Oklahoma Men’s Gymnastics Rebound with Win Over Buckeyes
COLUMBUS, Ohio – The second-ranked OU men’s gymnastics team claimed its seventh win over a top 10 team with a win over fifth-ranked Ohio State at St. John’s Arena, Saturday. The win moves Oklahoma to a 10-1 record with a 4-0 mark against Big Ten opponents.
“I think that we have improved as a whole from last weekend but we are still not where I want to be,” said head coach Mark Williams. “We have one more regular season event left to go and I think we have done well up to this point but we just have to fix a few more things.”
The Sooners 359.250 posted their third highest score of the season, while Ohio State (7-6, Big Ten 3-4) finished the meet with a 354.900.
Oklahoma claimed four of the six team event titles on the day with wins on floor (62.550), vault (63.950), parallel bars (58.200) and high bar (57.550).
Leading the Sooners was junior Steven Legendre with an all-around score of 89.500. The U. S. National Team member also took home an individual event titles on vault (16.050), and a share of the floor (16.000) title with freshman Jacob Dalton.
“Overall, it was pretty good but we could have done a better job,” said Legendre. “Were looking for clean events right now in the season but I think it was a good fight and I’m proud of the guys.”
Highlighting the meet for OU was a career tying score from senior Corey English on pommel horse (14.950) in his first place finish on the apparatus. Last week, English posted a career high on parallel bars with a score of 15.250.
“Corey did great on both of the events he did,” added Williams. “The little things are coming together and we are not all the way there but we are getting close.”
The Sooners will face another rival from the Big Ten conference on the road with a trip to the Penn State on March 20.
Since 2000, the Sooners and Nittany Lions and have combined to win the last eight titles. OU leads the pack with five national championships while Penn State has claimed three championship (2000, 2004, 2007).
Updated 03-14-2010
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