Oklahoma

OU Hosts Michigan, Simpson in Home Finale – University of Oklahoma

Published

1 year ago

February 15, 2025

OU Hosts Michigan, Simpson in Home Finale – University of Oklahoma

THE MEET

• No. 1 Oklahoma plays host to No. 6 Michigan and No. 14 Simpson at McCasland Field House on Saturday. The tri-meet is set to begin with introductions at 5:45 p.m. and the first routine at 6 p.m. Doors open at 5 p.m.

• The meet will be televised on ESPN+ with Chad McKee and Matt Wenske calling the action. Live scoring will be available via OUStats.com.

TICKETS/PROMOTIONS/ENTRY

• Saturday is Senior Night, Student Group Night and Flipping Through the Decades Night. The first 100 fans can receive a free throwback seniors poster.

• Tickets can be purchased for $7 ($5 for youth and seniors) through the OU Athletics Ticket Office or at the door.

• Students always get in free, and can receive 200 points towards Sooner Rewards by attending this meet.

• Fans can take advantage of $2 beer, soda and popcorn at the concession stands. There will be a t-shirt toss, socks for sticks and ice cream coupons for the loudest fan.

• The University of Oklahoma enforces a clear-bag policy and walk-through metal detectors at all home athletics events. Review policies and prohibited items at SoonerSports.com/clearbags.

STICKS

• Saturday’s meet will feature three Olympians in the lineups, one for OU and two for Michigan. Oklahoma’s Emre Dodanli competed at the 2024 Paris Olympics with his native Turkey, while Michigan’s Paul Juda and Fred Richard were part of USA’s bronze medal team. Dodanli helped Turkey to a ninth-place finish, just .235 points shy of advancing to team finals in the country’s first Olympics with a team qualified for men’s gymnastics.

• Oklahoma edged out Michigan for second place at the 2022 NCAA Championships in Norman, but Michigan has placed second ahead of OU at each of the last two NCAA Championships. The Sooners and Wolverines have split their last two regular season meetings. OU won against Michigan in 2023 by a 414.550 to 410.400 margin. The Wolverines won in Ann Arbor last season, 416.300 to 409.550.

• Simpson is a relative newcomer in its third year as a program. The Storm competed their first season in 2023. OU finished ahead of Simpson at the Rocky Mountain Open last month, won a dual meet at Simpson in Indianola, Iowa, last year, and claimed a dual-meet victory over Simpson at McCasland Field House in 2023.

• Oklahoma’s only defeat inside McCasland Field House since the 2007 season was in the 2024 MPSF Championship when OU finished second to Stanford. Oklahoma is unbeaten against its last 76 regular season opponents, encompassing 64 consecutive regular season meets, inside McCasland Field House, dating back to the 2007 season. The streak began on March 17, 2007, with a victory over Iowa. OU’s last regular-season loss in the field house was March 3, 2007, against Ohio State. Oklahoma and also Stanford tied in a dual meet in McCasland Field House during the 2021 season.

• Oklahoma has registered three of the top five and four of the top 10 team scores nationally this season. Its 330.700 against Illinois on Jan. 25 is the highest collegiate men’s team score in the four-up, four-count meet format introduced for the 2025 season, while its 329.100 last week is the second highest team score of the season. The Sooners are ranked No. 1 for the third straight week and the fourth time in five weeks this season. OU has been ranked No. 1 at some point in every season since 2001.

• Freshman Francisco Velez Belendez was named the CGA Co-Rookie of the Week after scoring a team season-high 14.350 on still rings to help lead Oklahoma in its meet with Stanford and Greenville. He was the fourth Sooner to stick his rings dismount, as OU notched a season-best 56.500 on the event. Velez Belendez surpassed his previous career-high score by .250 points to finish second on rings during the meet. The San Juan, Puerto Rico, product ranks third nationally on still rings with his 3-score average of 14.083. He shared the weekly award with Illinois’ Ian Sandoval.

• Five current Sooners have earned qualification to USA Gymnastics Winter Cup, which will be held Feb. 21-23 in Louisville, Ky.: redshirt junior Fuzzy Benas (all-around), junior Kelton Christiansen (high bar), senior Brigham Frentheway (floor exercise), sophomore Tas Hajdu (still rings) and junior Ignacio Yockers (pommel horse). OU signees Sasha Bogonosiuk and Nathan Roman and alumnus Yul Moldauer are also qualified for Winter Cup. Moldauer will be unable to compete at Winter Cup.

• Following Saturday’s meet, Oklahoma takes a break in the team schedule for USA Gymnastics Winter Cup, which will be held Feb. 21-23 in Louisville, Ky. OU’s next team meet will be Friday, Feb. 28 at California/vs. Nebraska in Berkeley, Calif.

• Mark Williams is in his 26th season as Oklahoma head coach. He has led the Sooners to 596 victories (596-58-1 [.911]), nine national championships and 18 MPSF conference titles since his first season in 2000.

