p::a 14
vvcdr.ccdr, m:rrii 17, 1970
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Scholarship 'drifters1 sour
UNL's recruiting ventures
By Jbi Zslswski
Anyone who witnessed one of the Nebraska Stale tzy
ketbaH Tournament games la UNL's new sports center
had to be Impressed with the building! physical structure.
It is truly a fine place to watch a basketball game, even
though incomplete. Now the question remains: will
Nebraska be sbk to Held teams worthy of its new show
place? Bob Slegel, Allen Holder, Rickey Harris, Brian Banks
end Carl McFipe w2I return to form a solid nuekus for
next year's UNL basketball squad. Holder, Banks and Mc
Rpe were recruited last year, proof of what good recruit
ing can do for a team in one year.
But the overall recruiting picture of the last four years
has been inconsistent. The Huskers may lead the B 8
Conference in basketball scholarships given to players who
leave UNL in two years or less. At times, it seems as
though the lookout on the Titanic did a better job of
scouting. ,
Jerry Fort was a "sleeper" in high school who became
one of the Big 8's better guards. Good job here. Larry
Cox was a small center who adapted to assistant Husker
coach Moe Iba's style of defense, playing more on hustle
and desire than raw talent. A good job of character
analysis.
Easy come, easy go
But recall the list of those who stopped by the court '
for a brief hello, shot some baskets in a few games and
quickly rode off into the sunset; Mark Enright, Ernie Mar
tin, Ron Taylor, Gary Fitzsimmons, Alan Bluman, Jim
Goodrich, Ricky Marsh. The list reads on like a veritable
used car lot of scholarship cagers.
And what about those who got away? Dave Weseley
and John Johnson, the top two high school players in the
state last year, both ended up at Creighton University and
played extensively. Coach Joe Cipriano told me he didn't
believe there were any Omaha area players last year who
could play for UNL; hence no Weseley or Johnson.
The University of Colorado's leading player is Omaha
native' Larry Vaculik. He is joined by Omaha Central grad
Clayton BuHard. Going back a few years, Drake University
was paced by Omaha centers Larry Seger and Andy Gra-
ham. Omaha Central grad Lindberg White played for
Kansas State University.
Maybe some players who came and left had attitude
problems. I don't blame a coach for exercising discipline
on his squad. But the player's background and attitude
should have been researched while he was in high school
to avoid wasting a scholarship.
Sipping out the back door
Admittedly, Nebraska is not a largely populated state,
and the recruiters must be successful out-of-state if the
team is to be competitive. But players are growing up here
at home, too, and they're seemingly walking out the back
door, avoiding UNL.
"The Omaha area and the state hasn't produced a lot
of. college basketball players," Cipriano said. "We are out
getting the people we think can play for us."
Nebraska certainly is not a University of Indiana or
Illinois as far as high school basketball goes. But what
good does it do to sign an out-of-state phenom when he's
only here long enough to repack his suitcase and head
sports
UNL's bowling team won the Big 8 Conference
tournament March 11 through 13 at the University of
Kansas in Lawrence. The Huskers finished the nine-set
tournament with a 15-3 record and a total pinfall of
18,056. University of Missouri and Kansas State Univer
sity took second and third, respectively.
Ray Koziol, the tournament's top male bowler, led the
Huskers with a 193 average for 18 games. Koziol and Pat
Masters (190 average) were named to the conference All
Star team. Other UNL - team members were Larry
Meierdierks, Louis Rautenberg and Jim Krebs, who was
hampered by a pulled thumb muscle.
In women's competition, UNL finished fourth. Debbie
Bertrand led the Huskers, bowling the fourth highest set
(408) and single game (228). Other Husker bowlers were
Sue Frederick, Randi Brehm, Eileen Pazderka and Deb
Holland.
The men's team also won the regular season champion
ship by four games over Iowa State Universtiy. Krebs
paced the Huskers with a regular-season average of 2 1 1 for
51 games.
UNL's soccer team shut out the University of Nebraska
at Omaha 3-0 Sunday in Memorial Stadium.' Dave Egr
scored two goals and Victor Sangoyele added another
on a penalty shot for the Huskers.
m m
Entries for men's, women's and co-recreational
intramural softball are due by 5 pjn. today at the
Recreation Office, 1740 Vine St. The $5 entry fee for
each team also is due today. For more information,
contact Gale Wiedow, intramural coordinator, at 472
'3467. .'
Two positions remain for the backpacking trip to
Utah's Escalante Canyon during spring break. Cost is $75
for the March 19 through 28 trip. For more information,
contact Mark Ebel, recreation coordinator, at 472-3467.
home?
The new sports center should greatly aid recruiting. I
hope the coaches use it wisely and have a banner recruit
ing year. I can sense more Ncbraskans becoming interested
in basketball because of the center. You don't have to
land all the tig fch in the sea, coach Cip, but at fcast
make sure the onct who sign know this is a four-year in
stitution, not a'tempcrary stop on a Midwestern bus tour.
