Sooners Seek Ninth National Title

April 15, 2010

WEST POINT, N.Y. - The second-ranked Oklahoma men's gymnastics team advanced to the NCAA Championship team finals for the eleventh consecutive season after posting a 356.400 in Thursday's qualifying session on the campus of the United States Military Academy. OU placed second in the session amongst the six teams, finishing ahead of Cal (355.000) and behind Michigan (359.800).

The three teams will compete for the 2010 NCAA Championship on Friday at 7 p.m. against the top three teams from Thursday's afternoon session (Stanford, Illinois and Ohio State).

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

"Today was all about advancing from the qualifier and competing in tomorrow's team finals," said Williams. "I thought we struggled on pommel horse, but I was really proud of our rings' team. It was a little low key for us tonight because I didn't want the guys to get too excited since tomorrow is the main event."

OU posted the night's top score on vault (64.600) and floor (61.700). Leading the Sooners on the two events were freshman Jacob Dalton on vault (16.350) and junior Steven Legendre on floor (16.000).

"It was a good start. It wasn't the best meet we have ever had but we weren't really looking for that tonight," added junior Steven Legendre. "I think we all would have liked to do better but I think we really set ourselves up well tomorrow."

Session II Results | Championship Blog | 2010 Schedule and Results

The Sooners started the night on vault and posted a 64.600 to lead the competition. Freshman Alex Naddour started the qualifying round by tying a career high 16.000 on the apparatus, while freshman Jacob Dalton also tied a career high with a 16.350 to win the event title.

Oklahoma then moved to parallel bars and again posted the night's top score with a 58.150. Senior Corey English posted the highest score for the Sooners with a 14.900, tying for third on the night.

On floor, Oklahoma received a career-tying score from sophomore Patrick Piscitelli after he tallied a 15.200. The Sooners scored a 61.700 to win the event for the night. After the bye rotation, the Sooners went to pommel horse were they extended its lead with a 56.150.

Despite, the Sooners hitting all six routines on rings with high scores coming from Ian Jackson (14.600) and Jacob Dalton (14.800), OU lost the lead in the final rotation with a score of 58.400

Friday night's competition is slated for a 7 p.m. start inside the Holleder Center. A live blog of the event can be accessed as part of the NCAA Championship Central page on SoonerSports.com. ESPN2 will air the competition on a tape delay on April 23 at 1:30 p.m.

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