OU to Face William & Mary, Greenville in Regular Season Finale

THE MEET

• No. 1 Oklahoma travels east this weekend for a tri-meet with No. 10 William & Mary and No. 11 Greenville on Saturday at Kaplan Arena in Williamsburg, Va. The meet is set to begin at 1 p.m. CT.

• The meet will be streamed with live video and live scoring via Virti.us, with OU alumnus Matt Wenske as part of the commentary team.

STICKS

• This is OU's first visit to Williamsburg since the 2021 season. The Sooners won that meet, 403.700 to 384.900. Oklahoma and William & Mary also met during the 2023 season in Norman (OU won 418.900 to 380.750). This is the second meeting this season between Oklahoma and Greenville. The Sooners topped the Panthers 329.100 to 308.800 in Norman on Feb. 8 in a meet that also included Stanford.

• Oklahoma has registered four of the top six and six of the top 17 team scores nationally this season. Its 330.700 against Illinois on Jan. 25 is the highest collegiate men's team score in the four-up, four-count meet format introduced for the 2025 season, while its 329.100 on Feb. 8 is the second highest team score of the season. Only Stanford (two) has at least one score of 327.200 or better (OU's fourth highest team total). The Sooners are ranked No. 1 for the seventh straight week and the eighth time in nine weeks this season. OU has been ranked No. 1 at some point in every season since 2001.

• This is OU's final meet of the regular season. Following Saturday's meet, Oklahoma is off for two weekends before traveling to Colorado Springs, Colo., for the MPSF Championship on April 5, hosted by the Air Force Academy. The NCAA Qualifier and Finals will be held April 18-19 in Ann Arbor, Mich.

• Senior Emre Dodanli was announced this week as one of seven finalists for the prestigious Nissen-Emery Award, which is presented annually to the year's outstanding senior collegiate gymnast. A senior captain at Oklahoma, Dodanli was the 2024 CGA Specialist of the Year, a five-time All-American and six-time Regular Season All-American and a 2024 Olympian. Dodanli is one of the most consistently high-performing gymnasts in the country over the last two years. As of March 10, he is ranked among the top 14 nationally in four-score average on three events, and he was the only gymnast ranked among the top 8 nationally on three events at the end of the 2024 campaign. He was the 2024 CGA Specialist of the Year and is a five-time All-American (FX [3x], VT, PB) and six-time CGA Regular Season All-American (FX [3x], VT [2x], HB) and a two-time MPSF floor exercise champion. He is also an Olympian, competing at the 2024 Paris games with his native Turkey.

• Redshirt junior Fuzzy Benas, the 2024 CGA Gymnast of the Year, missed OU's first five meets of the season while recovering from an injury sustained in the fall. He returned to the lineup in one event on Feb. 15 against Michigan and Simpson, winning the vault title with his stuck 14.350, then competed on vault and floor exercise at Winter Cup, and performed on floor, vault, parallel bars and high bar on Feb. 28 vs. Cal and Nebraska. He is expected to continue competing on more events this season as he works his way back into the lineup. Benas ended the 2024 regular season ranked first nationally in the all-around with an 82.663 NQA and won all-around bronze at the NCAA Championships.

• Senior Matthew Burgoyne was named the MPSF Gymnast of the Week and freshman Francisco Velez Belendez was named Freshman of the Week after their performance in leading the Sooners to wins over California and Nebraska on Feb. 28. Burgoyne registered career highs on floor exercise (14.100) and parallel bars (13.800), and scored 13.600 on rings. His three-score total of 41.500 was the highest of any three scores at the meet (among gymnasts who performed three or four routines). The Lansdale, Pa., product posted a 9.2 execution score on parallel bars and surpassed his previous career high by four-tenths to help the Sooners register a season-high 53.550 on p-bars. He also notched a 9.0 execution score on his floor routine to eclipse his previous career high by 0.15 points and help OU post a season-best 55.400 on floor. He stuck his dismount on both events and placed second on floor and third on p-bars. Velez Belendez scored 13.850 to place second on the event. This was the sixth time in the last seven meets that Velez Belendez has scored 13.800 or better on rings. He ranks second nationally on the event with his 14.100 three-score average.