So I took the gas on my high school picks. Conde Sar
gent didn't fare so well either. I hit 11 of 16 in college
games for roughly 69 per cent. How. was I to know that
HsH Ford and Bernard King, bona fide Afl-Arnericanj,
wouldn't play for their teams? Three of my regional
choices still are alive, and IH stick with Marquette Uni
versity for the title.
OS
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Husker hop
By Dennis Onnen
Nebraska's hopes in the national women's swim meet
Thursday through Saturday won't rest with any
swimmers.
Rather, hopes will rest with the team's three divers, the
only three Huskers to qualify for the meet at Ft. Lauder
dale, Fla.
Coach Pat Sullivan said she expects all three-freshmen
Kristi Wells and Lois Hayman of Lincoln East High School
and senior Nancy Dykes of Omaha-to make the first cut.
She said she has even higher hopes for Wells.
"Kristi should place in the top 10 (of about 60
entered)," Sullivan said. "At least that's what we're
hoping for."
Wells was champion in the three-meter diving in last
month's Big 8 Conference meet and took second in the
one-meter event. She was undefeated in duals this year
and last year was state high school champion.
Hayman, fifth in the Big 8 on both the one-meter and'
three-meter boards, recorded her highest three-meter score
at an AAU meet last weekend. Hayman said she and Wells
have been diving together about five years, beginning with
Lincoln Swim Club competition.
Wells said she has noticed few differences between high
school and college diving.
"You feel you've taken a step upward," she said. "You
feel more pressure to do good for the team-at least that's
the way it is here at Nebraska."
She said she doesn't particularly prefer one diving
event over the other, although she said a person has less
time to make corrections on the low board.
"On the high board, if you do something wrong at the
beginning of the dive, you have more time to correct it,"
she said.
To prepare for the national meet, she said, the divers
have watched films of themselves and of other divers at
last year's national meet.
Those films were taken by diving coach Rick Kincade,
who himself was a diver at Yale University . He has a sister,
Ginny, who dived for UNL before being graduated last
year, and another sister, Susie, who will dive in the
national meet for UCLA.
"He's (Kincade) helped us more than I've ever been
helped in diving before," Wells said. "He helps get you in
the right frame of mind."
She said all divers at the national meet have dives with
about the same degree of difficulty, so the quality of
those dives is emphasized. Her most difficult dive is a back
two-and-one-half off the three-meter board, which rates
2.8 on the 3.0 scale of difficulty.
To qualify for the national meet, Wells said a diver
higk-li
iteira
must execute six optional dives with a total rating of at
leasts.
"Because the degree of difficulty is so high, you get
good quality divers at the national meet," she stid.
What does she know ibout the other divers and her
chances of placing high at Ft. Lauderdale?
"I don't have any idea," she said.
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UNL track coach Frank Sevigne hopes to maintain the
momentum of the Husker distance medley realy as his
team prepares for the outdoor season.
The distance medley team-composed of freshmen Ray
Mahoney in the quarter-mile and Ron Fisher in the half
mile, junior Matt Reckmeyer in the three-quarter mile and
sophomore Harold Stelzer in the mile finished fifth in
last weekend's NCAA indoor track meet. The relay mem
bers, Husker athletes of the week, clocked a time of
9:55.76 at Detroit's Cobo Arena.
"I am very pleased with their time," Sevigne said. "As
we go outdoors, we will try to pick places for them to run
where they can win. We might place them in the two-mile
relay or the spring medley; it just depends on the opposi
tion," he said.
The distance medley team didn't have much experience
in the event before the national meet. The only meet in
.which they had run it was the Michigan State Relays,
where they qualified for the NCAA meet with a time of
9:50.7. ,
Sevigne said the difference in time, almost five seconds
slower at the NCAA meet, was caused by a difference in
track surfaces.
At Michigan State, the Huskers ran on an eight-kps-to-a-mHe
track with a tartan surface, while Cobo Arena has
an 11 -lap wooden track; which he said usually is slower.
"I was more nervous for the Big 8 (Conference) meet
than I was for nationals," Fisher said. "In the Big 8 meet I
was running the open half, but when I got into the nation
al meet I wasn't nervous at all."
v " -
Fisher, an Ottawa, Canada, native, said the NCAA meet
was well-run and that competitors were able to see many
athletes they had only read about.
He said a distance medley functions not' only as indi
viduals, but also as a team if one runner lets down, the
r whole team lets down.
Reckmeyer, from Mt. Morris, 13., said the quarter- and
half-miles don't really win or lose the race for a distance
medley team. The first two legs comprise less than one
third of the whole race, and the pressure actually falls on
the anchor man, he said.
By finishing in the top five in the national meet, the
Husker runners earned All-American honors.
"It feels great to have All-American status,"
Reckmeyer said. "It really came as a shock. It came all of
a sudden. We went to Michigan State just hoping to do
well, and it all fell into place."
Other nominees for Husker athlete of the week were:
senior wrestler Bob Johnson, Gordon; sophomore gym
nast Kathi Ruddick, Omaha; and sophomore trackster
Cindy Dixon, Utica.
