Photo by Jacob Wood/University of Oklahoma

OU Athletics Communications

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – Senior Brigham Frentheway won the floor exercise title with his 14.000 and the Oklahoma men’s gymnastics team posted a 327.200 to narrowly finish second behind Stanford’s 328.850 in the Rocky Mountain Open Saturday night at Cadet West Gym on the Air Force Academy campus.

The Sooners finished second among the five NCAA programs at the meet, ahead of Nebraska (320.450), Air Force (311.550) and Simpson College (291.150). A total of seven teams and several individuals competed at the Rocky Mountain Open, a Winter Cup qualifying event. The other two teams in the competition were GymACT club programs Arizona State (285.750) and Rocky Mountain Mavericks (274.700).

“I was pleased with our performance,” Oklahoma head coach Mark Williams said. “As a qualifying event for Winter Cup, it was a little bit slower than we would’ve liked for it to have been, but the guys were able to pace themselves a put together a pretty good performance overall. We look forward to getting back home and putting on another good event against the University of Illinois on Saturday night.”

Oklahoma scored nine points higher than its 318.200 team total in the season opener vs. Air Force on Sunday at McCasland Field House, and notched higher team scores on all six events as compared to the meet last week. The Sooners posted a 54.750 on floor exercise, 52.450 on pommel horse, 55.750 on still rings, 56.950 on vault, 53.300 on parallel bars and 54.000 on horizontal bar. OU’s scores on floor, vault and high bar led the meet.

Five Sooners finished on the podium Saturday night. Frentheway won floor exercise, junior Ignacio Yockers placed second on pommel horse (14.250), sophomore Tas Hajdu finished second on still rings with a career high score (14.250), senior Emre Dodanli tied for third on vault (14.300) and junior Kelton Christiansen placed second on horizontal bar (13.800). Dodanli and Christiansen competed Saturday night for the first time this season after missing the opener due to injury or injury recovery, and their respective podium scores came in their first competitive events of the year.

Oklahoma started the meet on rings and Frentheway led off with a 13.800, followed by a 13.900 by senior Matthew Burgoyne. Hajdu bested his previous career high by one-tenth with his 14.250, and freshman Francisco Velez Belendez anchored with a 13.800.

All four vaulters registered scores of 14.000 or higher and execution scores of at least 9.35, led by Dodanli’s 14.300 (9.5 execution) in the anchor spot. Sophomore Tyler Flores and redshirt freshman Arthur Ballon started with a pair of 14.250 scores and Frentheway followed with a 14.150.

On parallel bars, Burgoyne notched a career-high 13.150 in the leadoff spot, Yockers posted a 13.400, Flores scored a team-high 13.550 and Hajdu hit a 13.200 in his first collegiate p-bars routine. Redshirt freshman Brandon Zepeda-Orth led off on high bar with a 13.200 and Frentheway followed with a 13.400. Christiansen scored his team-high 13.800 and Dodanli anchored with a 13.600.

Burgoyne led off the floor exercise rotation with a 13.650 and Ballon posted a 13.400 before Frentheway notched his meet-high 14.000 with a 9.0 execution score. Dodanli anchored the rotation with a 13.700. Christiansen started for OU on pommel horse with a 12.850, fifth-year senior Zach Nunez posted a 13.850 in the third spot and Yockers closed the meet for the Sooners with his 14.250.

Oklahoma returns to McCasland Field House next Saturday, Jan. 25 to face Illinois. Fans are encouraged to arrive early for introductions at 5:45 p.m. and the first routine will start at 6 p.m. Tickets are available for just $7 ($5 for youth and seniors) and can be purchased through the OU Athletics Ticket Office.

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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