, N.C., native was the only Sooner to finish in the top 20 on every event in which he competed (PH, SR, HB).

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Horton vying for third-straight Tyson Cup
Two-time defending Tyson American Cup champion Jonathan Horton will try to make it three-in-a-row at the 2008 event scheduled for March 1 at Madison Square Garden in New York City. Horton could become the first man to win three consecutive American Cup titles since the USA's Blaine Wilson (1997-1999).

Impact Performer

Taqiy Abdullah-Simmons | Sr. | All-Around
Abdullah-Simmons competed on only three events against Iowa, but won event titles on two of them. The senior co-captain recorded a season-high 15.100 on parallel bars to earn top honors, and tied his season best with a 15.600 on the rings. Both event titles were Abdullah-Simmons' second of the year on each apparatus. He also competed on the high bar, tying his personal best with a 14.350 to finish in third place.

The Philadelphia, Pa., native is currently the nation's top-ranked gymnast on rings, and is 11th in the country on p-bars.

Hall of Fame nominates Horton for Gymnast of the Year
Oklahoma's Jonathan Horton is one of seven nominees for the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame 2007 Gymnast of the Year Award. The OU senior won a his second consecutive Tyson American Cup and finished fourth in the all-around at the World Championships last year.

The other nominees are: Fabian Hambüchen (Germany), Jade Barbosa (Brazil), Cheng Fei (China), Hisashi Mizutori (Japan), Shawn Johnson (USA), Mitja Petkovsek (Slovenia), Nastia Liukin (USA), Yang Wei (China) and Steliana Nistor (Romania).

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All-around good guy
Sophomore Ian Jackson claimed the all-around title in OU's Feb. 1 win over Nebraska in his first appearance of the season on all six events this season. Jackson posted an 85.400 to best teammate Kyle McNamara (84.900) and Nebraska's Stephen Tetrault. Jackson also took home the title the last time he competed in the all-around, Feb. 16, 2007 against club teams from the universities of Washington and Texas.

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Abdullah-Simmons featured on ESPN.com
Though he didn't know it at the time, OU senior Taqiy Abdullah-Simmons' all-around victory at the 2007 NCAA Men's Gymnastics Championships was a historic one.

Not only did the Philadelphia, Pa., native become the second consecutive Oklahoma gymnast to win the all-around crown, he became the first African-American in the history of the sport to achieve the feat.

In honor of Black History Month, ESPN.com is featuring the athletes and events that have helped shape the world of sports.

On Feb. 4, writer Jay Weiner highlighted Abdullah-Simmons' pioneering victory and chronicled his path to stardom at the University of Oklahoma. Click here to read full article...

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Sooners hogging conference honors
The Mountain Pacific Sports Federation has awarded Gymnast of the Week honors six times in 2008, and three times the award has gone to a University of Oklahoma gymnast.

Steven Legendre was the conference's first honoree of the season after winning the all-around and floor exercise titles at the Rocky Mountain Open on Jan. 12. The freshman from Port Jefferson, N.Y., earned the distinction again on Jan. 28 after claiming his third consecutive all-around and floor exercise crowns in the Sooners' Jan. 26 upset of then-No. 2 Michigan in Norman.

Jonathan Horton, a two-time MPSF Gymnast of the Year and three-time weekly award winner in 2007, earned his first conference award of the season on Feb. 11 following his performance at the Winter Cup Challenge where he finished third on rings and maintained his spot in the U.S. Senior National Team.

Last season, four different OU gymnasts accounted for a total of six MPSF weekly honors.

2008 MPSF Gymnasts of the Week
Jan. 15 - Steven Legendre, Oklahoma
Jan. 12 - Kyson Bunthuwong, California
Jan. 28 - Steven Legendre, Oklahoma
Feb. 4 - Greg Stine, Air Force
Feb. 11 - Jonathan Horton, Oklahoma
Feb. 18 - Kyle Bunthuwong, California

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Leading by example
The coaching success of Oklahoma's staff is well-documented. Head coach Mark Williams is a four-time national Coach of the Year and seven-time MPSF Coach of the Year, while assistants Rustam Sharipov and Daniel Furney were national Co-Assistant Coaches of the Year in 2006. Oklahoma's coaches, however, boast their fair share of competitive successes as well.

During his collegiate career at Nebraska, Williams earned All-America honors on high bar in 1978 after winning the Big Eight title on the apparatus. Williams was also a member of two Husker national title teams in 1979 and 1980.

Sharipov, a former parallel bars specialist, took the gold medal on the event at the 1996 Olympics and also won top honors on the apparatus at both the 1996 World and European Championships as well. Sharipov garnered another Olympic gold medal as a member of the Unified Team in 1992.

Furney, a 2004 OU graduate, was a member of two national championship teams in Norman (2002 and 2003). Furney also won the Nissen Emery Award in 2003 after claiming NCAA titles in the all-around and on parallel bars. During his OU career, Furney accumulated nine All-America honors, including four during the 2003 season.

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The upset is an upset
OU's upset of then-No. 2 Michigan on Jan. 26 was an upset in itself. The Sooners, ranked sixth this week and fifth when they knocked off the Wolverines, rarely have the opportunity to beat an opponent ranked higher than they are.

In fact, prior to this year's win against Michigan, the last time OU scored an upset was at the 2007 Pacific Coast Classic. The Sooners, ranked third at the time, won the event defeating five of the nation's top five teams including ... No. 1 Michigan.

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A note on the rankings
The GymInfo rankings are based on the following criteria:

Jan. 21 - February 11: Ranking by Total Season Average (average of all scores)

February 18 - March 17: Ranking by Three Score Average

March 24 - 31: Ranking by Modified Three Score Average (Select the four highest scores, counting no more than two home meet, and drop the highest score. Average the three remaining scores.)

April 7: Ranking by National Qualifying Average

University of Oklahoma Athletics

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