Sooners Head West for Showdown with Stanford, Cal

Saturday, March 16

Palo Alto, Calif.

6 p.m.

University of Oklahoma

Stanford

Photo by: Andrew Marsh/University of Oklahoma

Sooners Head West for Showdown with Stanford, Cal

March 15, 2024 | Men's Gymnastics

Watch Live Scoring Meet Notes

THE MEET

• No. 1 Oklahoma competes for the final time during the regular season when it travels to the west coast for a tri-meet against No. 2 Stanford and No. 8 California. The meet, which pits the top two teams and three of the top eight teams in the nation, is set for a 6 p.m. CT start at Burnham Pavilion in Stanford, Calif.

• This will be the first meeting between the Sooners and the Cardinal this season, and OU's first trip to Palo Alto since the 2022 campaign (410.250 to 405.450 Stanford win). Oklahoma defeated California 417.800 to 400.800 on Feb. 10 at McCasland Field House. Last season, OU competed against Stanford four times last season, going 1-3. The Sooners claimed a win in Norman and the Cardinal finished ahead of OU at the Rocky Mountain Open, MPSF Championship and the NCAA Championships.

WATCH/FOLLOW

• The meet will be streamed via Virti.us and live scoring will be available via Virti.us.

STICKS

• Following Saturday's meet, the Sooners will be off for two weeks before playing host to the MPSF Championship on April 6 at McCasland Field House with Air Force, Cal and Stanford. Tickets for the MPSF Championship are available at $5 for youth, $10 for adults and free for students of the participating schools, and can be purchased at SoonerSports.com.

• The Sooners have won 40 individual event titles and 37 team event titles in eight meets this season (including the top score on high bar in all eight meets). Junior Emre Dodanli paces OU with 10 event victories in his six meets, while sophomore Ignacio Yockers has claimed seven event titles and redshirt sophomore Fuzzy Benas has three. Dodanli, who led the team with seven event titles in 2023, currently has the most individual event medals since Benas won 12 in 2022.

• On five occasions this season, all five Sooners in the vault lineup have scored 14.000 or better: at Illinois (Jan. 28), vs. California (Feb. 10), at Simpson (Feb. 17), at Michigan (March 2) and vs. Navy (March 9). OU has scored better than 72.000 on vault six times this season and no lower than 70.950 (coincidentally, that was at the Rocky Mountain Open, when it scored a nation-leading season high of 420.350 in the team all-around).

• Freshman Nico Hamilton was named MPSF Freshman of the Week and Yockers was named MPSF Specialist of the Week after leading the Sooners to a win over Navy. This was the second straight week in which Hamilton claimed the MPSF freshman award, and it was Yockers' fourth MPSF weekly award this season and the eighth of his career. Oklahoma gymnasts have now won 17 MPSF weekly awards this season.

• Hamilton won the floor exercise title, placed second on parallel bars and performed his first collegiate high bar routine in the meet against Navy. He anchored OU on floor and posted a 14.350 to claim his first career event title. He set a new career high on p-bars with his 13.850 routine and finished up by notching a clean high bar routine for a 13.000. He recorded a 9.05 execution score on floor exercise and 9.1 on high bar. Yockers won the pommel horse and parallel bars event titles and set a career high on parallel bars in the meet. His 15.050 on pommel horse was his second 15-plus score of the season, and his 13.900 on p-bars was better than his previous best score by .250 points. He is one of only two gymnasts nationally to score 15 or better on pommel horse twice this season. His p-bars tally included a 9.1 execution score. His p-bars event title on Saturday was the first of his career on an event other than pommel horse.

• Dodanli has recorded the three highest floor exercise scores in the nation this season (15.250 at Rocky Mountain Open, 15.050 vs. Cal and 14.900 at Michigan), and is the first gymnast nationally to register a 15-plus score on floor since the 2021 season. His 15.250 was the highest floor score nationally since the 2021 NCAA Finals (15.266 by OU's Gage Dyer). Benas' 85.200 all-around score at the Rocky Mountain Open is the highest in the nation so far this season.