• Mark Williams is in his 26th season as Oklahoma head coach. He has led the Sooners to 600 victories (600-58-1 [.911]), nine national championships and 18 MPSF conference titles since his first season in 2000.

NATIONAL RANKINGS NOTES

• Oklahoma stayed at No. 1 in the Week 9 national rankings following a weekend off from competition and a new season ranking method utilizing four scores. Teams' four-score averages are determined by taking their four highest scores, two of which must be from away meets, dropping the highest score and averaging the remaining three. OU's four-score average is 326.467. Stanford (324.600), Ohio State (321.383), Nebraska (321.317) and Penn State (320.700) round out the top five.

• Oklahoma is ranked in the top 5 on all six events and leads the nation on floor exercise (55.050), pommel horse (54.467), still rings (55.350) and horizontal bar (54.650). OU ranks third on vault (55.833) and fifth on parallel bars (53.000).

• Kelton Christiansen (13.850) and Emre Dodanli (13.833) rank first and second nationally on horizontal bar. Matthew Burgoyne (14.033) and Tas Hajdu (14.017) rank second and third nationally on still rings.

• Burgoyne (13.800) and Brigham Frentheway (13.767) are ranked sixth and seventh on floor and Arthur Ballon (13.650) is ranked ninth. Ignacio Yockers ranks fourth on pommel horse (14.333) and Zach Nunez ranks seventh (13.917). Francisco Velez Belendez (13.917) is ranked fifth and Frentheway is ranked ninth on rings (13.583).

• On vault, Frentheway (14.100) ranks ninth while Dodanli (14.083) ranks 12th. Colin Flores (13.300) ranks 13th on parallel bars. Brandon Zepeda-Orth is ranked seventh on high bar (13.617) and Frentheway is ranked 14th (13.367).

• In all, the Sooners hold 14 spots in the top 10 on the six apparatus, and 18 spots in the top 14. Dodanli is ranked among the top 14 in three of his events, Frentheway is ranked among the top 13 on all four of his events, Burgoyne ranks among the top 14 on all three of his events and Ballon is ranked in the top 14 on both of his events.

LAST TIME OUT

• Zach Nunez and Tas Hajdu won event titles and head coach Mark Williams registered his 600th victory at OU as the Sooners posted a 323.100 total to defeat No. 6 Nebraska (317.100) and No. 10 California (308.500) on Feb. 28 in Berkeley, Calif.

• Nunez anchored for OU on pommel horse in the first rotation, scoring a meet-high 13.950. Hajdu stuck his still rings dismount for a 14.050 to claim the event title. The Sooners notched season highs on floor exercise (55.300) and parallel bars (53.550), and scored 53.600 on pommel horse, 54.550 on rings, 51.950 on horizontal bar and 54.050 on vault.

• Oklahoma competed without some of its lineup regulars on Friday, providing opportunities for gymnasts to perform routines for the first or second time this season. Fuzzy Benas, who is working back from an injury, competed on four events for the first time this season. He competed on vault in OU's meet against Michigan and Simpson on Feb. 15, and on floor exercise and vault at Winter Cup last weekend.

• In all, Oklahoma registered nine stuck dismounts and set or tied 12 individual season highs (including season debuts) and three career-best marks.

HISTORY AND TRADITION

• Oklahoma has won 12 national championships (1977, '78, '91, 2002, '03, '05, '06, '08, '15, '16, '17, '18), tied for most in NCAA history (tied with Penn State), including nine national titles since 2000. The Sooners have finished first or second in 19 of the last 23 NCAA Championships, and have reached 24 consecutive NCAA finals, or every championship held since 2000 (does not count the 2020 championship canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic). OU has finished among the top 3 in 22 of the last 23 NCAA Championships held, dating back to the 2001 season.

• Mark Williams has led Oklahoma to nine national titles and 18 MPSF conference titles over the course of his 25 full seasons as head coach of the Sooners. OU won an NCAA championship held in Norman three times: 2002, 2006 and 2015.

• The Sooners last won an NCAA championship in 2018 in Chicago, Ill., capping a run of four consecutive national titles (2015-18), then claimed second place in three straight championships: 2019, '21 and '22.