Jack Freeman appeared more tense than usual.
The junior had just witnessed redshirt junior Cesar Gracia fall during his routine, a recurring theme throughout the Sooners' underwhelming night.
Freeman, who prides himself on being a fun loving, lighthearted teammate, felt the pressure to perform just minutes before his scheduled routine. As the Palestine, Texas, native watched freshman teammate Raydel Gamboa nail his performance, however, his confidence was restored and he felt enabled to be a reassuring presence himself.
“To have Cesar do an uncharacteristic mistake and then to have Raydel pick it up… it was awesome,” Freeman said. “That’s so motivating for me… to see Raydel stay calm, cool and collected and just do his set.”
Freeman capitalized off the added motivation by landing a 14.033, the third-highest high bar performance of the night. His hit routine capped a night where, despite uncharacteristic struggles, the No. 2 Sooners advanced to the NCAA Championship with a third place score of 407.290.
No. 3 Michigan and No. 6 Ohio State edged Oklahoma for first and second place, respectively. Senior Josh Corona took home first place on vault along with sophomore Zach Nunez claiming first on pommel horse.
𝙎𝙚𝙚 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙩𝙤𝙢𝙤𝙧𝙧𝙤𝙬‼️#Sooners qualify for the NCAA Championship Finals with a score of 407.290!#GymU pic.twitter.com/Igx1e72oQF
— Oklahoma Men's Gym (@OU_MGymnastics) April 16, 2022
The Sooners began the night on floor, where freshman Emre Dodanli got the Sooners off to a hot start with a 14.133. Freeman, along with senior captains Spencer Goodell and Vitaliy Guimaraes, each tallied 14.000-plus scores as Oklahoma cruised to a first place score of 70.531.
Pommel horse served as an achilles heel for the Sooners, as both junior Alan Camillus and redshirt junior Braden Collier suffered season-low sub-12.100 scores. Despite Guimaraes and Nunez picking up slack, the Sooners sank to third place. OU will be forced to overcome those blunders when it begins Saturday’s championship on the event.
“Tomorrow we’re starting on horse, so that’ll be make or break,” OU coach Mark Williams said. “We’ll go get it over with… and maybe if we rock pommel horse tomorrow we’ll be good to go.”
The Sooners found consistency on still rings, though, with all five gymnasts scoring between a 13.400 and a 13.700. But with no standout routines, OU saw its third place lead slip to a very narrow 201.828-201.562 over fourth place Navy.
Despite the mid-meet scare, Freeman knew to step up and calm his frantic teammates.
“There’s a lot of people that… (are) super tense and I think that messes them up a little bit,” Freeman said. “I want to try and show them that it’s OK to be relaxed at such a big competition. I think that’s one of my roles, to kind of play on the line a little bit… (and) distract people from themselves so they don’t get so tense and locked up.
“It’s always fun to poke at (Mark Williams) a little bit and see if I can get him to break character. That’s one thing I really enjoy doing.”
Dodanli delivered the Sooners a boost by registering a 14.600 on vault, only to be one-upped by Corona’s event-high 14.633. Benas then landed a 14.500, skyrocketing OU to within two points of first place.
On parallel bars in the fifth rotation, Nunez continued a solid showing by nabbing a 13.700. Benas stepped up and notched a 14.266, giving OU a 340.258 heading into the final rotation.
𝙍𝙤𝙤𝙠𝙞𝙚 𝙤𝙛 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙔𝙚𝙖𝙧 ? 🤔𝐑𝐨𝐨𝐤𝐢𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐘𝐞𝐚𝐫. Fuzzy Benas notches a Sooner-high 14.266 on p-bars to end the rotation!#GymU pic.twitter.com/jVIzCzAoFR
— Oklahoma Men's Gym (@OU_MGymnastics) April 16, 2022
Gracia’s stumble on high bar was the last of the night for the Sooners, who used stellar performances from Gamboa and Freeman to secure a third-place finish.
“Jack put an exclamation point by sticking the landing,” Williams said. “(After) having a good high bar routine in that situation… we knew we’d make it.”
The Sooners lackadaisical performance comes on the same day that No. 1 Stanford registered a 426.325, the highest team score in the NCAA on record this season. The Cardinal enter Saturday’s meet as a heavy favorite to claim their third consecutive title.
“They’re very good,” Williams said. “They have to struggle (because) they’ve got the difficulty on all the other teams. It’s gonna be very hard for any of us to catch them.”
Williams and the Sooners hope to dethrone Stanford when they face them in the national championship at 6 p.m CT on April 16 in Norman.
“There are no team ramifications (from tonight),” Williams said. “It’s all a new life tomorrow. We’ll put in our A-lineup and we’ll just have to go after it.”