NATIONAL RANKINGS NOTES

• Oklahoma men’s gymnastics team sits atop the national rankings again this week, the first in which rankings are based on each team’s three highest scores. OU is ranked No. 1 with a 329.000 average. Stanford (325.850), Ohio State (322.567), Illinois (322.167) and Penn State (319.917) round out the top five.

• Oklahoma is ranked in the top five on all six events and leads the nation on floor exercise (54.967), still rings (56.000) and horizontal bar (54.883). OU ranks second on pommel horse (55.033), third on vault (56.333) and fifth on parallel bars (53.000).

• Emre Dodanli (14.033) and Kelton Christiansen (13.950) are the top two on high bar (13.950), while Matthew Burgoyne (14.117), Francisco Velez Belendez (14.083) and Tas Hajdu (14.083) are second, third and fourth on rings.

• Dodanli, (13.917), Burgoyne (13.800), Brigham Frentheway (13.767) and Arthur Ballon (13.70)) are ranked fourth through seventh on floor exercise. Ignacio Yockers ranks fourth on pommel horse (14.467) while Zach Nunez is tied for eighth (14.017). Frentheway is also ranked seventh on rings (13.767).

• On vault, Dodanli (14.217), Ballon (14.183) and Frentheway (14.150) hold down the seventh through ninth spots. Dodanli is ranked ninth on parallel bars (13.583), while Colin Flores (13.350) and Tyler Flores (13.333) are 12th and 13th. Brandon Zepeda-Orth is ranked fifth on high bar (13.650) and Frentheway is ninth (13.550).

• In all, the Sooners hold 18 spots in the top 10 on the six apparatus, and 20 spots in the top 12. Dodanli and Frentheway are both ranked among the top 10 in all four of their respective events, and Ballon is ranked in the top 8 on both of his events.

LAST TIME OUT

• Emre Dodanli’s high bar routine clinched the victory, as Oklahoma scored 329.100 to defeat Stanford (328.850) and Greenville (308.800) in front of a record crowd of 2,149 last Saturday on Cleveland Night and Alumni Night at McCasland Field House.

• The Sooners needed at least a 13.650 on the final routine of the night to stay ahead of the Cardinal, which had concluded its vault rotation, and Dodanli hit a 13.850 to seal the team win and claim the individual event title.

• Ignacio Yockers notched a season-high 14.650 to win the pommel horse title. Oklahoma posted the best score of the meet on floor exercise (54.950), pommel horse (season-best 55.050) and horizontal bar (54.050). The team total was OU’s second highest of the season while Stanford tied its best score and Greenville set a season-best mark.

• Oklahoma trailed Stanford by half a point after the second rotation but retook the lead, 166.500 to 164.550, with a huge rings set in which all four gymnasts stuck their dismounts. OU increased its advantage to 2.85 points after its vault rotation, and led the Cardinal by a 275.050 to 272.600 margin after the fifth event.

HISTORY AND TRADITION

• Oklahoma has won 12 national championships (1977, ’78, ’91, 2002, ’03, ’05, ’06, ’08, ’15, ’16, ’17, ’18), tied for most in NCAA history (tied with Penn State), including nine national titles since 2000. The Sooners have finished first or second in 19 of the last 23 NCAA Championships, and have reached 24 consecutive NCAA finals, or every championship held since 2000 (does not count the 2020 championship canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic). OU has finished among the top 3 in 22 of the last 23 NCAA Championships held, dating back to the 2001 season.

• Mark Williams has led Oklahoma to nine national titles and 18 MPSF conference titles over the course of his 25 full seasons as head coach of the Sooners. OU won an NCAA championship held in Norman three times: 2002, 2006 and 2015.

• The Sooners last won an NCAA championship in 2018 in Chicago, Ill., capping a run of four consecutive national titles (2015-18), then claimed second place in three straight championships: 2019, ’21 and ’22.

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Oklahoma

Oklahoma Ford Sports Blitz: Mar. 1, 2026

Published

9 hours ago

March 2, 2026

Press Room

Oklahoma Ford Sports Blitz: Mar. 1, 2026

Big night in downtown OKC as the Oklahoma City Thunder welcome the Denver Nugget and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is back on the floor.

Steve McGehee reports live from Paycom Center with the latest on SGA’s return after missing nine games, the Thunder’s push to hold the top spot in the Western Conference, and what getting healthy means for OKC’s title hopes.

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Oklahoma

How Oklahoma GM Jim Nagy ‘Put More Around’ John Mateer During Offseason

Published

21 hours ago

March 1, 2026

Press Room

How Oklahoma GM Jim Nagy ‘Put More Around’ John Mateer During Offseason

Oklahoma general manager Jim Nagy experienced great success during his first year in Norman.

Nagy, who joined OU’s staff in February 2025, oversaw the Sooners’ scouting staff as Oklahoma reached the College Football Playoff for the first time since 2019. He also helped OU sign a top-15 2026 recruiting class and land several key transfer portal players after the 2025 season.

