Completed Event: Men's Gymnastics versus Ohio State on February 7, 2026 , Win , 328.650, to, 317.700
Final
Men's Gymnastics
328.650
vs Ohio State
317.700
University of Oklahoma Athletics
Saturday, February 14
Norman
5:30 PM
University of Oklahoma
vs
Michigan
No. 1 OU Shatters NCAA Team Record Score
February 14, 2015 | Men's Gymnastics
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NORMAN – “Sooner Magic” was in the air in McCasland Field House on Saturday evening as the top-ranked University of Oklahoma turned in a performance for the ages in its home opener versus defending national champion Michigan. The Sooners shattered the NCAA team record with a score of 456.400, besting the previous mark of 447.850 by Penn State in 2013. OU defeated No. 5 Michigan by a final score of 456.400 to 439.600.
“It's good to have it back,” said head coach Mark Williams. “There was a run there that every meet that Jonathan Horton was in, it seemed like we put up a new number. I think we have that kind of steam again, where when we are on, some of those records fall.
“I was really happy with the energy from the guys. I really felt like we were ready to bust out a very good score. Our first home meet this far along into the season is kind of unusual. The guys were ready for it and it went really well.”
The Crimson and Cream was absolutely dominant throughout the entire competition, as the squad set OU program team records on floor exercise (76.650), pommel horse (76.150), still rings (76.500) and high bar (77.050) and recorded the second-best team score in history on the vault (75.050) and the parallel bars (75.000).
With the unthinkable scores across the board, Oklahoma becomes the first program to ever record a 75 or higher in all six events and became the first to crack the overall mark of 450.
“That's pretty incredible,” stated a pleased Williams. “That will be a record that stands for a while I think. Guys were just sticking. They have really worked hard at this point. They are very hungry to finish things off and maybe move up one spot on the podium this year and hopefully this is one step towards that.”
From the beginning of the meet it was apparent that the team was locked in and focused, as the Sooners posted six straight remarkable performances on the floor exercise. All six gymnasts earned scores above 15 for the first time this season in an event, with freshman Hunter Justus setting the tone with a 15.450 to open the meet. After two solid scores by Todd Dowdy and Dylan Akers the trio of Kanji Oyama, Colin Van Wicklen and Alec Robin all nailed their routines and each received a 15.350 to give the team a 76.650.
The Sooners then headed to the pommel horse, an apparatus that has given the team some trouble early in the year. Saturday night was a different story. OU posted three scores above a 15, including Michael Reid's remarkable mark of 15.950 to anchor the Crimson and Cream. The score is a career best for the NCAA runner-up on the event in 2014 and ties Reid for the best score in the nation on the pommel horse in 2015. Oklahoma finished with a score of 76.150, breezing past the program's previous high of 74.700.
As OU moved onto the third rotation of the night, the rings, the gymnasts did not show a bit of let up after the fast start. Four of the six competitors on the event tallied marks of 15 or higher, including a career-high 15.000 from Justus, a 15.200 from Oyama, a 15.350 from Hoang and a world-class 16.300 from Michael Squires to give the Sooners a collective score of 76.500, another program record.
With a running score of 229.300 at the midway point the hosts were poised to have a record-breaking evening.
“It's great to have that momentum and it's great to have some of those high scores,” Williams said. I want to see the gymnastics they've done in practice or a little bit better and I've seen a lot of that. There was not a lot of conversation back at the bench about what you messed up and that's fun for me – just letting it roll and having everyone get involved.”
On the vault, the fourth event of the night, Van Wicklen produced a near-flawless vault, sticking the dismount, to earn a career-high score of 15.500. The next four Sooners turned in solid vaults between 14.650 and 14.900 before Oyama closed out the apparatus with a 15.200, his third score over 15 of the evening through four routines.
The team next performed on the parallel bars, which yielded a team score of 75.000, the Sooners lowest mark of the six rotations. After a somewhat slow start Allan Bower turned in the high score of the evening for OU with a 15.200. Oyama and Reid followed by nailing their routines to earn a 15.100 and a 15.000, respectively.
Heading into the high bar, the sixth and final event of the night, the Sooners needed just a team composite score of 70.650 to earn the first ever 450. Instead of just doing enough to cap off the historic night, the Sooners put on a clinic on the high bar to absolutely shatter the record with a 77.050, the best mark in program history by 2.900 points.
Robin was the first on the high bar and the senior co-captain set the tone with a personal-record 15.350.Two performers later Rubin turned in a 15.150 followed by a 15.100 from Van Wicklen. With the crowd already in a frenzy senior Danny Berardini hit a remarkable routine, capped by a perfect dismount to set a career-high score of 15.650. William Clement, OU's final competitor, put an exclamation mark on the record-setting evening with an almost perfect performance to earn a career-best 15.800 and allow OU to finish with the unfathomable final score of 456.400.
To top off the night, Oyama was the only member of either team to compete in the all-around competition and scored a career-best 91.000, putting his name beside the likes of former OU legends Jake Dalton and Steven Legendre for a tie for seventh in the Oklahoma record book. Oyama's 91.000 is the top-mark in the nation for the 2015 season, surpassing California's Kevin Wolting's previous high of 90.200.
Williams was more than satisfied with his squad's performance but also realizes there is still work yet to be done.
“We've got to come back to earth,” said the head coach. “There is a lot of training we have to do between now and the end of the season. We go into the five up five down format which puts a little bit more pressure on every guy to get out there and be solid and handle that kind of intensity of everybody's score counting. There are other things we have to do but I am very pleased with where we are now.”
Oklahoma will send a number of athletes to the Winter Cup in Las Vegas, Nev. next weekend before returning to competition as a team for the home meet against No. 3 Illinois. The Sooners and Illini will square off on Friday, Feb. 27 at 7 p.m. in McCasland Field House.
Players Mentioned
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FX/V/SR
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