Sooners Travel to Face Illinois Sunday

Sunday, January 28

Champaign, Ill.

4 p.m.

University of Oklahoma

Illinois

Photo by: Morgan Givens/University of Oklahoma

Sooners Travel to Face Illinois Sunday

January 27, 2024 | Men's Gymnastics

Big Ten Network Live Scoring Meet Notes

THE MEET

No. 1 Oklahoma travels to Champaign, Ill., this weekend to take on No. 5 Illinois. The meet is set begin at 4 p.m. CT Sunday in Huff Hall.

This will be the first meeting between the Sooners and Illini this season. OU defeated Illinois in Norman last January by a score of 405.400 to 404.450. The Illini placed third at NCAA finals (415.392), one spot ahead of Oklahoma (414.024).

The teams will compete head-to-head on each event this weekend, beginning on floor exercise and rotating in Olympic order.

FOLLOW ALONG

The meet will be televised on Big Ten Network and live scoring will be available via OUStats.com.

STICKS

• Following Sunday's meet, the Sooners return home for two straight weekends at McCasland Field House. Oklahoma will play host to Ohio State and Arizona State on Feb. 3 at 5:45 p.m. It will be OU's annual Cleveland Elementary Night, as well as Safari Night, featuring a petting zoo with exotic animals, a balloon artist, face painters and a t-shirt giveaway, as well as $2 beers, sodas and popcorn. Oklahoma will then face California at 1:45 p.m. on Feb. 10 at McCasland Field House.

• Oklahoma swept the MPSF awards this week and redshirt sophomore Fuzzy Benas was also named the CGA Gymnast of the Week. Benas was named the MPSF Gymnast of the Week after notching an 85.200 in the all-around at the Rocky Mountain Open, which included an event title on parallel bars and a career-high score of 14.800 on the event. Sophomore Ignacio Yockers was named MPSF Specialist of the Week after recording a meet-high 14.950 on pommel horse and a career-high 13.650 on parallel bars. Freshman Colin Flores was named MPSF Freshman of the Week after registering an 80.800 in the all-around, featuring career highs on five individual events, including a 14.200 on parallel bars.

• Oklahoma is ranked No. 1 nationally after the first three weeks of the 2024 campaign. The Sooners posted a 413.600 in their season opener on Jan. 13 and a 420.350 at the Rocky Mountain Open, which is the highest score nationally this season by almost seven points.

• Oklahoma's 420.350 score last weekend was not only the highest in the nation this season, but was the program's highest team score since the 2019 campaign. The last time OU scored higher than 420.350 was April 6, 2019 at the MPSF Championships (420.500). Benas' 85.200 individual all-around score was the highest by a Sooner since Yul Moldauer scored 88.300, also in 2019.

• Benas and Flores earned automatic qualification to Winter Cup with their top-three placement in the all-around on Jan. 20 at the Rocky Mountain Open. Winter Cup will be held Feb. 23-25 in Louisville, Ky. The full Winter Cup field, including individual event participants, will be announced at a later date.

• Oklahoma has scored better than 410.000 in nine of its last 10 meets, dating back to Feb. 11, 2023, including last season's NCAA Qualifier and NCAA Finals. OU has also scored 413.650 or better in each of its last four meets, dating back to the NCAA Championships last season.

• Fifth-year senior Jack Freeman and senior Dan Simmons were selected as senior captains for the 2024 season as voted by their teammates.

• Oklahoma returned all four gymnasts who earned All-America honors at the 2023 NCAA Championships: Freeman (high bar), Emre Dodanli (floor exercise), Zach Nunez (pommel horse) and Ignacio Yockers (pommel horse). Additionally, Dodanli (floor, vault), Freeman (floor, high bar), Nunez (pommel horse), Yockers (pommel horse), Kelton Christiansen (high bar) and Mac Seyler (pommel horse) earned regular season All-America honors from the CGA.

• Redshirt sophomore Fuzzy Benas, a 2022 All-American in the all-around and on vault and high bar as a freshman, returned after missing the 2023 season with injury. The Sooners also returned juniors Brigham Frentheway, Nikolai Kolesnikov and Cailen Walker, sophomore Adriel Perales-Valencia and redshirt freshman Leo Koike, who missed the 2023 season with injury.

• OU welcomed several newcomers to the roster, including seniors Matt Burgoyne and Zachary Marckx and freshmen Arthur Ballon, Max Bereznev, Colin Flores, Tyler Flores, Tas Hajdu and Nico Hamilton.

NATIONAL RANKINGS NOTES

• Oklahoma ranks first nationally as a team on floor exercise (70.025), pommel horse (69.800) and parallel bars (69.175), second on vault (71.525) and high bar (69.075) and third on still rings (67.875).

• Junior Emre Dodanli ranks first nationally in floor exercise with his 15.000 average. Fifth-year senior Jack Freeman is tied for third with his 14.300, redshirt sophomore Fuzzy Benas is fifth with his 14.100 and junior Matthew Burgoyne ranks 10th with his 13.950.

• Senior Zach Nunez ranks third nationally on pommel horse (14.525) and sophomore Ignacio Yockers ranks fifth (14.400), while freshman Tyler Flores ranks eighth (14.100).

• Freshman Tas Hajdu, who has won the still rings title in each of his first two collegiate meets, ranks sixth nationally on the event (14.125), while sophomore Adriel Perales-Valencia ranks 10th (13.725). Benas (14.575) and freshman Max Bereznev (14.525) rank fifth and sixth nationally on vault.

• Benas' 14.800 parallel bars score ranks second nationally, while Dodanli ranks fifth (14.300). Dodanli and Freeman are tied for third (14.100 average) and sophomore Kelton Christiansen ranks 10th (13.825).

• Benas also tops the all-around chart with his 85.200 recorded last weekend and Colin Flores ranks fifth nationally with his 80.800.

LAST TIME OUT

Fuzzy Benas scored an 85.200 in the all-around and Oklahoma swept every individual event on its way to a 420.350 team score and a win in the Rocky Mountain Open at Cadet West Gym on the Air Force Academy campus. The Sooners topped Nebraska (409.600) and Air Force (392.750), as well as club team Rocky Mountain Mavericks (353.600) in team scoring.

In addition to winning the all-around title, Benas claimed the parallel bars title with a career-high 14.800. Freshman Max Bereznev won vault with a career-high 14.550, senior Jack Freeman won horizontal bar with a 14.250, junior Emre Dodanli won floor exercise with a career-high 15.250, sophomore Ignacio Yockers won pommel horse with a 14.950 and freshman Tas Hajdu won still rings with a career-high 14.150.

Freshman Colin Flores also competed in the all-around, notching an 80.800 to place third. With their top-three placement in the all-around at the Rocky Mountain Open, Benas and Flores automatically qualify to Winter Cup, which will be held Feb. 23-25 in Louisville, Ky.

Oklahoma registered the highest score on five of the six events and better than 70 on four events. The Sooners started with a 70.950 on vault, then put up a 70.550 on parallel bars, 69.650 on high bar, 71.150 on floor, a 71.200 on pommel horse and a 67.850 on rings. OU's team total included a one-point deduction because a replacement gymnast was inserted on rings after an injury was sustained mid-routine.

In total, Oklahoma registered 18 scores of 14 or better in the meet. Four of those 14s came on vault, while OU notched three 14s on floor, pommel horse, parallel bars and high bar. By comparison, the Sooners tallied nine scores of 14 or better in the season opener.