OU Set for Rocky Mountain Open

THE MEET

• No. 1 Oklahoma travels to Colorado Springs, Colo., for the Rocky Mountain Open on Saturday. The meet is set for 7 p.m. CT and will be held in the Air Force Academy's Cadet West Gym. The Sooners will compete against Air Force, Nebraska, Simpson, Stanford and Arizona State's club program.

• Fans attending the Rocky Mountain Open will need to preregister for entry to the Academy. Click here for complete details and to register.

• Oklahoma won against Air Force on Sunday in Norman (318.200 to 299.000). The Sooners will face Stanford (Feb. 8 in Norman), Simpson (Feb. 15 in Norman) and Nebraska (Feb. 28 in Berkeley, Calif.) again during the regular season. The MPSF Championship will also be held at the Air Force Academy on April 5.

• The Rocky Mountain Open is a Winter Cup qualifying event. The top two finishers in the all-around automatically qualify, while gymnasts can qualify on single events through a petition process.

WATCH/FOLLOW

• The meet will be streamed on Air Force's YouTube page, and live scoring will be available via StatBroadcast.

• Information will be available via @OU_MGymnastics on X.

STICKS

• Following Sunday's meet, the Sooners return home to McCasland Field House to face Illinois on Saturday, Jan. 25 at 5:45 p.m. (first routine at 6 p.m.). Tickets for the meet are available for $7 for adults and $5 for youth and seniors. It is Twisters Night, and the first 100 fans through the doors can receive a free Dusty Davis-style old school OU logo cap (worn in the original "Twister" movie) and the National Weather Center will have a tornado safety information table. Fans can also take advantage of $2 beer, soda and popcorn.

• Oklahoma is ranked No. 1 in the national rankings this week after its 318.200 score against Air Force at McCasland Field House on Sunday. With last weekend's season-opening results, the Sooners have been ranked No. 1 at some point in every season since 2001.

• The Sooners scored better than 50.000 on all six events in their season opener, the only program in the country to do so during opening weekend. OU posted a 54.250 on floor exercise, 51.650 on pommel horse, 53.700 on still rings, 55.850 on vault, 52.100 on parallel bars and 51.650 on horizontal bar (the team's total score included a one-point deduction for an injury substitution during the high bar rotation). In a Monday night meet with California that was not counted for the opening weekend results, Stanford also scored 50-plus on all six events and posted a 318.450 team total.

• Senior Emre Dodanli and fifth-year senior Zach Nunez were selected as captains for the 2025 season as selected by their teammates and coaches.

• The Sooners swept the MPSF awards this week. Senior Brigham Frentheway was named MPSF Gymnast of the Week after registering a four-score total of 54.500 in winning the floor exercise title and finishing in the top three on each of his events. He notched a 13.700 to anchor floor exercise and followed with a career-high 13.450 on rings, anchored OU's vault rotation with a 14.200 to place second, then closed with a 13.150 on high bar. Junior Ignacio Yockers was named both the CGA and MPSF Specialist of the Week. He won the pommel horse title with a 14.450, which was the second-highest score nationally during the first weekend (by 0.050 points). He also scored 12.750 on parallel bars and 12.300 on horizontal bar. His high bar routine was his first ever in a collegiate meet, and he competed on the event as an alternate after an injury substitution during the rotation. Redshirt freshman Arthur Ballon was named MPSF Freshman of the Week. Ballon made his collegiate debut on Sunday, and hit a 14.300 to win the vault title. He also scored 13.550 on floor exercise in his first routine, and closed the meet with a 12.700 on high bar.

• Oklahoma returns to the roster all four gymnasts who earned All-America honors at the NCAA Championships: Dodanli (floor exercise, parallel bars), redshirt junior Fuzzy Benas (all-around, vault, parallel bars) and sophomores Max Bereznev (vault) and Nico Hamilton (floor exercise). Additionally, Benas (AA, p-bars), Dodanli (FX, VT, HB), Hamilton (FX), Nunez (PH), juniors Kelton Christiansen (high bar) and junior Ignacio Yockers (PH) and sophomore Tas Hajdu (SR) earned regular season All-America honors from the CGA. Dodanli and Christiansen did not compete in the season opener, but are slated to be in OU's lineup at the Rocky Mountain Open on Saturday night.

• OU was ranked No. 3 in the preseason national poll, the same spot it finished the 2024 NCAA Finals. Reigning national champion Stanford is ranked No. 1 and Michigan is No. 2, while Nebraska is No. 4 and Illinois is No. 5, the same order of finish as last season's NCAA finals.

LAST TIME OUT

• Six different Sooners won event titles as Oklahoma opened the 2025 campaign with a 318.200 to 299.000 win over Air Force on Sunday afternoon at McCasland Field House.

• Senior Brigham Frentheway won the floor exercise title with a 13.700, junior Ignacio Yockers won the pommel horse title with a 14.450, senior Matthew Burgoyne won still rings with a 13.700, redshirt freshman Arthur Ballon won vault with a 14.300, sophomore Tyler Flores won parallel bars with a 13.350 and redshirt freshman Brandon Zepeda-Orth won horizontal bar with a 13.500.

• Oklahoma swept all six team event titles, scoring higher than 50.000 on every event. OU scored 54.250 on floor exercise, 51.650 on pommel horse, 53.700 on still rings, 55.850 on vault, 52.100 on parallel bars and 51.650 on horizontal bar. OU's total score included a one-point deduction for an injury substitution. Redshirt sophomore Leo Koike was injured during his high bar routine and was replaced in the lineup by Yockers. The Sooners competed Sunday without any of their four returning All-Americans from the 2024 NCAA Finals (redshirt junior Fuzzy Benas, senior Emre Dodanli and sophomores Max Bereznev and Nico Hamilton) or reigning MPSF high bar champion junior Kelton Christiansen, who were not in the lineup due to injury or injury recovery.

• This season, all NCAA men's gymnastics meets feature four-up, four-count competition. The 2025 campaign is also the first of the new Olympic quad under FIG's updated code of points, featuring updated skill values and routine structure. Most routines (except vault) require eight skills, rather than the 10 required previously. The changes result in lower scores for both individual routines and team totals than in recent years.

THE MEET

WATCH/FOLLOW

STICKS

LAST TIME OUT

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Arthur Ballon

Fuzzy Benas

Max Bereznev

Matthew Burgoyne

Kelton Christiansen

Emre Dodanli

Tyler Flores

Brigham Frentheway

Tas Hajdu

Nico Hamilton

Leo Koike

Zach Nunez

Ignacio Yockers

Brandon Zepeda-Orth

Sponsors

University of Oklahoma Athletics