National Title on the Line for OU

April 17, 2009

No. 2 Men's Gymnastics \| 2009 NCAA National Championship
Date	Friday, April 17 at 7 p.m. (CT)
Location	Minneapolis, Minn. \| Sports Pavilion
Notes	2009 Men's Gymnastics Postseason Guide
Tickets	Minnesota Athletics Ticket Office \| 1-800-UGOPHER
Online	Live Results on Minnesota Website
NCAA	2009 NCAA National Championship

MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. - The 2009 NCAA Men's Gymnastics Championship will be up for grabs Friday night inside the Sports Pavilion on the campus of the University of Minnesota. Six teams will vie for the title of national champion: Stanford, Oklahoma, Michigan, Ohio State, Penn State, California. All six schools finished in the top three in their respective qualifying sessions on Thursday to advance to the team finals.

"There are a lot of good teams here and we just want to put out a good performance," said head coach Mark Williams. "I have great confidence that we are going to come out and see some great gymnastics."

The Sooners finished first in the second session of the NCAA Championships Qualifier with a team score of 360.950 on Thursday night, while conference rival Stanford scored a 361.100 to win the first session

OU posted the top score on vault (64.250), high bar (59.500), parallel bars (57.800), and floor (62.050). Sophomore Steven Legendre finished first on vault and floor, while Senior Kyle McNamara finished first on parallel bars.

Schedule & Results | Roster | 2009 Media Guide

The 2009 National Championship will also mark the final team competition for gymnasts Reed Pitts, Russell Czeschin, Jacob Messina, Chris Brooks, Kyle McNamara, and Jason Laughton.

One of the most decorated classes in Oklahoma history these 2009 gymnasts have been responsible for three National Championships, 11 All-Americans (Brooks, 4; Pitts, 3; Czeschin, 2; Laughton, 1; Messina, 1), four MPSF conference titles and one individual conference title (Brooks).

"We have a lot of seniors on the team that have been to the Championships before," added Williams. "It should be an exciting night for everyone, especially our seniors."

Friday night's competition is slated for a 7 p.m. start inside the Sports Pavilion. Live scoring of the event can be accessed as part of the NCAA Championship Central page on www.gophersports.com. ESPN2 will air the competition on a tape delay on April 23 at 2 p.m.

A PERENNIAL TITLE CONTENDER

Since 2000, The University of Oklahoma men's gymnastics program is the only collegiate men's gymnastics program to finish in the top four every year at the NCAA Championships. Since their fourth-place finish in 2000, the Sooners have finished no lower than second in their quest for the national title under head coach Mark Williams.

A Tradition of Championship ...
Since the creation of collegiate men's gymnastics (1953), only seven current teams have won consecutive national championships. Oklahoma is the only men's gymnastics program to have won two straight or more on three separate occasions. Penn State and Nebraska are the only schools to win three or more straight titles. After win¬ning back-to-back titles in 1953 and 1954, Penn State won three in a row from 1959 to 1961. Nebraska ran an impressive string of four straight titles from 1979-1982. OU's eight national championships ties Nebraska for third all-time behind Penn State (11) and Illinois (9).

Individual National Title Under Williams...
Under head coach Mark Williams, six University of Oklahoma gymnasts have been responsible for 14 NCAA individual national championships. The Sooners have a total of 27 title winners in the history of the program.

Brooks Named Nissen Emery Finalist...
Senior co-captain Chris Brooks was named a finalist for the Nissen Emery Award on March 24. This season, Brooks was named a U.S. Senior Natonal Team Member and has won 10 event titles, three being for the all-around competition.Since the award's inception, Oklahoma has claimed a nation-leading six Nissen honorees: Bart Conner (1981), Jarrod Hanks (1991), Dan Fink (1998), Todd Bishop (1999), Daniel Furney (2003) and Jonathan Horton (2008).

CONSISTENCY THROUGH THE YEARS

The Sooners have advanced to the team finals in every season under head coach Mark Williams.

Sweeping the Competition...
Oklahoma swept event titles a total of six times this season (Rocky Mountain Open, Nebraska, Texas, Iowa, Nebraska, Penn State).Six out of the five teams that OU swept were against top 10 opponents.

Individual Titles in 2009...
The Sooners have claimed 43 total individual titles so far in the 2009 season and have swept individual event titles three times at the Rocky Mountain Open and against Nebraska and Texas. Twenty three of the titles have come from sophomore Steven Legendre, which eclipsed his 12 total event titles from 2008.

An accumulation of nine gymnasts Legendre (23), Brooks (10), Messina (4), English (2), Czeschin (2), Jackson (1), Shortle (1), McNamara (1) Laughton (1) have claimed event titles during the 2009 season.

Legendre Captures MPSF Vault Title...
Sophomore Steven Legendre finished first on vault with a 16.450 helping the Sooners claim their single team event title on vault (64.350). Oklahoma finished second at the MPSF Cham¬pionship on April 4. It was the first time since 2004 that OU didn't win the conference crown.

Sooners Break NCAA Scoring Record Again...
No. 2 Oklahoma posted a NCAA scoring record with a 366.850 on March 21 against No. 8 Penn State on senior night. OU broke its own record (364.600) which happened to be recorded on senior night in 2008. The Sooners swept all event titles by scoring team event highs on March 21 on floor (62.150), pommel horse (59.250), rings (60.850), vault (64.650), parallel bars (59.950) and high bar (60.000).

Sooners Finish Undefeated for Third Time...
Oklahoma went undefeated with a 12-0 record in the regular season for the third time under Williams. The Sooners have finished undefeated three times in the past 10 years (2003, 2006, 2009).

University of Oklahoma Athletics

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