Dan Simmons has never liked being in the floor rotation lineup when he competes for the Oklahoma men’s gymnastics team.
“I’ve always not really liked being in the floor lineup,” Simmons said. “It’s stressful for me.”
It’s only fitting that Simmons tied his career-high floor score with a 13.600 in his final regular season home meet at McCasland Field House on Saturday night.
“I was proud of myself for how I performed with my floor routine,” Simmons said. “I felt like I reached good heights with my landings and I am proud of how I was able to rise to the occasion and put up a solid performance.”
On a night where the Sooners honored five seniors, including Simmons, OU (8-2) jumped out to an early lead against Navy (2-1) and never looked back, dominating the Midshipmen 415.300-392.850.
In a meet where the Sooners won every event, the tone was set early with Simmons and the floor team.
Freshman Leo Koike led OU with a career-high tying 14.000. Then Simmons scored 13.600, followed by three scores of 14.000 or higher to round out the rotation and create an early 70.150-65.150 lead for the Sooners.
The fast start energized the McCasland crowd and ignited OU — which was vital to its performance.
“It’s great to have that kind of support that we have,” Williams said. “We had alumni and greats from the past back today which fired our guys up even more, which I think we needed after our performance last weekend. We feed off of the energy that our crowd provides and it’s certainly an advantage for us.”
The Sooners were able to respond after struggling on their rings performance against Michigan the week prior.
“At Michigan, we weren’t ourselves,” Williams said. “We made some uncharacteristic mistakes, which was aggravating.”
Oklahoma rebounded out the rings event with a 67.350, .350 points higher than the goal that Williams set for his team.
Freshman Max Bereznev scored a career-high 13.600, and sophomore Adriel Perales-Valencia scored a meet-high 13.850. Simmons, who was competing on the rings for the first time since injuring his shoulder earlier this season, scored a 13.300
“It was good to get through a routine safely and I stuck the dismount,” Simmons said. “So it’s only onward and upward from here.”
On a night where the final result of the meet was never in question, senior Jack Freeman and Simmons were able to sit and reflect on their time at OU.
“These past four years I’ve been collecting things from my past captains to allow me to be the best leader I can be this year,” Freeman said. “I’ve just been trying to instill the OU culture into our young guys. Always fight. Never give up. Embrace the hard times and be there for each other. This is more of a family than any other sports team.”
Simmons is also excited about the future of the team.
“It’s important to pass this legacy on to the next group of guys,” Simmons said. “They’re doing a heck of a job keeping that perseverance and competitive spirit alive. We have high standards and we just want to get that message across to the guys.”
As Simmons and Freeman walked out of the tunnel the sight of their teammates and their friends and families meant a little extra on Saturday.
“I didn’t really think that I was going to get emotional, but I definitely did,” Simmons said with a grin. “In our premeet talks with the team, we all talked about how our scores didn’t matter and we just wanted to do it all for each other. So it meant a lot to me to hear ‘captain’ one final time.”
For Williams, his two captains brought leadership to this team and has helped them to push through highs and lows of the season.
“Both guys have been strong, vocal leaders for us,” Williams said. “Both guys lead by example and both have been tremendous for our team. They’ve both really come into their own and provided a strong emotional boost for us.”
Next, the Sooners will travel to take on Stanford (8-1) and California (1-4) at 6 p.m. in Palo Alto, California, in OU’s final meet of the regular season.
This story was edited by Gracie Rawlings.
