Williams, Horton Earn MPSF Honors

April 9, 2008

NORMAN, Okla. - Four days after leading Oklahoma to its fourth-straight Mountain Pacific Sports Federation championship, head coach Mark Williams and senior Jonathan Horton were named the conference's Co-Coach of the Year and Gymnast of the Year. Williams shared Coach of the Year honors with California's Barry Weiner.

The league honor is the eighth for Williams, who in his ninth season as OU head coach. Williams has led the Sooners to four NCAA Championships and three runner-up finishes in the last seven years. Since taking over the program in 2000, Williams' teams have finished lower than second at the NCAA Championships only once, a fourth-place showing in his first season and compiled a record of 213-18 (.922). During that span Oklahoma gymnasts have accounted for 81 All-America honors and 11 individual national titles.

"It's always an honor to be recognized by your peers for the work that you do," Williams said. "Being able to work with great coaches and terrific student-athletes certainly makes my job a lot easier."

Horton has earned Gymnast of the Year honors in each of the last three seasons, and at last week's MPSF Championship meet claimed the conference all-around title for the third time in four years with a score of 90.500. The Houston, Texas, native also won the conference rings title for the fourth time with a 16.000 and tied for third on vault (16.100) and was fourth on floor (15.500). Horton finished the 2008 season with a team-best 15 individual event titles which included three all-around wins, and was a three-time MPSF Gymnast of the Week. He is a finalist for the Nissen-Emery Award and was recently honored at the New York Athletic Club as one of five finalists for the AAU James E. Sullivan Award given to the nation's top amateur athlete.

Horton Career Highlights | Horton Bio | Williams Bio | MPSF Recap

During his career in Norman, Horton has distinguished himself as the most-decorated collegiate gymnast in program history. With five career individual NCAA titles and 15 career All-America honors, the senior co-captain owns the school records previously held by two-time Olympic gold-medalist Bart Conner. A three-time team captain, Horton has been a part of two national championship teams (2005, 2006) and a national runner-up (2007). At the 2007 NCAA Championships he won individual national titles on floor and high bar and tied his own program record with five All-America honors (AA, FX, SR, V, HB).

"Being named Gymnast of the Year for the third time is really a great feeling," Horton said. "It gives me a lot of confidence going into nationals knowing that I'm recognized as one of the best gymnasts in the country. It's a big boost to have such a great team behind me, and our biggest goal is to win the national championship."

Ranked No. 2 in the final regular season GymInfo poll, the Sooners will travel to Stanford, Calif., for the 2008 NCAA Men's Gymnastics Championships, April 17-19 on the campus of Stanford University. Oklahoma has claimed four of the last six national titles, including back-to-back wins in 2002-2003 and 2005-2006.

University of Oklahoma Athletics

Related News

Related Videos

Sponsors