GYMNASTICS NCAA MEN’S CHAMPIONSHIPS : Oklahoma Wins Team Title; Bruins Finish Third

Oklahoma’s Jarrod Hanks and Jeff Lutz scored surprisingly high on the rings Friday night, lifting the Sooners past Penn State and UCLA in the team competition at the NCAA men’s gymnastics meet.

The Sooners, ranked No. 1 at the end of the regular season, scored their highest marks of the year in the event, passing a Nittany Lion team that scored more than 49 points on rings in qualifying Thursday night.

UCLA finished third in each of the first three events of the evening and could not recover.

Oklahoma finished the team competition with 288.025 points, the second-highest score since the current system was adopted in 1981. Penn State finished second, with 285.5 points. UCLA had 284.825.

The Sooners’ winning margin of 2.525 points was the largest since UCLA beat Penn State by 6.05 points in 1984. Only Nebraska’s 288.15 points in a championship, in 1988, was higher than the Sooners’ total.

Hanks matched Penn State’s Wayne Cowden with a 9.9 on rings and Lutz scored a 9.875. Cowden will defend his national championship on rings in the individual finals tonight.

The Sooners also outscored Penn State and UCLA on floor exercise, with Hanks scoring a 9.775, and on the vault and parallel bars.

Penn State, behind Mark Sohn’s 9.95, outscored Oklahoma by 0.025 on the pommel horse. Sohn is a three-time defending champion on the horse and also will defend his national title tonight.

UCLA won the high bar with Chainey Umphrey scoring a 9.9.

Brad Hayashi of UCLA scored a 9.875 to win the vault and will defend his individual title tonight.