NEWS
The University of Oklahoma’s athletics excellence will travel to Paris this summer when five Sooners participate in the 2024 Summer Olympics.
OU Men’s Track and Field will send two athletes – Vernon Turner in the high jump for Team USA and Ralford Mullings in the discus for Jamaica’s national team.
Abraham Ancer will represent Team Mexico in men’s golf and Emre Dodanli will compete in men’s gymnastics for Turkey, while former Sooner basketball player James Fraschilla (2011-15) will serve as an assistant coach on Team USA for men’s 3-on-3 basketball.
Turner was the 2023 Big 12 Performer of the Year and is the school outdoor high jump record holder with a 7-6.5 (2.30m) mark in 2022.
Mullings, who hails from Kingston, Jamaica, transferred from the University of Arkansas where he was the SEC outdoor discus silver medalist.
Ancer played for the men’s golf program from 2010-13. He finished second in OU history in career scoring average in relation to par with a 72.42 (+0.93) upon graduation, and he still owns the school record 54-hole score with a 195 (-21) at the 2011 Desert Shootout.
Dodanli earned All-America honors on floor exercise and parallel bars in 2024 and finished fifth on floor with a 14.433 during the NCAA finals. He won gold in the all-around, on floor exercise and on high bar at Turkey’s national championships last month.
Fraschilla, son of famous men’s college basketball broadcaster television analyst Fran Fraschilla, played for the Sooners in former coach Lon Kruger’s initial four seasons. His senior year was capped by a run to the 2015 NCAA Tournament’s Sweet 16.
The Paris Games will take place from July 26 to Aug. 11.
About the University of Oklahoma
Founded in 1890, the University of Oklahoma is a public research university located in Norman, Oklahoma. As the state’s flagship university, OU serves the educational, cultural, economic and health care needs of the state, region and nation. OU was named the state’s highest-ranking university in U.S. News & World Report’s most recent Best Colleges list. For more information about the university, visit ou.edu.
Chris Fiebrich, Ph.D., has been named director of the Oklahoma Climatological Survey at the University of Oklahoma.
The University of Oklahoma today announced a significant expansion of its public tailgating options ahead of its debut football season in the Southeastern Conference. Beginning this fall, OU is establishing new public tailgating areas at prime locations on campus, including the Boyd Lawn, along Asp Avenue and near Oklahoma Memorial Union.
Colleen McCleish, a University of Oklahoma May 2024 graduate of the College of Atmospheric and Geographic Sciences, has been selected as one of 75 Americans to study and work in Germany as part of the Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange for Young Professionals program.
