No. 1 OU Closes Regular Season in Minneapolis

March 22, 2012

No. 1 Men's Gymnastics vs. No. 5 Minnesota/No. 6 Ohio State
Date and Time	Saturday, March 24 at 7 p.m. (CT)
Location	Minneapolis, Minn. \| Sports Pavilion
Online	Live Scoring on GopherSports.com
Additional Info	Media Guide \| Meet Notes \| Blog \| Twitter \| Facebook

NORMAN, Okla. - The top-ranked Sooners close out the regular season with a tri-meet in Minneapolis, Minn., against a pair of top-10 Big Ten squads. Oklahoma faces No. 5 Minnesota and No. 6 Ohio State at 7 p.m. on Saturday, March 24.

Oklahoma (13-1, 5-0 MPSF) boasts the top record in the nation and has been ranked No. 1 in the GymInfo rankings for nine consecutive weeks.

The Sooners' matchup with the Golden Gophers is the fifth time this year OU has faced a top-five opponent. Oklahoma is 3-1 against top-five teams and 2-1 when facing them on the road.

OU has not faced Minnesota since the 2011 NCAA Qualifier, when they defeated the Gophers 363.500-346.850. The Sooners took down then-No. 2 Ohio State earlier this season on Jan. 21 in Columbus, 353.150-347.750.

ON THE WEB
• Live scoring for the meet will be available on GopherSports.com.
• OU men's gymnastics' Twitter feed (@SoonerGymnasts) will provide up-to-date information throughout the meet.

GYMNAST TO WATCH - JACOBY RUBIN
Rubin is one of the many young Sooners making an impact throughout the season. The freshman is currently ranked No. 3 in the nation on high bar, No. 11 on pommel horse and No. 12 on parallel bars.

SCOUTING MINNESOTA
• The fifth-ranked Gophers (10-5, 6-5 Big Ten) are coming off of a season-high score of 347.900 in a loss to Penn State.
• Minnesota senior Russell Dabritz is the Gophers' top gymnast on parallel bars (No. 3) and rings (No. 8) in the Troester rankings. As a team, Minnesota is ranked No. 2 on vault, No. 3 on parallel bars and No. 5 on high bar, floor and rings.

SCOUTING OHIO STATE
• The sixth-ranked Buckeyes (5-5, 4-3 Big Ten) began the season by defeating five teams at the Windy City Invitational on Jan. 14 but have since lost five meets in a row.
• The Buckeyes come into the meet as the top team on pommel horse, ranked No. 3 in the nation on the apparatus. Senior Ty Echard leads OSU at No. 5 on the horse.

STILL ON TOP
For the ninth-straight week, Oklahoma is on top of the GymInfo Rankings. Below is a complete list of this week's rankings along with each school's three-score average.

1. Oklahoma 353.667
2. Penn State 352.667
3. Stanford 352.650
4. Illinois 352.133
5. Minnesota 346.567
6. Ohio State 344.400
7. Michigan 343.400
8. California 342.083
9. Nebraska 340.900
10. Temple 339.267
11. Air Force 336.033
12. Iowa 335.567
13. UIC 331.667
14. William & Mary 330.000
15. Army 329.200

LAST TIME OUT
The top-ranked Oklahoma men's gymnastics team closed out its four-meet homestand with a tri-meet win over No. 9 Nebraska and No. 11 Air Force on Saturday at the McCasland Field House.

The Sooners (13-1, 5-0 MPSF) posted a 352.400 to top the Huskers (341.550) and Falcons (327.950) without the contribution of the nation's top all-around gymnast, Jake Dalton. The OU junior is competing for Team USA this weekend at the Kellogg's Pacific Rim Championships in Everett, Wash.

Without Dalton, Oklahoma still managed to sweep all six event titles with six Sooners winning individual titles - Raymond White (floor), Troy Nitzky (pommel horse), Chris Stehl (rings), Michael Heredia (vault), Jacoby Rubin (parallel bars) and Dylan Akers (high bar).

The meet served as the final home event at the McCasland Field House for seniors Mike Heredia, Patrick Piscitelli and Chad Crumley. The three Sooners never lost a meet at the McCasland Field House during their time in a Sooner uniform.

HEREDIA NAMED MPSF GYMNAST OF THE WEEK
Coming off of a strong performance in his final regular-season home meet, Oklahoma senior Michael Heredia was named the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) Gymnast of the Week for the first time in his career.

The MPSF, a hybrid conference that features OU, Air Force, California and Stanford, has awarded the weekly title to four different Sooners a total of seven times this season. An OU gymnast has earned the conference award four weeks in a row.

Heredia, a native of Reno, Nev., earned the award after Oklahoma closed out its four-meet homestand with a tri-meet win over Nebraska and MPSF foe Air Force, taking the vault title with a season-high 15.100. The senior also took third on floor with a 15.050.

