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Sunday, February 12, 2012

Men's gymnastics wins two over spring break

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Sophomore Patrick Piscitelli throws shirts out to the crowd before an OU men's gymnastics home meet on Feb. 27 in McCasland Field House. The Sooners would defeat Nebraska and the University of Texas club team to win on Senior Night in Norman. Ricky Ly/The Daily

While most students hit the road for spring break, the second-ranked OU men’s gymnastics team was busy wrapping up its 10th and 11th wins of the season.

Hitting the road for the fifth time the Sooners (11-1, 4-1 MPSF) bounced back from their only loss of the season to defeat No. 5 Ohio State on March 13 in Columbus, Ohio.

On Senior Day for the Buckeyes the Sooners easily outpaced their hosts by posting a 359.250-354.900 victory, and bumping their record to 10-1.

Junior Steven Legendre claimed his third-straight all-around title with a score of 89.500, matching freshman teammate Jacob Dalton for the most on the team this year.

Legendre also had a part in OU’s two other individual honors as he took home the title on vault (16.050), and a share of the floor exercise title with Dalton (16.000).

While OU earned its eighth road win in Columbus, the Sooners had little time off as they headed to University Park, Pa., to take on their ninth top-10 opponent of 2010.

Competing Saturday night against No. 8 Penn State, the Sooner squad recorded their 11th victory in the season finale for both teams.

OU matched its score from the previous weekend by leaving the Nittany Lions’ home arena with a 359.250-354.450 win.

In beating Penn State, OU also improved its mark against Big Ten opponents to 5-0 and finished the season undefeated against Big Ten rivals.

Saturday’s meet also marked the second-consecutive outing in which the Sooners won on an opponent’s Senior Day, as the Nittany Lions said goodbye to four seniors on their squad.

Freshman Alex Naddour claimed his first career all-around title with a score of 87.600, making him the fourth Sooner to earn the all-around honor.

The Sooners have claimed every all-around title so far with Legendre (3), Dalton (3), redshirt junior Ian Jackson (1) and Naddour all winning on separate occasions.

In addition to his all-around title, Naddour also won the individual event title on pommel horse by scoring a 15.700, a program-best score on the apparatus.

The personal-best score marks the third time this season that the freshman out of Gilbert, Ariz., has broken the OU record on pommel horse.

Senior Corey English (parallel bars) and Legendre (vault and floor exercise) continued the winning ways for the team as the duo combined to claim three more individual event honors.

The Sooners will next compete in their conference championships on April 3, which will be hosted by OU for the first time since 2005.

OU will be seeking its 10th conference title out of the last 12 years as the Sooners will compete against several top-ranked teams, including No. 1 Stanford, OU’s lone conqueror this year.

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