Men's Gymnastics at Oklahoma by Lou Burkel
1/30/2001 12:00:00 AM | Men's Gymnastics
Because OU had a televised basketball game, the meet was moved from the Lloyd Noble Center to Bart Conner Gymnastics Academy and held in conjunction with a very big junior boy's meet. It turned out to be a great environment. The place was packed and we had junior gymnasts sitting right up next to some of the apparatus. I feel like we should try to do this more often -- expose the junior boys to collegiate gymnastics.
Our team did very well. Coach Jim Miller and I both felt like this was the best early season performance we have ever had at Oklahoma and perhaps at any early away meet. We reached our team goal of 24 hits (exactly), so we are heading in the right direction.
I would like to single out a couple of gymnasts who did an exceptional job: C2C (junior) Stephen Sistare, who has competed very rarely due to injuries, hit all three of his routines (FX, R & V) solidly and stuck every dismount. C2C James Hayes also hit 100% on his four events (FX, PH, PB, HB). C3C (sophomore) Aaron Jackson (48.70) and C1C (senior) Levi Torkelson (48.25) finished second and third in the all around.
We improved solidly on all events, but still have a lot of work to do on pommel horse and high bar where we hit only three of six sets. And we did end up counting four missed routines in our team score. 1/29/01 National Rankings: No. 2 Oklahoma, No. 12 Army, No. 13 Air Force, No. 14 Illinois-Chicago, No. 15 Navy
This Thursday we depart early for Chicago. We have a coed meet with Univ. of Illinois at Chicago at 7 PM on Friday, Feb 2, and the men meet UIC again on Sunday at 2 PM while the women meet Northern Illinois also at 2 PM. Both teams will have to be at their best to have a chance to win these meets. The men's goal for each meet is to hit four of six routines on each event. If we can do that we will be very competitive. Please stay in touch check our website regularly. Hope to see you in Chicago.
