Sooners Set for Home Opener vs. Air Force/Illinois

Saturday, January 28

Norman, Okla.

6 p.m.

University of Oklahoma

Air Force

Tickets

Photo by: Austin Carriere

Sooners Set for Home Opener vs. Air Force/Illinois

January 27, 2023 | Men's Gymnastics

Watch Live Live Results Meet Notes

THE MEET

No. 2 Oklahoma plays host to No. 7 Illinois and No. 8 Air Force in its home opener Saturday night at McCasland Field House. The meet will begin at 6 p.m., and will be televised via SoonerVision on ESPN+ with Chad McKee and Peter Daggett calling the action. Live scoring will be available via OUStats.com.

TICKETS & PROMOTIONS

Tickets for Saturday's meet can be purchased for $5 or $7. Fans holding a ticket to the OU men's basketball game against Alabama on Saturday afternoon and gain free admission to the men's gym meet with the basketball ticket.

Saturday is OU's mental health awareness meet. The team will wear t-shirts during warmups and videos with gymnasts promoting mental health will be shown throughout the meet.

OU students in attendance can enter a raffle to win a TV, a Theragun and Beats headphones.

FOLLOW ALONG

The meet will be televised via SoonerVision on ESPN+ with Chad McKee and Peter Daggett calling the action. Live scoring will be available via OUStats.com.

LAST TIME OUT

Oklahoma placed second at the season-opening Rocky Mountain Open on last weekend at Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo.

The Sooners posted a 411.850 total score to first-place Stanford's 420.100. Nebraska (405.300) took third, Michigan (398.900) placed fourth while Air Force (397.400) and Arizona State (381.450) rounded out the competition in fifth and sixth, respectively.

As a team, Oklahoma won the floor exercise event title with a 69.550 and tied for the top spot on high bar with a 69.050. Junior Zach Nunez claimed the pommel horse event title with a 14.050 set, while the Sooners took home six top-five individual finishes across the six events.

OU tallied a total of 67.450 on parallel bars, and was led by super senior captain Vitality Guimaraes' 14.050 and fellow senior captain Morgan Seyler's career-best 14.000. On high bar, Oklahoma put up its third-highest score of the meet with a 69.050 to claim a share of the event title. Senior Jack Freeman scored a 14.250, to tie for fifth place overall. Two more Sooners went 14.000-plus in sophomore Raydel Gamboa (14.100) and freshman Kelton Christiansen (14.000)

On floor, OU put up its second-highest score of the night (69.550) to take the event title. All five gymnasts tallied scores of 13.500 or better, led by Freeman's 14.250 that placed second at the meet. Guimaraes put up a 14.050 that was fifth overall while fellow super senior Spencer Goodell scored 13.950 for a sixth-place finish. The Sooners scored 67.400 on pommel horse, highlighted by Nunez's meet-winning 14.050 set.

On still rings, Oklahoma scored 66.300 led by Guimaraes' 13.900 tally that placed fifth at the meet. OU put up its highest event score of the meet with a 72.100 on vault, its first 70-plus event score of the season. Four of the Sooners five vaults scored 14.000 or better, led by matching 14.700's from Guimaraes and sophomore Emre Dodanli. Morgan Seyler helped with a 14.600 while junior Dan Simmons chipped in a 14.150.

With the second-place finish, the Sooners have placed in the top two at the annual Rocky Mountain Open 23 of the last 24 seasons.

INTRODUCING THE SOONERS

Oklahoma returns a trio of fifth-year super seniors in Spencer Goodell, Vitaliy Guimaraes, and Morgan Seyler, as well as redshirt seniors Braden Collier and Cesar Gracia and true seniors Alan Camillus and Jack Freeman.

The Sooners also return juniors Zach Nunez and Dan Simmons and sophomores Fuzzy Benas, Emre Dodanli, Brigham Frentheway, Raydel Gamboa, Nikolai Kolesnikov and Cailen Walker.

New to the roster this season are freshmen Leo Koike of Saitama Prefecture, Japan, Adriel Perales of Tucson, Ariz., and Ignacio Yockers of Jenks, Okla.

UPCOMING SCHEDULE

This weekend marks the first of three straight home meets for Oklahoma in the friendly confines of McCasland Field House.

Following this weekend's meet, OU will host Division I varsity newcomer Simpson College on Feb. 4 at 6 p.m. and host Stanford and William & Mary on Feb. 11 at 6 p.m.

OU returns to the road Feb. 17 for a dual meet at Nebraska before the Winter Cup break. Winter Cup will be held Feb. 24-26 in Louisville, Ky.

The Sooners return home for a matchup against Michigan on March 4 at 6 p.m., travel to Columbus, Ohio, on March 11 to face Ohio State and Penn State before closing the regular season at California on March 18.

The MPSF Championship will be held April 1 in Colorado Springs, Colo. The NCAA qualifier and Championships will be held April 14-15 in University Park, Pa.

HISTORY AND TRADITION

Oklahoma has won 12 national championships, tied for most in NCAA history (tied with Penn State), including nine national titles since 2000. The Sooners have finished first or second in 19 or the last 21 NCAA Championships, or every championship held since 2001 (does not count the 2020 championship canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Mark Williams has led nine different teams to a national title over the course of his 23 seasons as head coach of the Sooners. OU has won an NCAA championship held in Norman three times: 2002, 2006 and 2015.

The Sooners last won an NCAA championship in 2018 in Chicago, Ill., capping a run of four consecutive national titles (2015-18). The Sooners have claimed second place in three straight championships: 2019, '21 and '22.