No. 1 vs. No. 2, Sooners Travel to Stanford

No. 1/1 Oklahoma vs. No. 2/2 Stanford

March 4 | 6 p.m. CT | Palo Alto, Calif. | Burnham Pavilion & Ford Center

MATCHUP AT A GLANCE
	Sooners	Cardinal
Ranking	No. 1	No. 2
Season High	433.200	423.600
3-Score Avg.	430.067	422.467
Floor Avg.	70.867	72.133
Pommel Horse Avg.	71.067	68.783
Rings Avg.	73.317	70.633
Vault Avg.	73.850	71.983
Parallel Bars Avg.	72.183	70.700
High Bar Avg.	72.150	70.333

NOTES AND NUMBERS FOR MEET SIX

THE MEET

The No. 1-ranked Oklahoma men's gymnastics team is set for perhaps its biggest regular season challenge as it travels to Palo Alto, Calif., to take on No. 2 Stanford in a meet slated for a 6 p.m. CT start Saturday. The meet will be held in “five-up, five-count” format, meaning all individual scores will count toward the team score. A live stream is available here.

WINTER CUP SUCCESS

Oklahoma made serious waves at the 2017 Winter Cup two weeks ago. Sophomore Yul Moldauer won the all-around competition with a two-day score of 171.750 to become the first Sooner to win the event since two-time Olympian Jake Dalton did so in 2011. Senior co-captain Allan Bower placed third while junior Hunter Justus placed eighth to join Moldauer on the U.S. Senior National Team. Moldauer and Bower each make their second national team while Justus makes his first. In addition to the three current Sooners, four alumni, Chris Brooks, Dalton, Alex Naddour and Kanji Oyama, were also chosen for the national team, giving OU seven of the 15 total national team members.

INTERNATIONAL ASSIGNMENTS

Moldauer will represent the U.S. alongside Stanford's Akash Modi at the 2017 AT&T American Cup in Newark, N.J., on the same day as the Sooners' and Cardinal's meet. The event is the nation's most prestigious international invitational and is part of the International Gymnastics Federation's all-around World Cup series. Moldauer will be one of just nine gymnasts in the field.

Fellow national team member Allan Bower will get his chance to wear red, white and blue two weeks later when he represents the U.S. at the World Cup in Stuttgart, Germany, on March 19. The event is the second of three events in the World Cup Series, the American Cup being the first. These events are the highest level of men's gymnastics in non-Olympic years and participation and success in them helps athletes qualify for World Championship and Olympic teams in those cycles.

STREAKING

The Sooners have won or finished first in every meet they have competed in since placing second at the 2014 NCAA team finals. In that span they have racked up 60 victories, the most consecutive wins in program history and the most since piling up 52 wins from 2002 to 2004.

No. 1 vs. No. 2

A top-two showdown between OU and Stanford is nothing new in collegiate gymnastics. The Sooners and Cardinal faced off three times as No. 1 and No. 2, respectively, in 2016 with the Sooners winning each contest (in Norman, at the MPSF Championships and the NCAA Championships). Oklahoma last fell to Stanford on Jan 19, 2013 in Palo Alto, topping the Cardinal 13 times since then.

Senior Alex Powarzynski on rings in OU's home win over Air Force on Saturday. Powarzynski won two event titles (VT, PB) in helping OU to a team mark of 425.550.

UP NEXT

Oklahoma's schedule is grueling in the month of March. The Sooners return to Norman to host No. 4 Ohio State at McCasland on March 11 and then host No. 3 Illinois on March 18 in a meet that will serve as senior night. Both remaining home meets are slated for 6:50 p.m. CT starts.

CODE BREAKERS

Even with scoring down under the new code of points, the Sooners are still racking up big numbers. Oklahoma is the only team this season to top the 425-point mark, having done so in each of its five meets this season, including twice scoring better than 430. Oklahoma's five team scores so far this year are the five highest marks by any team this season. With individual scores of 15 or better becoming scarce across the nation, the Sooners have put up 17 such marks in their five meets, including seven from sophomore, reigning NCAA all-around champion and Winter Cup champion Yul Moldauer.

SCORING CHANGE

A big storyline in 2017 will be changes made to the code of points used to score routines.

“The code of points has changed so there are only four special requirements on each apparatus instead of five,” Williams said. “Each special requirement is half a point. Basically they have combined some element groups and reduced the overall requirement. Typically we have said that a really good score is a 14.500 to a 15.000. We're going to see that same routine score between a 14.000 and a 14.500. A lot of good gymnasts are going to be doing routines that are in the high 13s. The team score is going to be affected and each individual score is going to be about a half a point lower.”

Colin Van Wicklen competed in the all-around for the first time this season in the Sooners' 425.550 – 394.850 home win over Air Force on Saturday. For his efforts he was named the NCAA and MPSF Gymnast of the Week. A Sooner gymnast has swept the weekly awards after four of Oklahoma's five meets this season.

LET IT R3IGN

Oklahoma is chasing a third consecutive national championship in 2017 after completing back-to-back undefeated title runs in 2015 and 2016. The Sooners have repeated as national champions three times under Williams but have never won three in a row. The last program to accomplish that feat was Nebraska, which won five straight from 1979 to 1983. Williams was part of those Cornhusker teams as student-athlete and then as a graduate assistant. Three or more consecutive titles has only happened two other times in NCAA history (Penn State, 1959-1961; Illinois, 1939-1942).

MOLDAUER SHINES

Yul Moldauer has been perhaps the best gymnast in the nation this season. He was named the NCAA Gymnast of the Week in three of four weeks from Jan. 31 to Feb. 2, including after his win at Winter Cup. He currently ranks first in the nation in the all-around with a 3-score average of 87.617, first on floor (14.850), sixth on pommel horse (14.633), first on rings (15.100), tied sixth on vault (14.800), first on parallel bars (15.500) and tied tenth on high bar (14.383). He has posted seven scores of 15.000 or better so far this year.

BOWER POWER

Senior co-captain Allan Bower opened his season with a bang at the Rocky Mountain Open. The Chandler, Ariz., native posted a nation-leading all-around mark of 88.750 at the Rocky Mountain Open and was named the NCAA and MPSF Gymnast of the Week for his efforts. Despite dealing with a serious finger injury, Bower ranks third in the all-around (86.217), first on pommel horse (15.150), sixth on rings (14.750) and third on vault (14.867).

IMPACT FRESHMEN

OU welcomes a pair of talented freshmen for 2017 in Matt Wenske and Tanner Justus. At the 2016 U.S. Championships Wenske tied Sooner great and two-time Olympian Jake Dalton for the event title on vault as a senior in high school. Justus finished first in his age group on vault at the 2013 and 2014 Men's Junior Olympic National Championships. He currently leads the nation on vault with a 3-score average of 15.000. Wenske has missed the last three meets with a knee injury.

No. 1 vs. No. 2, Sooners Travel to Stanford