Oklahoma wins fourth title

<br>NORMAN, Okla. (AP) _ Oklahoma got a solid performance from its top gymnast and a clutch effort from its most inspirational athlete to beat defending champion and top-ranked Ohio State by 0.650 of a

Saturday, April 6th 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

NORMAN, Okla. (AP) _ Oklahoma got a solid performance from its top gymnast and a clutch effort from its most inspirational athlete to beat defending champion and top-ranked Ohio State by 0.650 of a point Friday night in the NCAA men's gymnastics championships.

The victory was sweet for the second-ranked Sooners, who entered last year's meet ranked No. 1 but lost to second-ranked Ohio State by 0.350 of a point. This was Oklahoma's fourth national title and first since 1991.

``This is a big thrill. Winning the national championship at home is pretty amazing,'' coach Mark Williams said. ``I just thank these guys for the effort that they showed today. The heart they showed down the stretch was just amazing.''

Oklahoma's Daniel Furney finished third in the all-around behind Ohio State's Raj Bhavsar and California's Zhang JinJing. When Furney, going next-to-last on the high bar in Oklahoma's final rotation, stuck his landing, he pumped both arms in the air and got a hug from Williams as the home crowd roared.

He received a score of 9.300, his second-highest score of the night. His top score was 9.425 on the vault, where teammate Jock Stevens received a 9.525 for his double front somersault to help give Oklahoma a lead of 1.275 after four rotations.

Ohio State made up ground in the fifth rotation, scoring 36.700 on the pommel horse while Oklahoma got 35.675 on the parallel bars. That brought the Buckeyes within 0.250 of a point.

In the final rotation, the Sooners got a lift from Quinn Rowell, who scored 9.400 in his only event of the night. Rowell, a junior, broke his right arm in December. He previously had been slowed by a broken knee, a broken neck and had a shoulder injury.

``As it turns out, he may have been the difference,'' Williams said. ``He's had everything bad happen to him and he finally gets something to cheer about and celebrate.''

Bhavsar scored 9.750 on the rings to lock up the all-around title. But the Buckeyes suffered a blow when Matt Smith, whose best event is the rings, failed to post a score that counted for his team.

``I thought we performed well,'' coach Miles Avery said. ``We had one really bad event (high bar, 35.550) and some missed and hit sets here and there. Overall, I thought second would feel a lot worse than it does, but it actually feels OK.''

Oklahoma finished with 219.300 points and Ohio State had 218.650. California was third with 217.650, followed by Michigan (215.050), Iowa (213.225) and Stanford (212.775).

Bhavsar, runner-up in the all-around last year, finished with 55.875. Zhang, who lost his lead in the fifth rotation when he fell on his final pass in the floor exercise, had 55.200 and Furney 55.050.

``Individually, I guess I'm satisfied with my performance, but in no way am I entirely happy right now,'' Bhavsar said.

The individual champions will be decided Saturday night.