• Oklahoma has posted the top two team all-around scores in the nation this season: 420.350 at the Rocky Mountain Open on Jan. 20 and 417.800 vs. California on Feb. 10 in Norman, and is the only program with three scores of 415.000 or better this season (also a 415.300 vs. Navy on March 9 in Norman). Three OU opponents (Michigan, Cal and Ohio State) have posted their season high total against the Sooners, while Illinois notched its highest score of the season at the time of the meet.

• Oklahoma's 70.950 on high bar vs. Cal was its highest score on the event since posting a 71.150 on March 9, 2019, and its first 70-plus score on high bar since March 16, 2019 (70.100). Christiansen notched a career- and team-season high 14.700, which was OU's highest individual score on high bar since the 2019 season.

NATIONAL RANKINGS NOTES

• Oklahoma ranks first nationally as a team on floor exercise (70.133), pommel horse (69.717), vault (72.383) and high bar (68.933), as well as the all-around (414.217). The Sooners rank third nationally on parallel bars (68.217) and fifth on still rings (67.183).

• Junior Emre Dodanli ranks first nationally in floor exercise with his 14.900 four-score average. Freshman Nico Hamilton's 14.083 four-score average ranks fifth and fifth-year senior Jack Freeman's 14.050 average ranks 10th.

• Sophomore Ignacio Yockers ranks second on pommel horse with his 14.950 average and senior Zach Nunez follows in fourth with his 14.333 average. Freshman Tas Hajdu ranks ninth nationally on still rings with his 13.783 average.

• Freshman Max Bereznev ranks seventh on vault with his 14.633 average. Redshirt sophomore Fuzzy Benas follows in ninth with his 14.600 four-score average.

• Benas' 14.333 parallel bars average ranks second nationally. On high bar, sophomore Kelton Christiansen ranks second with his 14.200 four-score average, Freeman ranks third with his 14.167 average, Dodanli ranks fourth with a 14.117 average and Benas ranks ninth with a 13.800.

• Benas leads the nation in the individual all-around with his 82.317 average, which is comprised of an 85.200 at Rocky Mountain Open, and 83.350 vs. Cal and his 82.950 in the Winter Cup finals.

LAST TIME OUT

Ignacio Yockers won the pommel horse and parallel bars titles, and Oklahoma swept all six events in a 415.300 to 392.850 win over No. 9 Navy in front of a crowd of 1,124 at McCasland Field House.

On Senior Night, it was the underclassmen that claimed the six individual event titles. Yockers notched a 15.050 on pommel horse and a career-high 13.900 on parallel bars to increase his season total to nine event titles. The p-bars title was his first career medal on an event other than pommel horse.

Nico Hamilton won the floor exercise title with a 14.350, Adriel Perales-Valencia won still rings with a 13.850, Max Bereznev won vault with a 14.850 and Kelton Christiansen won horizontal bar with a 14.400.

OU's 415.300 was its second-highest team score in a home meet this season and third-highest score overall. The Sooners registered their second-highest scores of the season on pommel horse (70.750) and vault (72.600), and totaled 70.150 on floor exercise, 67.350 on still rings, 67.450 on parallel bars and 67.000 on high bar, outscoring Navy in every event.

Oklahoma, which also recognized its alumni during the meet, remained unbeaten against its last 75 opponents inside McCasland Field House since the 2007 season, a streak that encompasses 64 consecutive meets.

MPSF CHAMPIONSHIP TICKETS

The 2024 MPSF Men's Gymnastics Championship will be held April 6 at McCasland Field House. Tickets for the MPSF Men's Gymnastics Championship are available for just $10 for adult general admission and $5 for youth (ages 6-18) and seniors (55+) at SoonerSports.com. Group packages are available for groups of 10 or more at a discounted price by contacting the ticket office at (405) 325-2424.