Last season, Mark Williams and the Sooners watched their championship hopes fade with a crushing 414.521-411.591 defeat against Stanford.
This weekend, the No. 2 Sooners will be presented with an opportunity for revenge and their first title since 2018. To do so, they must conquer the No. 1 Cardinal, a task that’s been too tall to overcome the past two championships.
Oklahoma and Stanford have established themselves as the two powerhouses of NCAA men’s gymnastics, finishing as the top two teams in four of the past six seasons. The longtime rivalry intensified when Stanford squandered OU’s streak of 121 straight victories with a 415.222-414.556 defeat of the Sooners in the 2019 NCAA Championship.
The Sooners have won just two of seven meets against the Cardinal since, including a narrow 407.700-407.500 victory in the Rocky Mountain Open on Jan. 15. Stanford avenged its loss by topping the Sooners in the Stanford Open on Jan. 29 and in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Championship on April 2.
Stanford comes into Saturday’s meet having a distinct experience advantage, with 10 seniors rostered to the Sooners four. As one of the few older gymnasts, senior captain Vitaliy Guimaraes has embraced a mentorship role to his young teammates.
“(I tell them) just to stay present, calm, cool and collected,” Guimaraes said. “Trust your training and know that you’re gonna go out there and do your best.”
Among those young teammates are freshmen Fuzzy Benas and Raydel Gamboa, the top-two ranked all-arounders in the NCAA. Along with Guimaraes, the pair is expected to compete in the all-around on the biggest stage.
“You certainly want to have them as prepared as possible for this particular event,” Williams said. “You try to create an environment that they’re familiar with so they can come up here (this weekend) and feel like it’s no big deal, this is just what we do in practice everyday.
“For some people, that’s hard to do. But … every challenge we’ve given them, they’ve met, so I really don’t have a huge concern that they’re gonna be any different at the championships.”
In addition to experience, Stanford managed a higher difficulty score on all events in its MPSF Championship win on April 2. This advantage is expected to carry over to the NCAA Championship.
“We can do what we do and still there’s gonna be a gap,” Williams said of the difficulty disparity. “But we have to capitalize on the strengths that we have, which is clean gymnastics … and hope that Stanford has some mistakes because they’re trying to do harder level skills. If we hit 100 percent, no matter where we finish, we’re gonna be happy with that.
“I want (our gymnasts) to do as much as they’re capable of doing but I’m not willing to sacrifice the execution (and) the beauty of gymnastics. … I’m hoping that will separate us a little bit from what Stanford has done.”
The Sooners will turn to home court advantage as an equalizer this weekend. Oklahoma has suffered just two defeats in Norman over the past 20 years, most recently in the 2012 national championship.
“We only get a few opportunities to compete at home every year,” Guimaraes said. “The fact that we have a national championship here is an amazing advantage to us. (It) puts us in the most comfortable position that we can be in.”
Although Stanford is viewed as the team to beat, the Sooners must also keep their eyes on a few dark horse threats heading to Norman this weekend.
In addition to narrowly losing to the Sooners 403.850-398.650, No. 5 Illinois tallied a whopping 416.000 — the fourth-highest score in NCAA gymnastics this season — in its win over No. 7 Navy and No. 10 Air Force on Mar. 19.
No. 4 Nebraska and No. 6 Ohio State enter the competition looking for vengeance after falling to the long-time rival Sooners on Feb. 19 and Mar. 12, respectively.
Finally, the Sooners will meet one-loss Big Ten champion No. 3 Michigan for the first time this season.
“They’re gonna challenge us. They’re a good team,” Williams said of the Wolverines. “When we get to Saturday I feel like, realistically, Stanford, Oklahoma and Michigan are the top three teams.”
Before getting to Saturday, the Sooners must handle business in the NCAA Qualifier at 7 p.m. CT on April 15 in Norman.
“Everything we’ve done has led to this moment,” Guimaraes said. “We just have to focus on what we’re doing and focus on our job.”
