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The Honolulu Advertiser
Updated at 7:38 p.m., Saturday, April 19, 2008

Gymnastics: Oklahoma adds 3 individual titles to NCAA men's title

Associated Press

STANFORD, Calif. — Oklahoma freshman Stephen Legendre won individual NCAA titles on floor exercise and vault tonight as the Sooners added three event victories to their team championship.

California senior Tim McNeill also had a two-title performance at archrival Stanford's Maples Pavilion, winning his third individual title on pommel horse and his second on parallel bars.

U.S. Olympic team hopeful Jonathan Horton, the nation's top senior gymnast from Oklahoma, won on rings with a better score than the mark that clinched the Sooners' fifth NCAA title in seven years Friday night. Horton has won six NCAA individual titles, but he was a spectator for his young teammate's biggest night.

Illinois' Paul Ruggeri won the final individual title on the high bar, capping the Illini's successful weekend after finishing third in the team competition behind Oklahoma and Stanford.

McNeill's 15.65 score on bars dwarfed the second-place mark of 14.95 by Penn State's Casey Sandy, who won the all-around title on Friday _ and his pommel horse score of 15.625 also surpassed Sandy's second-place score by a huge margin.

"Tim was really on tonight," California coach Barry Weiner said. "It was the best pommel horse of his life and the best parallel bars performance of his life. His scores are unheard of. He was just so dominant."

The host Cardinal, who missed the team title by less than one point, didn't have an individual champion, though David Sender finished second on rings and vault.