Sooners and Cornhuskers face off in Lincoln for top-10 dual Sunday afternoon.
March 2, 2013
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Sophomore Dylan Akers
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QUICK PREVIEW
After a two straight weeks at home, the No. 3 University of Oklahoma
men's gymnastics team returns to the road for a dual meet at No. 10 Nebraska
Sunday at 1 p.m. The Sooners (11-1, 2-1 MPSF) and Cornhuskers (4-6, 0-2 Big
Ten) have met twice this season, with OU claiming victory in both meets against
its former conference foe. The rare afternoon contest marks the debut of the
new five-up, five-count scoring system, where all five gymnasts' scores on each
event will count towards a team's final score.
FIVE THINGS TO KNOW
• Oklahoma is 12-1 after a 440.300-420.050 victory over No. 12 Air
Force on Feb. 23 and are ranked third in the latest GymInfo national rankings
with a 441.717 three-score average. Nebraska is 4-6 and ranked 10th with a 423.533.
• OU holds a 2-0 record over NU this season, having met at the Rocky Mountain
Open on Jan. 12 and the Stanford Open on Jan. 19. The Sooners won the season-opening
event in Colorado with a 423.500, just ahead of the Cornhuskers' second-place
finish score of 418.900. The following weekend in California, Oklahoma posted
a 433.450 to finish second, while Nebraska finished fourth with a 421.900.
• In the team event rankings, OU is ranked in the top seven on each event, while
NU is ranked in the top 10 on every event. Oklahoma boasts a No. 2 ranking on
floor (75.400) and pommel horse (73.700) and is third on still rings (75.067),
parallel bars (73.233) and high bar (72.783). Nebraska is ranked between seventh
and tenth on every event, with its highest ranking of seventh on pommel horse
(70.250).
• With OU's depth its strength, Oklahoma is represented 18 times in the individual
event rankings. Eleven Sooners are ranked in the top 20 at least once, while
ten earned top-10 rankings and five are ranked on at least two events. Sophomores
Alec Robin and Jacoby Rubin are each ranked on three events. Robin is fifth
on floor, sixth on the all-around and 14th on high bar, and Rubin is eighth
on high bar, tied for 14th on pommel horse and 19th on still rings.
• Oklahoma head coach Mark Williams was a gymnast on Nebraska's national championship
teams in 1979 and 1980. An All-American and Big Eight champion on high bar in
1978, he helped NU win another national title in 1981 as a graduate assistant
coach.
LIVE RESULTS AND UPDATES
Live stats will be available at Huskers.com.
Behind-the-scenes updates and photos from Lincoln will be available on Twitter
at @SoonerGymnasts, on Facebook at Facebook.com/SoonerGymnasts,
and on Instagram.com/OU_MGymnastics.
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Jacoby Rubin | So. | All-Around
• Won the all-around with a career-high
86.900 against Air Force on Feb. 23
• Posted a career high 15.150 on pommel horse,
the highest score on the event against AFA
• Ranked eighth nationaly on high bar, tied for
14th on pommel horse and 19th on rings
• Will compete in the all-around for the second-straight
week at Nebraska.
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HEAD COACH MARK WILLIAMS ON FACING NEBRASKA
"The important thing about Sunday's competition is the change of format, where
we'll have five-up, five-count for the first time this season. It could change
things a lot, knowing that the five guys you put up have to do a good job, and
any mistakes are going to count towards the team score. We have to look carefully
at the lineup and who we're prepared to have out there and be committed once
we do. It's always good meeting Nebraska, they've been a traditional rival through
the years, and they do a good job of putting on a good competition. They're
not in the same conference any more, but they're one of the teams we expect
to see at the NCAA Championships. We don't want to put ourselves in a bad position
coming out flat on the road. We've had two good home meets, so we want to continue
to push our team score. A Sunday afternoon meet will be a little tough, but
we'll use it to our advantage in the respect that we're getting closer to the
championship meet at the end of the month, so we definitely want to be making
improvements every week to get closer to that goal."
SCOUTING NO. 10 NEBRASKA
• No. 10 Nebraska is 4-6 on the season and 0-2 in the Big Ten. The Cornhuskers
posted a 425.400, their highest score of the season in a 1.900 point loss at
Iowa on Feb. 23. Sunday's meet marks just the second home meet of the season
for the Huskers, who defeated UIC at home on Jan. 27 by 25.800 points.
• Nebraska is ranked in the top 10 nationally in all six events. They sit in
seventh on pommel horse (70.250), eighth on parallel bars (70.600), ninth on
vault (72.600), floor (72.567) and high bar (70.300) and tenth on rings (70.417).
• The Cornhuskers are represented four times in the individual rankings. Sophomore
Grant Perdue is tied for 11th on vault with a 14.933 and tied for 12th on floor
with a 15.100. Junior C.J. Schaaf ranks 11th on the all-around with an 81.850
three-score average.
• Nebraska is led by third-year head coach Chuck Chmelka. An assistant since
1986, he took over his alma mater in 2009. Chmelka and OU head coach Mark Williams
were teammates on NU's national championship teams in 1979 and `80, and Williams
was a graduate assistant over Chmelka in `81. In 1981, Chmelka was a member
of the U.S. national team.
GYMINFO NATIONAL RANKINGS
Oklahoma is third in this week's GymInfo
National Top 10 Rankings, just 0.033 behind No. 2 Michigan. Rankings are
determined by averaging a team's top three scores through the first seven weeks
of competition. Past and future OU opponents are in bold.
| 1. Penn State (447.083) |
6. Minnesota (432.417) |
| 2. Michigan (441.750) |
7. Illinois (431.767) |
| 3. OKLAHOMA (441.717) |
8. Iowa (426.233) |
| 4. Ohio State (435.317) |
9. California (425.633) |
| 5. Stanford (434.317) |
10. Nebraska (423.533) |
FORMER SOONER JACOB DALTON WINS AMERICAN CUP
• Former OU gymnast and 2012 Olympian Jacob Dalton won the 2013 AT&T American
Cup Saturday with an all-around score of 89.398 in Worcester, Mass. Competing
against eight of the best international gymnasts, Dalton also won the floor, rings,
vault and high bar titles. It was his first World Cup all-around crown. He finished
third in the all-around and came in first on floor and tied for first on parallel
bars at the 2011 American Cup.
• Dalton won the all-around title at the 2013 Winter Cup Challenge in Las Vegas,
Nev. with a two-day score of 173.250 on Feb. 7 and 9. He also won individual event
titles on floor and rings with two-day totals of 31.250 and 29.650, respectively.
• Dalton, a 2012 Olympian, was a four-time national champion in three seasons
at Oklahoma. He earned 13 All-American honors and helped OU win two conference
titles. He has been a U.S. senior national team member since 2009 and has won
four U.S. championships.
LAST TIME OUT: VS. NO. 12 AIR FORCE
• Led by record-high team performances on two events, No. 3 Oklahoma team posted
its highest winning margin of the season with a 440.300-420.050 victory over conference
rival and No. 12 Air Force on Feb. 23 at the OU Field House.
• The Sooners won every team event and five of the six individual titles as OU
improved to 12-1 on the season and extended their regular season home winning
streak to 21 meets.
• In his first career appearance in the all-around, sophomore Jacoby Rubin claimed
the title with an 86.900. Fellow sophomore Alec Robin also competed in the all-around
and finished second with an 86.000, a career high.
UP NEXT
No. 3 Oklahoma is on the road again at No. 2 Michigan Saturday at 6 p.m. CT for
a dual meet featuring two of the top three teams in the country.
