The Night I'll Never Forget

Danny Berardini
Senior, Co-Captain (OU Men's Gymnastics)

The Journey

I knew OU was the right school for me from the beginning – pretty much the first day I stepped on campus. The team and coaches were all welcoming and I was ready to get to work. The biggest adjustment for me was becoming accustomed to the training plan and the 6 a.m. workouts.

Coming in with seven other freshman was nice because we all had to go through it together. Our first three seasons at OU were filled with highs and lows, which prepared us for an unforgettable final senior season.

Second, the place we finished in each of our first three seasons at Oklahoma. We were always in the hunt for the national title, but one way or another, we fell short each season.

As a freshman we lacked the experience to win it. During our sophomore season we pulled off a nearly perfect meet in the team final but were edged out by a better Michigan team and then as a junior we just did not put together a good enough performance in the team finals.

The journey for the elusive national championship that we had been so close to reaching began last April right after we finished second place for the third straight time. We made it our mission to put in all of the hard work necessary for the entire year to allow us to become the champs. We knew that it was going to have to be a complete team effort for us to achieve our goal so every person worked as hard as we could day in and day out.

We started off my senior season on a high note scoring above a 440 and never looked back. At our first home meet of the season, we hosted the two-time defending national champion Michigan, which was a meet we had looked forward to for a long time. We broke the NCAA scoring record by posting a huge 456.4. No team in NCAA history had ever even scored a 450.

Team

Two weeks later, in another home competition against an undefeated No. 2 Illinois known as “The Perfect Dual”, we broke the NCAA scoring record again by posting a 457.3. This time I was more shocked than anything. I couldn't believe that we broke the record for a second consecutive meet. We were performing at such a high level, which made everything so much fun. This is when I realized how good our team was and that it was going to be hard for any team to beat us if we were on.

We closed out the regular season undefeated and headed into conference ready for postseason. We won the MPSF Championship for the fourth year in a row. It is amazing to be a member of a team that never lost a conference championship.

2015 NCAA National Championships

Finally, national's week arrived and we began the weekend by winning our prelim session by more than 13 points as we posted a team score of 450.75. I thought to myself, “Wow, we did it again”. Posting a 450 at a national championship is absolutely incredible.

Now it was the time we all had been waiting for. The night before team finals, I couldn't fall asleep. My mind was racing and all I could think about was how special it would be for us to win a national title at home in front of our fans my senior year. This was the moment we had been working for since last April.

The day of the championship felt like it lasted an eternity. I was waiting around the entire day trying to find anything to pass the time and keep my mind off the team final that awaited in the evening as much as possible.

"It occurred to me; the time is finally here. Everything we had been working and training for the past year all came down to this night."
Danny Berardini

The moment hit me as I was walking down the ramp of the Lloyd Noble Center and into the arena. It occurred to me; the time is finally here. Everything we had been working and training for the past year all came down to this night.

Even before we started the competition with floor exercise, one of our best events throughout the season, I was nervous. I didn't want us to feel like we had to try too hard and put too much pressure on ourselves. I knew if we just did what we had been doing all season we would be fine.

Once Allan (Bower) hit his first pass to start us off on the event, I knew we were good. He set the tone with a 15.0 and I knew all the other guys would step up and hit their sets. We started off strong on floor by scoring a 76.25 and I knew that was exactly what we needed. We were in a great place through one event.

As a competitor, we try to focus on just ourselves as much as we can, but in a competition of this magnitude we couldn't help but take peaks at the scoreboard throughout the night to see where the other five teams where.

77.6. That was the ridiculous score through one rotation that Penn State had just put up on the scoreboard. I talked to Mike (Squires) as we were walking from floor to pommel and we both had no clue how they could possibly record a score that high. The score definitely got our attention but in our minds we knew Penn State would have to finish on pommel horse, an event that most teams struggle with and the event that we had to perform next.

The nerves of the team final showed on pommel. Our first guy fell off the horse and I knew that was the last thing we needed, as the pressure was now huge on Alec (Robin) to hit his routine. Alec, as he has so many times before in his career, stepped up and got us back on track with a clean routine for a 14.75.

But then we had another rough set and really need two big performances to finish off the event and Allan and Michael Reid did exactly that. Allan posted a big score of 15.05, our first on the event, and Reid, the best pommel horse competitor in the country was set to close out the apparatus.

Reid

It was a relief having the best pommel guy in the country being able to end the rotation for us, especially after Allan set him up for a big finish. After he came through with a 15.2, I looked up at the scoreboard and saw a 72.65 and knew it wasn't our best score but would be fine, especially since other teams would likely struggle on the apparatus.