Below is a list of the different Sooners that have won MPSF Gymnast of the Week honors throughout the season:

March 20 Michael Heredia
March 13 Jake Dalton
March 6 Jake Dalton
Feb. 28 Jake Dalton
Feb. 14 Jacoby Rubin
Jan. 24 Jake Dalton
Jan. 17 Chris Stehl

SOONERS LOOK TO CAP OFF ANOTHER DOMINANT SEASON
The Sooners enter the final meet of the season with a 13-1 record and will finish the season with just one loss if they can pull off the road win. Since 2001, Oklahoma has finished the regular season with one or less losses every year except for 2007 (14-2).

Under Coach Williams, the Sooners have gone undefeated in the regular season five times and have finished with one loss five times.

Oklahoma's lone loss of the year came to then-No. 2 Illinois on Jan. 28 in Champaign, Ill.

DALTON, USA TAKE GOLD AT PACIFIC RIM CHAMPIONSHIPS
Oklahoma junior Jake Dalton continued to make an impression in his pursuit of a spot in the 2012 Olympic Games by helping Team USA claim gold at the 2012 Kellogg's Pacific Rim Championships this past weekend.

The United States totaled a 352.050 in Saturday night's team finals at the Comcast Arena in Everett, Wash., to top second-place Japan (344.700) and third-place China (343.250). Former OU gymnast Chris Brooks (2006-09) won Saturday's all-around title with Dalton coming in fourth.

On Saturday night, Dalton posted the competition's highest scores on floor, rings and vault to qualify for Sunday's event finals. In the event finals, Dalton won gold on floor exercise with a 15.375. The OU junior also took fourth place on vault. Brooks claimed gold on high bar and rings and silver on pommel horse.

Dalton and Brooks were joined on Team USA's senior squad by Sam Mikulak of the University of Michigan.

ONE HOT HOMESTAND
After starting the season with four consecutive home meets, the Sooners dominated their past four home meets. Oklahoma rolled to four-straight home wins over Iowa (356.250-334.400), Stanford (357.050-351.400), Michigan (355.500-348.950) and Nebraska and Air Force (352.400-341.550-327.950), averaging 355.300 point a meet.

Out of 24 events from the four meets, the Sooners claimed titles in 23, failing to top an opponent only once (pommel horse vs. Stanford).

Oklahoma hasn't lost a regular-season meet at home in 19 meets, dating back to a loss to Ohio State on March 3, 2007.

BOUNCING BACK
It's been over a month since the Sooners' lone loss of the season to Illinois on Jan. 28, and OU is continuing to bounce back from the wake up call. Since the loss, the Sooners have gone 7-0 over a stretch of five meets, defeating five top-10 opponents, including two in the top five.

The Sooners have topped a 351 in all five meets, averaging a 354.560 over the span. Oklahoma has lost just five event titles while picking up 19 titles since the loss to the Fighting Illini.

FLOORING IT
Oklahoma has proven to be a force on the floor exercise, ranked No. 1 in the nation in the event and winning the event title in each of its eight meets of the 2012 season. Led by 2011 NCAA floor champion Jake Dalton, the Sooners have posted a 60 or higher in the event in six of its eight meets.

OU's dominance on floor is nothing new to the world of college gymnastics. The Sooners have claimed the event title in 26 straight regular-season meets. The last opponent to out-score
Oklahoma on floor was Minnesota on March 7, 2009.

YOUTH MOVEMENT
With 10 freshmen on OU's 18-man roster, the Sooners are looking for their younger gymnasts to make a quick transition to collegiate competition. The young Sooners are doing just that.

Six freshmen are ranked in the top 20 of at least one event in the GymInfo event rankings. Jacoby Rubin leads the way on high bar (3), pommel horse (11) and parallel bars (12) alongside Dylan Akers in all-around (10), high bar (T17) and pommel horse (20).

Michael Reid is 10th on pommel horse, Will Clement is No. 13 and Alec Robin is No. 14 on floor.

ALL-AROUND EXCELLENCE
Not only are the Sooners the nation's top all-around team, but OU is also ranked in the country's top four in all six events, including the top two in three events. The Sooners are the top team on floor and No. 2 on rings and high bar. The Troester event rankings also have Oklahoma at No. 3 on vault and No. 4 on parallel bars and pommel horse.

LEGENDRE AND DALTON CONTINUE OLYMPIC PUSH
Former Oklahoma gymnast Steven Legendre continued to make a name for himself in his pursuit of a spot on the 2012 U.S. Olympic Team by taking second place in the all-around and claiming two event titles at the 2012 Winter Cup in Las Vegas.

Due to his automatic qualification, 2011 Winter Cup Champion Jake Dalton did not compete in his two strongest events, floor exercise and vault, which he won NCAA and USA titles in last season.

The next stage in the duo's Olympic pursuit is the 2012 Visa Championships, the national championship of USA Gymnastics, June 7-10 in St. Louis, Mo. The top finishers from the Visa Championships will then be invited to compete in the U.S. Olympic Qualifier in San Jose, Calif., June 28-July 1.

NEXT UP
Oklahoma chases its eighth conference crown in the past 10 years and 10th under head coach Mark Williams at the 2012 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) Championships on April 7 in Colorado Springs, Colo.

The MPSF is a hybrid conference that features Oklahoma, Air Force, California and Stanford.

University of Oklahoma Athletics

No. 1 OU Closes Regular Season in Minneapolis

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