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Oklahoma Wins NCAA Men's Gymnastics Championships Title STANFORD, Calif. -- No. 2 Oklahoma captured the 2008 National Collegiate Men's Gymnastics Championships title edging out top-seeded host Stanford in a close race by .450 points. Stanford was behind Oklahoma nearly nine points at the end of the sixth rotation, but finished the sixth rotation at rings only 2.5 points behind and in second place. Stanford moved on to vault, one of their best events hoping to complete a come-from behind victory, but Oklahoma was able to hold on to their lead, finishing on the rings and recording a final score of 363.2. Stanford finished in second with 362.75, while No. 5 Illinois finished in third with 358.75. Last year's defending champions and this year's Big Ten champions, Penn State, finished in fourth place. Casey Sandy of Penn State captured the All-Around title (91.350) with 2008 Nissen-Emery recipient, Jonathan Horton, taking the runner-up spot (90.950) for Oklahoma. California finished fifth (356.150). Entering their last event in third place, Michigan ended the competition in sixth place (354.250) on pommel horse. Qualifying for the individual finals in floor from Oklahoma is Steven Legendre, Jonathan Horton, Russel Czeschin, and Reed Pitts; from Stanford is Josh Dixon, and Greg Ter-Zakhariants; from Ohio State is Jimmy Wickham; from Illinois is Paul Ruggeri; and from Penn State is Casey Sandy and Santiago Lopez. Qualifying for the individual finals in pommel horse from California is Tim McNeill; from Illinois is Daniel Ribiero; from Penn State is Casey Sandy; from Stanford is Sho Nakamori, Greg Ter-Zakhariants and Kyle Oi; from Ohio State is Andy Saurber; from Minnesota is Kit Beikmann; from Oklahoma is Jason Laughton; and from Michigan is David Chan. Qualifying for the individual finals in rings from Oklahoma is Jonathan Horton; from Penn State is Tommy Ramos and Casey Sandy; from Stanford is Bryant Hadden and David Sender; from Illinois is Tyler Yamauchi and Jon Drollinger; from Michigan is Phillip Goldberg, from California is Tyler Block; and from Air Force is Greg Stine. Qualifying for individual finals in vault from Minnesota is Mitchell Mays and Cole Storer; from Oklahoma is Steven Legendre; from Ohio State is Jimmy Wickham; from Stanford is David Sender and Josh Dixon; from Penn State is Casey Sandy; from Illinois is Paul Ruggeri and Tyler Yamauchi; and from Michigan is Mel Santander. Qualifying for individual finals in p-bars from California is Tim McNeill, Colin Christ, Kyle Brady and Kyson Bunthuwong; from Oklahoma is Jonathan Horton and Chris Brooks; from Stanford is Sho Nakamori; from Illinois is Brian Liscovitz and Wes Haagensen; and from Penn State is Casey Sandy. Qualifying for individual finals in high bar from Stanford is Dylan Carney, Josh Dixon, Alex Buscaglia, and David Sender; from Oklahoma is Steven Legendre and Chris Brooks; from Michigan is Thomas Kelley; from Minnesota is Cole Storer; and from Illinois is Ross Bradley and Paul Ruggeri. The individual event finals will be held Saturday night at 7:00 p.m. in the Maples Pavilion on the campus of Stanford University. All-Around Scores:
Casey Sandy (Penn State): 91.350
Jonathan Horton (Oklahoma): 90.950
Sho Nakamori (Stanford): 90.150
David Sender (Stanford): 89.100
Tim McNeill (California): 88.400
Jake Bateman (Ohio State): 87.700
Greg Stine (Air Force) 86.800
Kyson Bunthuwong (California) 86.65
Wes Haagensen (Illinois) 86.5
Tai Lee (Ohio State) 83.8
Andrew Stover (UIC) 82.95
Curtis Kleffman (Iowa) 82.4
Luke Vexler (Temple) 82.05
Post Session Quotes All-Around Gymnastics Champion from Penn State Casey Sandy and Coach Randy Jepson Casey: "I thought it was a good day today, I was actually capable of actually being a little bit more cleaner but I’m pretty happy with how it ended up tonight." Coach: " Not good enough, we just weren’t sharp enough and clean enough. We had a much better performance in the Big 10. Didn’t miss a lot just weren’t sharp enough and I think that’s a good lesson especially for our younger guys. It’s not just hitting the routines, but you really got to be sharp in the championships." Casey: "Last year I had a lot of problems with injuries, I twisted my ankle so I couldn’t do floor and vault, I was just blessed this year there wasn’t anything too major. Happy with how it played out." Being at Stanford? Coach: "We knew what we were going into, we just weren’t sharp enough. " Olympics? Casey: "I’m going to take next week off, catch up on school, couple days off in the gym but that’s about it. Keep going until August, and hopefully I’ll be in better shape by then." NCAA National Champion Head Coach Mark Williams and Taqiy Abdullah-Simmons and Jonathan Horton Coach: "We’re thrilled. Have to give props to Stanford. Tested us right down to the last event, made us have to earn it and raise our performances to another level. Can’t be more proud of these two guys to my left, the way they finished their careers tonight. Just had a special feeling this weekend, It’s going to be hard to say goodbye to these guys. Very thankful for the effort from my team." Jonathan: "Incredible competition. Definitely have to give credit to Stanford, they were an unbelievable team tonight. They put their hearts out there, so did we, just thankful we had a great performance and ended up on top. Very thankful for my team, a lot of times I put pressure on myself to come through in everything, but tonight I had some mistakes and those guys, my team was incredible tonight, a lot of guys came through." Taqiy: " Tremendous competition, Stanford had a great competition. They’re classy gymnasts and it was great, kudos to Illinois. I’m just extremely excited about this, because I wasn’t on tonight at all, but it was a team competition and that’s what we’ve stressed the whole year, not one individual is greater than the team. " Emotion in last event with tons of pressure? Coach: "Those two guys were going to give us a chance. Tough to match up ring scores to vault scores. I knew John was going to do a more difficult routine tonight which might give us a bump up. In the end these two guys made the difference. I would’ve been happy with this team, win or lose, but we’ve worked really hard to be national champions. Sometimes it’s just about going out there and having fun." Taqiy: "Ending on rings?couldn’t have picked a more solid event going into it. Embrace it, enjoy every moment of it, because this team won’t ever be back out on the floor again together." Jonathan: "Going into that event, you build up a ton of anger, it’s one of those events where if you don’t psych yourself out that you want it SO bad, you’re not going to be strong enough to do it and I think that’s what we did tonight. We did some of the best ring routines we’ve ever done. And once you jump up on those rings and you have that fury in your eyes and you want it so bad, it happens a lot easier, that adrenaline is pumping. That was the first ring routine that at the end I wasn’t tired at all because I had so much adrenaline going and it was so much fun to be up there in that handstand before my dismount, thinking 'I’m going to stick this, and I’m going to give my team a shot.’ We’ve all had to do our job. If any of us had made a mistake then we wouldn’t have won.
Session II - Thursday, April 17 - Team Qualifiers Stanford
Summary Here... California
Summary Here... | 