Three Sooners Win Titles, OU Finishes Runner-Up at NCAA Championships

Saturday, April 18

Champaign, Ill.

6 p.m. CT

University of Oklahoma

328.495

329.825

Stanford

The Oklahoma men's gymnastics team hoists its NCAA runner-up trophy on the podium following the 2026 NCAA Men's Gymnastics Championships at State Farm Center in Champaign, Ill.

Photo by: Morgan Givens/University of Oklahoma

Three Sooners Win Titles, OU Finishes Runner-Up at NCAA Championships

April 19, 2026 | Men's Gymnastics

Final Results

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – Senior Kelton Christiansen, junior Tyler Flores and freshman Nathan Roman won individual national championships and the Oklahoma men's gymnastics team finished as national runners-up at the 2026 NCAA Men's Gymnastics Championships Saturday evening at University of Illinois' State Farm Center. The Sooners scored 328.495 to place just 1.33 points behind Stanford's 329.825.

Christiansen won the horizontal bar title with his 14.400, Roman won parallel bars with his career-high 14.800 in the first rotation and Flores won vault with his 14.433. Flores tied Stanford Jun Iwai for the vault title. All three Sooners stuck their dismounts to win their first individual national championships.

Oklahoma ended the season with a 23-1 record and registered its fifth score of 328.400 or better on Saturday night, while Stanford posted its season-high score by nearly two points.

OU placed ahead of 2025 national champion Michigan (324.857), Nebraska (324.662), Illinois (322.224) and Ohio State (316.093).

The Sooners earned their first national runner-up finish since 2022 after competing in their 26th consecutive NCAA Finals. OU has finished first or second in 20 of the last 25 national championships and placed among the top three in 24 of the last 25, dating back to the 2001 season.

"We gave it everything we had," Oklahoma head coach Mark Williams said. "We made a run at it, and our guys just weren't going to give up, even on vault in the last event. They pretty much maxed out what they could do there. We hit 100% on high bar and pommel horse, so I really couldn't ask for a better performance all the way around. I want to congratulate Stanford. They had to be at their best to win tonight.

"I'm proud of my team. That's what we worked for all season, was to put up a big number and have a fun night. Still have work to do for next year. We're hosting the championships in Norman and we're already thinking about what we need to do to win a championship at home."

Christiansen, a former walk-on from Arvada, Colo., who was selected as a team captain prior to the season, performed one of the best high bar routines of his career to claim the national title Saturday. He turned in a 9.0 execution on his 5.3 difficulty score to tie his highest total under the new code of points, which took effect following the 2024 Olympics (also scored 14.400 against Nebraska on Feb. 28). He is the second straight Sooner to win the high bar national title, following Emre Dodanli's win in 2025.

Roman, a Poway, Calif., product whose parallel bars routine carried the highest difficulty in the meet (5.4), notched an incredible 9.300 execution score. His 14.800 was the highest p-bars score in the nation, surpassing his own 14.700 set at the MPSF Championship on April 4. Roman is OU's first parallel bars national champion since Yul Moldauer in 2018.

Flores, who is from Mountain House, Calif., anchored Oklahoma's vault team on the final rotation of the meet and was nearly perfect with his 9.533 execution score. He won OU's first vault national title since Gage Dyer in 2021.

Oklahoma won three individual national titles for the first time since 2018, when Moldauer claimed four (all-around, floor exercise, vault and parallel bars). This was the first season in which three different Sooners have won a national title since 1979 (Bart Conner – floor exercise; Leslie Moore – vault; Mike Wilson – floor exercise).

Redshirt freshman Colby Aranda completed his first season with the Sooners after spending last year as a member of the OU club gymnastics team by winning bronze on pommel horse with a 14.133 total.

Nine Sooners combined to earn 11 All-America honors by finishing among the top 8 on their respective events: Christiansen (high bar), Flores (vault), Roman (parallel bars), Aranda (pommel horse), redshirt senior Fuzzy Benas (vault, parallel bars), senior Ignacio Yockers (pommel horse), junior Tas Hajdu (still rings, parallel bars), sophomore Francisco Velez Belendez (still rings) and freshman Sasha Bogonosiuk (vault). Three of the team's four competitors on vault and parallel bars earned All-America status.

Benas completes his collegiate career with 10 All-America accolades, which ranks as the eighth most in program history. OU has produced 57 individual national champions and 381 All-Americans.

Oklahoma began the meet on parallel bars and posted a 55.366, its second-highest score of the season, but sat in third place after the first rotation in which Stanford began on vault and Nebraska on floor exercise. The Sooners moved into second place following their 54.432 high bar rotation, but fell back to third at the midway point (53.699 on floor exercise) and fourth after the fourth rotation (54.132 on pommel horse).

OU made up ground in the fifth rotation to move back into third after posting a 54.200 on still rings, but trailed Stanford by 2.797 points going to the final rotation. The Sooners put up a season-high 56.666 on vault to close the gap to the final margin of 1.33 points.

The University of Oklahoma will serve as host of the 2027 NCAA Men's Gymnastics Championships, which will be held at Lloyd Noble Center.

For updates and more information on Oklahoma men's gymnastics, follow the Sooners on Twitter and Instagram (@OU_MGymnastics) and like Oklahoma Men's Gymnastics on Facebook.