P&G Championships Next Stop on Road to Rio

NORMAN – The University of Oklahoma men's gymnastics team, fresh off its second-straight NCAA championship, is turning its sights to the international stage as nine current, former and future Sooners will take part in the 2016 P&G Gymnastics Championships in Hartford, Conn., this weekend. The event features 42 gymnasts from around the country vying for 18 spots to compete in the 2016 Men's Olympic Trials later in June.

Sophomores Levi Anderson and Yul Moldauer, senior Colin Van Wicklen, 2016 graduate Kanji Oyama, former Sooners Jake Dalton, Alex Naddour and Chris Brooks, assistant coach Steven Legendre and 2016 signee Matt Wenske will all compete at the P&G Championships for Oklahoma.

“The goal for these guys is to put together 12 good routines and try to put yourself in that group of 18 that advances,” said head coach Mark Williams. “Jake and Steve have had that experience in the past and this is probably their last go around for the Olympic Games, so they want to make it count. Certainly they are guys we expect to move on from our group. The same goes for Alex and Chris in the programs they are in now.”

Dalton competed for the U.S. Olympic team in London in 2012 while Brooks, Legendre and Naddour all served as alternates for the squad. In total, five of the eight members of the 2012 U.S. Olympic team were Sooners. With their level of Olympic experience, expectations are high for the former Sooner veterans.

As part of the next wave of great Sooner gymnast, current Sooners Anderson, Moldauer, Oyama and Van Wicklen are hopeful they can continue OU's Olympic tradition and break through to Olympic Trials.

“It would be great to get some new faces to move on,” Williams said. “Yul has been on the national team since Winter Cup and since doing well at NCAAs. I'd like to think he could advance with a good couple days. He is in a position where in the next quad he will be in a good position to make the Olympic team. It's just that same old thing; you have to hit sets.”

Moldauer and Van Wicklen both won NCAA individual national titles to go along with OU's team title in 2016. Moldauer became just the second freshman in NCAA history to win the all-around competition and Van Wicklen claimed the national championship on floor.

2016 Sooner signee Matt Wenske will also be in competition this weekend. Wenske, one of the best junior gymnasts in the nation, claimed the all-around, still rings, vault and parallel-bars titles at the 2016 Men's Junior Olympic National Championships in early May.

“For Matt this is great,” Williams said. “He is playing with house money. He is ahead of the curve being a senior in high school and trying to make the senior national team right away.”

Competition will begin on Friday, June 3 at 6 p.m. CT. The second day of competition will take place Sunday, June 5 at noon CT. Both days of the event will be live streamed here, while Sunday's competition will be broadcast live on NBC starting at 1 p.m. CT and will also be available online through NBCLiveExtra.

The 18 gymnasts that move on to the Olympic Trials will consist of the top seven finishers in the all-around competition the top six competitors in national team points not in the top seven in the all-around, four gymnasts selected by the USAG Men's Program Committee and one gymnast selected by the national team coordinator.