With the clock ticking toward midnight, Alex Naddour was waiting.

The freshman out of Gilbert, Ariz., had been waiting all-night for a second chance to perform his rings routine after guiding the OU men’s gymnastics team to the cusp of its ninth national championship.

In the end though, neither would happen as Naddour called it a night, and the Sooners fell short of the NCAA title for the second-straight year.

The second-ranked Sooners (22-4) tallied a score of 357.050 to finish behind national champion Michigan (360.500) and No. 1 Stanford (359.800) in the final meet of the season Friday night in West Point, N.Y.

“I think the guys fought till the very end,” head coach Mark Williams said. “There’s no question we were fighting to stay in the mix for the championship, but unfortunately we just had a few breaks that didn’t go our way.

“At the end of the day, I have no regrets. The effort was there and we did the best we could. On that night, Michigan was the best team, but I couldn’t be any prouder of my team right now.”

The conclusion to OU’s 2010 season played out all too similar to the Sooners’ showing in last year’s competition.

OU entered the final rotation in second place, trailing the Cardinal by just five-hundredths of a point (300.350-300.300).

The meet was turning out to be exactly the barn-burner that was expected.

However, what the Sooners did not count on was a spoiler in the form of an experienced Wolverine team set on upsetting OU once again.

The team from Ann Arbor, Mich., would put up a total of 62.700 on vault to surge ahead of both Stanford and OU, as the Cardinal finished on rings (59.450) and the Sooners on high bar (56.750).

Last season, the Sooners entered the final rotation trailing the same Stanford team on the leaderboard, coming within two points of repeating as national champions before falling to third behind Michigan on the final performance of the night.

Junior co-captain Steven Legendre said although the ending was not the finish the Sooners were looking for, he could not have asked for more from his teammates.

“I couldn’t be any more proud of this team right now,” Legendre said. “Michigan and Stanford were better than us today, but we fought to the very last guy.”

The meet was delayed several times throughout the evening to fix a broken ring after an Illinois gymnast fell while competing on the rings apparatus.

Fortunately, the gymnast was able to walk off on his own power afterward.

The broken ring caused problems for many of the teams but most noticeably for OU, who competed on the event directly afterward.

"We had just come off the best pommel-horse competition we’ve had since I’ve been a head coach,” Williams said. “The momentum was clearly in our favor, but we weren’t able to carry that over because of the delay.

“By the time Steve and Alex were given an opportunity to repeat their ring routines at the end (after falling off earlier), it was almost midnight.”

Naddour agreed with Williams and said the stoppages had a negative effect on the Sooners’ early energy.

“We started strong on floor and we had our best pommel pretty much in school history,” Naddour said. “We really wanted to use that momentum to push us forward, but because of the broken ring it kind of threw us off and messed up our rhythm.”

Legendre, the defending all-around champion, would post a new score of 14.350, but could not catch up to Michigan’s Chris Cameron in the individuals.

Cameron would win the individual all-around title, while Legendre finished second.

Naddour deferred the opportunity to compete again, finishing seventh in the all-around.

Freshman teammate Jacob Dalton was close behind with eighth-place honors overall, giving the Sooners three All-Americans in the all-around.

While the team wrapped up the meet with its 11th-consecutive top-three finish, six Sooners were still alive to compete for individual titles in the event finals Saturday.

Joining Legendre (floor, vault), Naddour (pommel) and Dalton (floor, vault) in the festivities were redshirt junior Ian Jackson (vault), freshman Jeremy Adams (pommel) and senior co-captain Corey English (pommel, parallel bars).

On the final night of competition, OU added two more individual championships to its NCAA resume.

Legendre earned his third-consecutive national title on floor exercise, scoring a 16.100 to top the field once again.

"I've done a ton of routines on the floor," Legendre said. "I am just fortunate and honored to win it for one more year."

With the victory, Legendre earned his sixth career individual championship, tying him with U.S. Olympic medalist Jonathan Horton for the most in program history.

Legendre’s third title on floor marks the fifth-straight year the Sooners have claimed the title. Horton won on the same event in 2006 and 2007.

The Port Jefferson, N.Y., native now has nine All-America honors in his collegiate career, after finishing eighth on vault.

The freshman trio of Naddour, Dalton and Adams combined to earn a national title and six All-America honors, laying claim to being arguably the top freshman class in OU history.

Naddour trumped the competition on pommel horse to claim his first NCAA title with a score of 14.425.

“The goal is to hit your set and not worry about what score you get,” Naddour said. “I just went up there and did my best that I could. I’m extremely honored to be the NCAA champion on that event.”

Naddour’s title on Saturday gives the Sooners their 32nd individual championship in the meet, ranking fourth all-time in NCAA history.

Dalton earned All-American status on floor, vault and in the all-around to push his total to three in his first year of competition.

The biggest surprise came from Adams, who edged past 2010 all-around champion Chris Cameron of Michigan to claim the eighth and final All-American spot on pommel horse.

In his final night of competition as a Sooner, English earned the first two All-America honors of his career with a third-place finish on parallel bars and a fifth-place finale on pommel.

Even though the Sooners may have come up short this season, Naddour said the squad is excited to contend again next year.

“We put in sweat and tears to compete in this one meet to prove how good our team is,” Naddour said. “Having our team bond like we have right now, we’re like a family and nothing is ever going to change that.”