Sooners Place Fourth at NCAA Championships

Saturday, April 15

University Park, Pa.

5 p.m. CT

University of Oklahoma

414.024

422.458

Stanford

Sooners Place Fourth at NCAA Championships

April 15, 2023 | Men's Gymnastics

NCAA Finals Results

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Competing in its 23rd consecutive NCAA Championship Finals, the Oklahoma men's gymnastics team notched a fourth-place finish with a team score of 414.024 Saturday night at Rec Hall. The Sooners finished behind Stanford (422.458), Michigan (419.889) and Illinois (415.590), and ahead of Nebraska (412.427) and Penn State (412.057).

Four Sooners secured All-America status Saturday night. Junior Zach Nunez finished second on pommel horse with a 14.333 and freshman Ignacio Yockers placed third on horse with a 14.266. Sophomore Emre Dodanli finished fourth on floor exercise with a 14.733 and senior Jack Freeman placed seventh on horizontal bar with a 13.900.

Oklahoma's 414.024 was its fifth score of 414 or better this season. Prior to the NCAA finals, Michigan's highest score of the season was 413.992 and Illinois' was 411.550.

"I'm just really proud these guys never gave up the fight," Oklahoma head coach Mark Williams said. "It's been a challenging year and some of the injuries sort of caught up with us a little bit, but in the end, we had a pretty good performance and never gave up. It wasn't entirely our night and it's easy to feel a little disappointed. But given what I know about how this season has gone, I'm really incredibly proud that we got to this place. We had a chance to be in the finals and compete for a national championship."

Oklahoma started the meet on floor exercise by registering a 70.665, its third-highest floor score of the season. Sophomore Brigham Frentheway began the rotation with a 13.900, and fifth-year senior Spencer Goodell and Dodanli capped it with respective 14.333 and 14.733 scores.

Nunez led the pommel horse event until the final competitor on the last rotation. The 14.333 was his sixth pommel score of 14.3 or better this season. Yockers anchored the rotation with his 14.266, and OU posted the second-highest pommel team score of the meet (67.464).

Goodell anchored still rings with a 14.033, following a career high-tying 13.700 by junior Dan Simmons and a 13.700 by senior Alan Camillus. Goodell also anchored vault with a 14.466. He notched 14 or better on three of his four events. All five Sooners – fifth-year senior Vitaliy Guimaraes (14.166), Nunez (14.400), Simmons (14.533), Dodanli (14.566) and Goodell – scored better than 14.1 on vault.

Oklahoma notched a 68.532 on parallel bars, paced by a 14.133 from Nunez and a 14.333 from Dodanli. The Sooners scored a 67.266 on high bar, anchored by Freeman's 13.900.

"There were still great performances out there," Williams said. "We have a fairly large senior group to bid farewell after this. I'm very thankful for all the work that those guys have put in for the last five years for most of them, and four years for some of them. It's just hard. We've had finals where we feel like we're a little bit more in the mix. But if I looked at just the way the scores went, we really were right at our averages for the year, and we had a pretty high hit percentage. So, I really can't complain too much. I'm pretty happy with these guys. Another is season in the books, and we look forward to another opportunity next year."

Oklahoma has now finished among the top four in each NCAA Championship since 2000, Williams' first season as head coach. Prior to this season, the Sooners had finished among the top three each year since 2001.