Though the wins outweighed the losses in Nagy’s first year, the Sooners’ general manager knew that there was much to fortify during the offseason.

Oklahoma’s offense sputtered late in the season, as the Sooners scored fewer than 25 points in each of their last four games.

For Nagy, a major focus was surrounding OU quarterback John Mateer with quality talent.

“(We wanted to) just really put more around John Mateer,” Nagy said on The Dari Nowkhah Show on KREF on Friday.

Nagy and his scouting team added plenty of pieces from the portal that should elevate Oklahoma’s offense.

The Sooners signed three portal wideouts — Trell Harris (Virginia), Parker Livingstone (Texas) and Mackenzie Alleyne (Washington State) — after the 2025 season to join returning receivers Isaiah Sategna, Jer’Michael Carter and Jacob Jordan.

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Sategna, who transferred to OU from Arkansas after the 2024 season, served as Mateer’s safety net in 2025. The receiver finished the year with 965 yards and eight touchdowns on 67 catches.

Harris and Livingstone are both proven producers at the Power Four level, and Nagy believes that those two will make OU’s receiving corps stronger in 2026.

“Those two, we’re very excited about both of those guys,” Nagy said.

Nagy also did plenty of work to ensure that OU’s run game improves in 2026.

The Sooners added three tight ends — Hayden Hansen (Florida), Rocky Beers (Colorado State) and Jack Van Dorselaer (Tennessee) — from the portal. They also added three transfer offensive linemen: Caleb Nitta (Western Kentucky), E’Marion Harris (Arkansas) and Peyton Joseph (Georgia Tech).

OU will have its two top running backs from the 2025 squad, Xavier Robinson and Tory Blaylock, back in 2026.

For those two to reach their full potential, the Sooners’ blockers will have to regularly open up running lanes — and Nagy is confident that they will.

“We have to run the ball better, there’s no way around that,” Nagy said. “Our job is to create more competition in every room in the offseason. I feel like we’ve done that.”

On the show, Nagy revealed that the Sooners added nearly 9,000 collegiate snaps to their roster during the offseason.

The general manager believes that both sides of the ball will be stronger as a result of his scouting team’s offseason efforts and their collaboration with OU’s coaching staff.

“I’ve tried to be really intentional with our communication,” Nagy said. “There’s a common goal: We’re trying to win a national championship. This is a true partnership, and we all have the same goal in mind. It’s going to continue to evolve and get better.”

Oklahoma will open its 2026 season against UTEP on Sept. 5.

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Elgin’s Ritson Meyer becomes four-time Oklahoma high school wrestling state champion

Published

1 day ago

March 1, 2026

Press Room

Elgin’s Ritson Meyer becomes four-time Oklahoma high school wrestling state champion

The loss was on Ritson Meyer’s mind all week as he prepared for his final state wrestling tournament.

A senior 215-pounder at Elgin, Meyer isn’t used to getting beaten, but he got a wake-up call when he lost against Coweta senior Aiven Robbins by five points in their regional championship match.

For Meyer, it set in that winning his fourth state championship wouldn’t be an easy task.

“I lost to him last week and I’m not a loser, so it was eating on me all week in practice,” Meyer said. “So (in) practice, I really leveled up everything. Everything about it.”

Meyer and Robbins met again on Saturday, this time with the Class 5A state championship on the line.

Intensely focused from the start, Meyer came out aggressive. And although it was another great match, Meyer did just enough to etch his name in the state history books.

Meyer held on to beat Robbins in an 8-7 decision in the new OG&E Coliseum as he claimed his fourth state championship, while Coweta won the team title.

An Abilene Christian football signee, Meyer’s wrestling days are over, but he leaves the sport with satisfaction.

“I came out here — even though it hurt, even though I was tired — I got it done,” Meyer said. “I’m so happy. I got to celebrate with my parents, my family, my friends. It’s a crazy feeling.”

A standout running back and linebacker on the gridiron, Meyer helped his team win the Class 4A state title in football as a junior before Elgin lost to Tuttle 23-20 in the 2025 championship game in December.

It’s a different sport, but that loss fueled Meyer’s wrestling season in a way.

“I like to tell people that wrestling is like offseason football,” Meyer said. “I can’t go out, lose. Everybody wanted me to win this. I won it for the whole entire community. First four-timer at Elgin. And that football (loss) really did eat me alive. It didn’t feel good at all, and I didn’t want that same feeling again.”

Meyer had a great start against Robbins on Saturday and never trailed, but Robbins battled to set up a great finish and both were gassed when it was over.

“I just gave it my all,” Meyer said, “and I got it done.”

This article will be updated.

Nick Sardis covers high school sports for The Oklahoman. Have a story idea for Nick? He can be reached at nsardis@oklahoman.com or on Twitter at@nicksardis. Sign up forThe Varsity Club newsletter to access more high school coverage. Support Nick’s work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing adigital subscription today at subscribe.oklahoman.com.

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