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OU Gymnastics: Oklahoma Tops Ohio State, Arizona State in Front of Record Crowd

The largest crowd at any men's college event this season watched as the Sooners rolled in a massive performance by Colin Flores and his teammates.

John E. Hoover

OU Gymnastics: Oklahoma Tops Ohio State, Arizona State in Front of Record Crowd
OU Gymnastics: Oklahoma Tops Ohio State, Arizona State in Front of Record Crowd /

By OU Media Relations 

NORMAN – Six gymnasts won individual titles and Oklahoma fans set a new attendance record as the No. 2-ranked Oklahoma men’s gymnastics team beat No. 6 Ohio State and Arizona state on Saturday night at McCasland Field House.

OU scored a 411.500 to outpace the Buckeyes (400.600) and Sun Devils (379.000) in front of a record crowd of 2,111 on the program’s annual Cleveland Night.

Freshman Colin Flores won the all-around with a score of 80.300 and won parallel bars with his 14.200. Freshman Max Bereznev tied for the vault title with his 15.000, which also ties for the highest vault score nationally this season. Junior Emre Dodanli won floor exercise with a 14.500, his eighth event title in four meets this season. Sophomore Ignacio Yockers won pommel horse with his 14.700 and sophomore Adriel Perales-Valencia won still rings with his 13.750.

The Sooners registered the top team score on pommel horse (68.700), still rings (66.550), parallel bars (69.900) and horizontal bar (66.050). OU also notched a season-high 72.200 on vault and scored a 68.100 on floor exercise. Ohio State’s team score was its highest this season and its 72.700 vault score was the highest in the nation so far this year.

The attendance figure, which included a record 651 OU students, is the highest men’s gymnastics attendance in the nation this season.

“I’m pleased with the bounce back from last weekend,” Oklahoma head coach Mark Williams said. “Our parallel bars team was awesome. They did a really great job. It certainly looks like we got back on track there. We were maybe a little slow getting started at the beginning, but the last half of the meet we had great energy in the building and guys had really great performances. I was really happy with the job that they did today. We still haven’t hit our full stride yet, but I’m pretty happy with the overall performance.”

Oklahoma turned in a big performance on vault, led by career-highs from Bereznev (15.000) Dodanli (14.900) and Flores (14.550). OU, which led by 3.55 points after three rotations, built a 13-point advantage after its vault rotation.

Three Sooners scored above 14.000 on parallel bars, paced by Flores’ 14.200 in the leadoff position. Redshirt sophomore Fuzzy Benas and Dodanli stuck their landings to close out the rotation with a pair of 14.150 scores. All five OU gymnasts stuck their landing on the high bar to finish the meet. Sophomore Kelton Christiansen led the way with his 13.750.

Dodanli anchored Oklahoma on floor exercise with his meet-high 14.500, while freshman Nico Hamilton scored a 13.750 on his first collegiate floor routine. Senior Zach Nunez notched a 14.650 and Yockers posted his meet-high 14.700 to lead the way on pommel horse. Perales-Valencia paced OU on rings with his 13.750, while senior Zachary Marckx scored a 13.650 in the anchor position.

Oklahoma is unbeaten against its last 73 opponents, encompassing 62 consecutive meets, inside McCasland Field House, dating back to the 2007 season.

“Having Cleveland Night, it’s the best meet of the year,” Williams said. “There’s such energy in the building, the kids are into it and it’s the biggest crowd of the year. Congratulations to them for helping us break our all-time attendance record. We’d love to have them come back the rest of the season. The conference meet should be a barnburner, so we’re hoping we can build on that and have even more people in here when Stanford comes to town.”

Oklahoma will compete at McCasland Field House again next Saturday against MPSF foe California. The meet is set for a 1:45 p.m. start. 

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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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