Oklahoma Gymnasts Place Second in Kiev

May 21, 2011

KIEV, Ukraine -- Sooners Steven Legendre, Jacob Dalton, and Alex Naddour represented USA Gymnastics and helped the team place second at the 2011 Stella Zakharova Cup on Saturday, May 21, in the Palace of Sports in Kiev.

"I was happy with the effort Steve, Jake and Alex displayed while simultaneously competing for USA Gymnastics and OU," said OU Head Coach Mark Williams.

Naddour, a sophomore at OU, placed third in the all-around.

"It was a special event to have three Oklahoma gymnasts competing in Kiev, Ukraine against world teams like Russia, Belarus, Ukraine and Sweden. It's been a memorable day for all of us," added Williams.

The one-day competition featured both a team and all-around competition. The format for the team competition featured three athletes competing on each apparatus with all three scores counting.

The OU gymnasts competing in the event are no strangers to success this season as they combined for three NCAA titles (Jacob Dalton, floor and vault; Alex Naddour, pommel horse) and 10 of the 12 All-American honors collected by the Sooner team.

Both Dalton and Legendre have represented the USA at World Championships.

The United States joined a seven team field that includes Belarus, Russia, Hungary, Latvia, Slovenia and Ukraine.

Oklahoma has five gymnasts on the U.S. National Team with Legendre, Naddour, Dalton and former OU gymnasts Jonathan Horton and Chris Brooks on the squad.

No other NCAA Division I men's gymnastics program has more members on the Senior National Team than Oklahoma. This marks most National Team members the Sooners have ever had, besting the previous total in 1994, which had four.

University of Oklahoma Athletics

Oklahoma Gymnasts Place Second in Kiev

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