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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 20, 1975)
Husker crew receives San Diego invitation By Pete Wegman Nebraska's rowing team has received the equivalent of a football bowl bid, crew coach Ron Rusthoven said Tuesday evening. The team has been invited to participate in the San Diego Crew Classic, April 5. "If you wanted to say rowing has a bowl game, this is it. We're extremely flattered in having the invitation extended," Rusthoven said. The Classic features the best teams in the East facing the best in the West. The prestigious 12 team field will include Harvard, Wisconsin and Washington University, the top three finishers, respectively at Nationals in Syracuse last year. Eastern six Nebraska, considered a part of the eastern six schools, will row in one of two morning heats at the Classic. The top three teams in each heat will advance to the afternoon championship race. Wisconsin, Washington, San Diego State, Santa Barbara and California-Berkeley, the number three West Coast team, are tentatively scheduled for Nebraska's heat. The regatta, to be held in San Diego's Mission Bay marks the first time in Nebraska crew history that such an invitation has been received, Rusthoven distinguished between the invitation to the Classic and last season's invitation to Nationals (where the Husker's four-man shell finished fifth). Funds from crew He said funds to travel to the Nationals came from the crew, but sponsors of the Classic will be paying a large share of the rowing team's expenses. Rusthoven added that the crew would still have to become sports qvmmmmmm mi.i,ju. ummm t ''" "T fj ? 7 V L lz , 1 involved in some fund-raising projects to make the trip. Rusthoven said, the team will send a men's heavyweight eight-man team and women's four person-team to the regatta in California. "The invitation has really been an incentive," he said. "I can't believe how hard our men and women are working." There are now 32 men and 24 women out for crew. "We'll be trying to follow Nebraska's fine athletic tradition in San Diego," he said. Huskers disadvantaged Rusthoven admitted that the West Coast teams and the crews in the east that row on rivers have a definite advantage on his crew. He said that while most of the Classic's 12 crews are already on the water, or will be soon, it will be early March before the Huskers will be able to row at Capitol Beach in Lincoln because of the ice cover. Rusthoven said the Classic will open the toughest season the crew has faced in its five year history. The team, 7-1 in dual competition last season, has home duals this spring against Purdue, Notre Dame and Kansas State. Rusthoven is assisted by Jerry Huber, freshman coach, and Jim Elstun, women's coach. 'Will try anything once' Senior Jim linger has reached a career peak, scoring wins in the floor exercise, vaulting and high bar last Saturday. Bowler has chance for international meet A trip to London for international competition is a possibility for a member of UNL's bowling team. Ray Koziol finished second in a field of 75 bowlers at the Association of College Unions-International (ACUI) Intercollegiate Region 1 1 Tournament Feb. 6 and 7 in Hays, Kan. That finish enables him to compete in the national ACUI tournament April 4-6 in Dayton, Ohio. Sould Koziol win the national meet he would represent the U.S. in a world championship meet. A victory at Dayton also would qualify Koziol for the U.S. Team Trials. At the trials, 16 bowlers compete for berths on a six-man team for the international competition in London. Pat Scanlan, Nebraska Union recreation area manager, coaches the nine-man bowling team. He said Koziol should do better than past representatives from Region 11. "He is an excellent bowler and has an excellent chance to win the national event," Scanlan said. He said the London competition is comparable to the Olympic Games of bowling. "It's the best from the entire world competing, and supposedly they're all amateurs" he said. As a team, UNL finished second behind Wichita State out of 1 5 teams. Although Koziol's nine game total of 1792 (199 average) was the second best total score, he won the individual singles title with a three-game total of 643 (214 average). Each team member bowls six games for the team and three for the individual title. The bowlers with the top two total scores qualify for the national tournament. Scanlan said 20 colleges and about 450 college students, 18 from UNL entered the tournament, one of 15 regionals sponsored by the ACUI. In addition to men's bowling, other events included table tennis, pool, women's bowling, bridge and chess. UNL had entries in each event except bridge. Loren Schmidt and Mike Chess, members of UNL's Chess Club, won the chess title. Schmidt also was the individual champion. Rich Vargas finished eighth in the pool competition and Peter Chao was eighth in the table tennis singles. page 16 