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Oklahoma Sweeps Conference Awards

Zach Nunez, Dan Simmons and Ignacio Yockers took home this week's top gymnastics honors from the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation.

John E. Hoover

Oklahoma Sweeps Conference Awards
Oklahoma Sweeps Conference Awards /

By OU Media Relations

The Oklahoma men’s gymnastics team swept Mountain Pacific Sports Federation weekly awards this week, the conference office announced Tuesday. 

Junior Zach Nunez was named Gymnast of the Week, junior Dan Simmons was named Specialist of the Week and freshman Ignacio Yockers was named Freshman of the Week.

Nunez registered the second-highest all-around score in the nation this season (83.400) to lead Oklahoma to a victory over Simpson College Saturday night. He was the first Sooner to go all-around during NCAA competition this season, posting season-best scores on floor (13.800), pommel horse (14.400) and parallel bars (14.100). The Cypress, TX, product competed on rings (13.500) and high bar (13.450) for the first time this season. Nunez posted the fourth-highest pommel horse score in the nation this season and ranks second nationally in pommel horse average.

Simmons, also a Cypress, TX, product, stuck his vault for a 15.050, notching OU’s first 15-plus score of the season. It was the best vault score in the nation this week and the second-highest vault score nationally this season. The 15.050 was also Simmons’ best vault of the season by nearly a full point (0.900). He was also named Inside Gymnastics' Gymnast of the Week.

Yockers, a product of Tulsa, was named the conference’s top freshman for the second straight week. He posted a 14.600 on pommel horse Saturday, his second-highest pommel score of the season. The score ranks as third-best nationally this year (he also holds the second-best score of 14.800, set last week). Yockers ranks third nationally in pommel horse average (14.200).

Oklahoma has now won four MPSF weekly awards this season. Yockers was also named MPSF Freshman of the Week last week. This is the first career MPSF weekly award for both Nunez and Simmons.

The No. 2-ranked Sooners play host to No. 1 Stanford and No. 11 William & Mary on Saturday at McCasland Field House. The meet is set to begin at 5:45 p.m. and will be televised via SoonerVision on ESPN+.

Published
John E. Hoover
JOHN E. HOOVER

John is an award-winning journalist whose work spans five decades in Oklahoma, with multiple state, regional and national awards as a sportswriter at various newspapers. During his newspaper career, John covered the Dallas Cowboys, the Kansas City Chiefs, the Oklahoma Sooners, the Oklahoma State Cowboys, the Arkansas Razorbacks and much more. In 2016, John changed careers, migrating into radio and launching a YouTube channel, and has built a successful independent media company, DanCam Media. From there, John has written under the banners of Sporting News, Sports Illustrated, Fan Nation and a handful of local and national magazines while hosting daily sports talk radio shows in Oklahoma City, Tulsa and statewide. John has also spoken on Capitol Hill in Oklahoma City in a successful effort to put more certified athletic trainers in Oklahoma public high schools. Among the dozens of awards he has won, John most cherishes his national "Beat Writer of the Year" from the Associated Press Sports Editors, Oklahoma's "Best Sports Column" from the Society of Professional Journalists, and Two "Excellence in Sports Medicine Reporting" Awards from the National Athletic Trainers Association. John holds a bachelor's degree in Mass Communications from East Central University in Ada, OK. Born and raised in North Pole, Alaska, John played football and wrote for the school paper at Ada High School in Ada, OK. He enjoys books, movies and travel, and lives in Broken Arrow, OK, with his wife and two kids.

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