CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – Junior Emre Dodanli won all three of his events and junior Brigham Frentheway set three career highs to lead the Oklahoma men’s gymnastics team, but the No. 1 Sooners fell at No. 5 Illinois 407.200 to 406.650 in their first true road meet of the season Sunday at Huff Hall.
Dodanli won floor exercise with a 14.500, vault with a career-high 14.750 and horizontal bar with a 14.100, while sophomore Ignacio Yockers won pommel horse with a 14.250. Frentheway competed on four events, notching career highs on floor (14.300 to place second), vault (14.400) and high bar (13.800).
The Sooners set a season high on vault with their 72.150 (to Illinois’ 70.200) and scored higher than the Illini on pommel horse (68.750 to 66.900) and high bar (67.850 to 67.250). Illinois, however, scored better than OU on floor (69.100 to 68.100), still rings (66.900 to 66.450) and parallel bars (66.850 to 63.350). Oklahoma held a 2.350-point lead after its big vault rotation, but trailed by 1.150 points after the parallel bars rotation and was unable to make up the difference on horizontal bar.
“I’m really disappointed. We just gave it away on parallel bars,” Oklahoma head coach Mark Williams said. “Emre had a pretty good day. We chose not to have him do all of his events, and probably the combination of Fuzzy (Benas) not being here and Emre not being on parallel bars kind of sunk us. I’m very disappointed with our performance and we’re definitely going to work to correct that for next weekend and hopefully not have it happen again.”
Frentheway hit a 14.300 in the second position floor and Dodanli anchored with his 14.500, but Oklahoma trailed by one point after the first rotation as the teams competed head-to-head Sunday. The Sooners made up the difference and took a 0.850 lead after the pommel horse rotation. Freshman Tyler Flores notched his second straight 14+ on the event, scoring a 14.000, and Yockers put up a meet-high 14.250.
The Sooners held a 203.300 to 202.900 lead at the midway point after the still rings rotation. Junior Matt Burgoyne scored a career-high 13.450 and freshman Tas Hajdu anchored with a 13.850. OU extended its lead after vault as all five gymnasts scored 14.200 or better on the event. Tyler Flores started with a 14.300 on his first career vault, Colin Flores followed with a 14.200, Frentheway scored a 14.400, freshman Max Bereznev put up a 14.500 and Dodanli scored a meet-best 14.750.
On parallel bars, Colin Flores started with a 13.600 and freshman Nico Hamilton notched a 13.800 on his first collegiate routine. Flores began high bar with a 13.200 and Frentheway followed with his 13.800. Sophomore Kelton Christiansen scored a 13.900, his second-highest score of the season on the event, and Dodanli once again anchored with a meet-high 14.100.
Oklahoma returns home to McCasland Field House on Saturday at 5:45 p.m. for a tri-meet against Ohio State and Arizona State. The meet is OU’s annual Cleveland Elementary Night and also Safari Night, featuring a petting zoo with exotic animals, a balloon artist, face painters and a t-shirt giveaway, as well as $2 beers, sodas and popcorn.
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.
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