Gymnast creates new vault By Scott Jones Husker gymnast Jim Unger says he will try anything once. For example, Unger tried a "full twist on-full twist off handspring long horse vault" three weeks ago. Now he says it's "the neatest trick I've ever done." He'll perform his innovation for the fourth time in competition Saturday when UNL hosts Oklahoma at 2 p.m. at Henzlik Gymnasium. Unger's new vault is unusual because, after a running approach and leap off the springboard, he does one complete twist or body rotation, plants his hands on the vaulting horse and pushes off, doing a somersault with another complete twist before landing. Considered unique The first complete twist, before he hits the horse, is considered unique. "I might be the first on in the country using it," Unger said. "The only other one that we know that does it is Olga Korbut" (an Olympic-winning gymnast from the Soviet Union). After seeing Korbut perform the trick, Unger practiced the stunt at only one Husker practice session before using it in UNL's meet with Iowa State Feb. 1. Although he finished second at that meet, he has .won the past two weeks with career-best scores of 9.35 and 9.4. Saw film "What motivated me to do it was seeing it on film," the Husker senior said. "It seems such a remote thing but when you see someone do it you know you can do it. "I'll try anything once. In gymnastics you're always thinking of new tricks and original things. That's what the judges like." Of course, other gymnasts have pet tricks that nobody else has performed. Such innovations. like Unger's, are not only unusual but difficult. "That's the most difficult vault I've seen this year," coach Allen said. "It's a pretty jump. Everyone who's seen it has said, 'Hey, I'm going to come back and watch him vault again'." More difficult Unger's vault could be judged slightly more difficult than Korbut's. In women's vaulting, the horse is placed perpendicular to the runway. But for men the horse is rotated 90 degrees, so that it is parallel to the runway. "It's probably a little more risky," Unger said. "I never see the horse once I'm airborne. I just do it by feel. I've just practiced it enough times that I know it's there." Unlike most gymnasts, except ali-arounders, Unger performs in three events for UNL, the vault, the floor exercise and the horizontal bar. He said complete twists are part of his floor exercise routine, so incorporating the twist into a vault required little practice. Averaged 9. 1 Unger said his vaulting scores averaged 9.1 before he changed his routine. Once perfected, he said hrs new trick should bring high marks. "I stiil go a little crooked but it's a potential 9.7 or 9.8," he said. In addition to the vaulting, the Lincoln Southeast graduate won the floor exercise and tied for first with Husker Gary Jeurink in the horizontal bar in the Husker's 214-198.70 win over Kansas Saturday. Each of Unger's scores were season bests. The Huskers were without all-arounder Gene Mackie and still rings performer Pete Studenski against Kansas. Allen said Mackie, who injured his back, should complete Saturday against Oklahoma. Studenski twisted his knee last Wednesday and will miss the meet. UNL women's basketball team seeded fifth in state tournament A season of ups and downs is coming to a close for the UNL women's basketball team. It could end on a high nunc if the team performs well in state tournament competition this weekend. The 12-team tournament starts Thursday at Midland College in Fremont. UNL, seeded fifth, will meet tenth-seeded Doane at 9:50 a.m. Friday. Tournament play is single elimination in the consolation bracket. The top two teams will qualify for regional play. "We have a good chance of finishing in the top two," UNL coach Jan Callahan said. "It all depends on how badly the team wants to play." The team hit a low spot last week, Callahan said. "They've played five times in four days and are tired. "Tournaments do funny things," she added. "We will definitely be up for the games." Other teams in the tournament and their seedings are: Wayne (1), Midland (2), Kearney (3), UNO (4), St. Mary's of Omaha (6), Creighton (7), Concordia (8), Peru (9), Chadron State (11) and JFK (12). Senior eager Nancy Hansen said the pairings were tough and that the outcome of the tourney depends on how the other teams perform. "If we can get by Wayne, we can win it," she said. "Everyone is up," player Sherry Brink said. "We have a good chance. It all depends on what kind of day we are having." UNL is 8-5 in conference play for the season. "Our season could have been a lot better. Defensively we did well but offensively we had our ups and downs. Our shooting percentages were poor," Callahan said. Callahan was reluctant to name any particular players for outstanding performance during the season. "Overall, there were good efforts from certain individuals. I can't single out any one person." daily nebraskan thursday, february 20, 1975