After the first two events I noticed we were in third. It was a bit odd after the season we had to see us not on the top of the standings, but in the back of my mind I knew that we were still in good shape since both Penn State and Stanford had already performed their best events and we were going to ours next.

We got to rings and we were finally able to settle in and relax, knowing that rings is a great event for us and pommel horse was already out of the way.

Hunter (Justus), as a freshman, was huge for us on the rings. He started us off with a ridiculous routine, sticking his dismount, to post a 15.45, exactly what we needed.

After Hunter's routine, I knew he set me up to have a great set. My routine doesn't have the highest start value but it is a routine that I was confident I would hit and give us another solid score to build on.

I was glad to have rings as my first event in the team final, given that it is a low-risk event that would help me prepare for the parallel bars and high bar. I had a good, clean routine but was unable to stick the dismount, but overall happy with the set.

Both Kanji (Oyama) and Thao (Hoang) were solid as they had been all season, which set up the event finale with Mike, the two-time defending national champ on the rings. Mike absolutely killed his routine, nailing the dismount and we went nuts in the team corral, chanting “Mike! Mike! Mike!” When the judges posted the score of 16.45, I thought “Well that is definitely going to help us.” To see him tie the NCAA rings record in the team final was incredible.

Squires

After rings we had momentum and were back atop the standings. I was very excited for vault, our next event. We were great all week in practice and the night before in the qualifier and I knew we could really put some distance between us and Penn State and Stanford.

Josh (Yee) went first and he stuck to give us a great start and from there we were rolling. Kanji capped us off with a huge vault, sticking the landing, sending the team and crowd into an uproar. I knew after vault we were finally in the position where we were comfortable. We were back to competing in our normal state of mind and just performing rather than overthinking or stressing about the routines.

As we were closing in on the title, the nerves started creeping back a little bit on parallel bars. After two great routines from Sergey (Resnick) and Dylan (Akers) we had a couple mistakes on the next two sets. After Reid missed and Allan hit the bars, I knew I had to come through with a solid routine to get us back on track, a slip up from me could have really made things interesting.

The first skill I do is difficult and risky, but after I got through it I was able to settle in and was confident the rest of the routine would be fine.

In the middle of the routine I hit my head on the bar and noticed I began to bleed from my forehead. I immediately thought “This is the worst time for something like this to be happening but keep pushing through.” In the final handstand before my dismount I notice a drop of blood fall to the floor and knew I just needed to stick my dismount. As I swung down to do the dismount another drop of blood fell onto my jersey and all I was thinking was please land this.

"As I swung down to do the dismount another drop of blood fell onto my jersey and all I was thinking was please land this."
Danny Berardini

After my feet finally hit the mat I realized I just stuck the landing and went nuts. I saluted the judges and saw our assistant coach Guard (Young) and started pointing to my head asking what should I do next?

I found Phillip (Hartog), our athletic trainer, as soon as I got off the podium and immediately started thinking about what we had to do to get my head to stop bleeding so I could be ready for my final high bar routine. There was no way I was going to miss that final routine.

Going into high bar, I knew that all we had to do was hit five routines and the national title would be ours. My freshman year we ended on high bar and we let that one get away from us; we were not going to let another national championship slip away as seniors at home.

Alec, Colin (Van Wicklen) and Jacoby (Rubin) started us off with three great routines and put us in a position to seal the championship. I knew we were two routines away from finally getting our national title.

I remember thinking to myself right before my routine, “I have waited my whole career for this moment.”

During my routine, I messed up the order of my releases. On my third release I nearly missed the bar, stretching out to barely grab the bar and keep the routine intact. Right before my dismount I thought “Stick this.” I knew the arena would erupt with a stuck dismount.

As I finished the routine with my stick dismount and before I could even finish saluting the judges, Mark was jumping on my back and beginning to hug me. I turned around, gave him a big hug and said, “We finally did it! National Champs!”

Celebrate

After Will and Allan both stuck their dismounts to finish the meet, the celebration finally began. All of our hard work had finally paid off. We were National Champions! I had dreamed about this moment my whole life.

When we finally finished I remember seeing Mark running over to the corral to celebrate with us. We were all overjoyed and overwhelmed by the moment and so happy to be able to win the title at home in front of all of our family, friends and fans.

I distinctly remember looking around for the championship t-shirts and hats wanting to put them on as soon as possible. The shirt without a doubt immediately became my favorite article of clothing I have ever owned.

As we were waiting to be introduced as the 2015 NCAA National Champions I remember telling the guys that we needed to cherish the moment that was about to take place. When they finally announced us as the champions and handed us the trophy that was the best moment of the night. I had waited for this for four years and it finally came.

Being part of a team with six other seniors and winning a national championship at home to finish our careers is the best ending I could have ever imagined. I will never forget stepping up to that podium and raising that trophy with this team.