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daily nebraskan
friday, march 11, 1977
PC
Kluskers skip indi
vsdy
d events to bolster relays
By Mike McCarthy
Although the track team qualified for the NCAA In
door Track and Field Championships in eight events, it
will only run in four.
The championships are at Cobo Arena in Detroit (to
day) and Saturday with preliminaries to run in the after
noon, and the finals at night.
However, three Huskers who qualified in individual
events will be pulled off to help the relay teams, assistant
coach Dan Morran said.
Freshman Scott Poehling qualified in the 600- and 880
yard runs, but will skip them to bolster the Huskers'
chances in the two-mile relay. Junior Paul McCain also
qualified for nationals in the 880-yard run and he will run
a leg in the two-mile relay.
The same goes for Husker senior Matt Keckmeyer. He
qualified in the 1,000-yard run, but will be used to run
the two-mile relay. The fourth Husker leg on the relay is
sophomore Ron Fisher.
UNL sophomore Jeff Lee is the only Husker who will
compete individually. Lee qualified in the 60-yard high
hurdles with a 7.1 second clocking.
"You have to describe Jeff Lee in superlatives,"
Crew raises money,
collects railroad ties
By Kevin Schnepf
If there were a contest for the most original fund
raising idea, the UNL crew club would probably grab first
prize.
The crew team this weekend will pick up old railroad
ties and sell them to contractors, according to assistant
coach Mark Stormberg.
Stormberg said the club members also will sell "Go
Big Red" license plates and crew bumper stickers at the
state high school basketball tournament this weekend.
In previous years, the crew team has collected S and H
green stamps. The team also sponsored a fund-raising
drive, Stormberg said.
"We put on a raffle drive called the Cornhusker Sweep
stakes," Stormberg said. "It was the biggest rund raiser on
the university and we were able to buy a new racing
shell."
Stormberg said club members plan to schedule a car
wash this spring.
Stormberg acted as the interim head coach for the
team until two tweeks ago when Frank Sands was named
the new head coach. '.'
Sands, a 22 -year-old Pennsylvanian native, has eight
years of rowing experience and four years of rigging
experience.
The Huskers1 first meet will be March 26 at Branched
Oak Lake against Kansas State University.
Stormberg said the team is in better condition than last
year, but said it is behind on technique.
- We're hoping to get some water time," he said, "but
we've been involved in building a new 14-station rowing
tank. This tank will allow us to practice in the winter and
on nasty days."
Stormberg said conditioning has been sped up since the
beginning of second semester.
"We've increased our weights and running," he said.
"We're still negotiating with the owner of Capitol Beach
to see if we can practice there "
Stormberg said the crew team has been practicing on
Branched Oak Lake where all meets will be.
Morran said. "He is about as explosive as they come for
his size. He may beat everyone to the hurdles in Detroit.
If he can run seven seconds, hell have a good shot at
winning."
Morran said UNL is stacking the relays to get more
points.
"We feel we have a better chance of placing our relay
teams," he added. "We could have placed individuals in
events, but that would be a tough road tovhold under
classmen to.
"We're hoping the other relay teams will regress in
quality when they pull their good runners off to run
individual races."
But the Huskers, who are using just the opposite
formula to garner points, will try to place the distance
medley and mile relay squads.
Huskers Jeff Thurman, Tom Dovel, Keith Vhi taker and
Harold Stelzer will handle the distance medley. And Ray
Mahoney , Ron Hoagland, Dovel and Pat, McKenzie ws?l
run the mile relay. 1
"The distance medley his beat some quality teams here
(at the UNL Sports Complex)," Morran said, "but to say
we could win the race is saying a lot.
"Wei! be in the race from front to back," Morran said
of the Husker relay that placed last year at nationals.
In the mile relay, Morran said only eight teams across
the nation have qualified. Points at nationals are given for
the first six teams. , .
"Teams have won the title with 18 points," Morran
added. "If the points are spread out, well place high.
Well have to place all three relay teams, and Lee.
"Anytime a team places in the top 10, it's in the very
respectable category," he said.
The University of Texas at El Paso, Okla., and Kansas
Universities will be the teams to contend with, Morran
added.
The Huskers' workouts since the Big 8 meet two weeks
ago have "changed to more quality and rest," Morran said.
Cobo's track has four-lanes with sharp curves.
"We've been telling our runners to stay out of trouble
and stay out of the pack," he said. "We told Reckmeyer,
our first runner, to get off to a good jump in the two-mile
relay to avoid traffic."
"If anything goes well Saturday night, well be very
happy," Morran said.
Ineligibility disasters can be avoided
By Jim Hunt
When wrestling coach Orval Borgialli lost nine wrestlers
because of poor grades and the track team lost one of its
most promising triple jumpers it seems that it is time to
look at the athlete and education.
Although Borgialii lost from one-third to one-half of
his squad, he said one wrestler was ineligible because of a
low grade point average (CPA).
That means eight wrestlers were ineligible because they
didn't pass at least 12 hours in one semester. This also was
rebounds
the case with the Huskers" fine triple jumper. An athlete
also must pass at least 24 credit hours in one school year.
In addition, the athlete must maintain a 1.8 CPA, a
requirement Ursula Walsh, Athletic Dept. Counselor, said
she thinks is realistic. .
Most ineligible
Walsh said in her five years at UNL, this year scored
among the highest in numbers of ineligible athletes. Any
student can have a bad semester, she said.
This writer agrees that any student can have a bad
semester. However, one semester would not hurt an
athlete if he was not in the Big 8 Conference.
By NCAA rules, if an athlete is eligible at the start of
the school year, he is eligible the entire year. This is not
the case in the Big 8 where an athlete's eligibility is deter
mined on a semester basis.
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Photo by Tad Kirk
like McGee cf Ornsha North Ilgli School, the tz&A prc5c toons in state fcii school ba JceihaH history,
watches from the bench as Lis team is defeated by Pragma Coke. McGee who foiled out with 4:53 left in
the last quarter, scored 27 points, brirrj his tztzl pcisf oufpet for his csreer to 1,595, and erasing the
cSi cudcof 1 ,SSS points, was set by forcer Oza Tech tzi NU star Fred Ikre from 19i043.
Walsh said most coaches take care of their own
athletes.
Walsh handles the academic problems for the football
and basketball teams. The freshman athletes on those
squads are required to go to Selleck Quadrangle study hall
for two hours Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday
evenings.
Borgialli said he has not required that his freshman go
to study hall, but after this year's disaster he is going to
start requiring them to attend the study sessions.
; Travel
Another factor involved in athletes and education is
travel.
Walsh said the Athletic Dept. rarely loses the football
players and, one of the reasons is football players travel
less than other athletes.
During the basketball season Joe Cipriano's Huskers
often find themselves missing three days of class in a
week. This situation is similar in other sports such as
wrestling, gymnastics and golf. .
, Athletes aren't the only students with problems as far
as having time to study. True, college athletics do take "j
a lot of time, but there are few students who can make it
through the school year without working at least a part
time job.
However, this year might just be a freak year as far as
players being ineligible.
Walsh said UNL leads the Big 8 in the number of foot
ball players that graduate. Ninety-one per cent of all
Husker football players graduate, Walsh said.
Most football players are put on a five-year program
when they come to Lincoln, she said. Since many foot
ball players are red-shirted, a five-year program allows
them to take 12 or 13 hours a semester instead of IS or
16, Walsh said.
There are some football players that graduate in four
years, like Rik Bonness and Tom Ruud but most take an
extra semester.
Basketball graduates
Walsh said the graduation rate among Husker basket
ball players is even higher.
Basketball players are scheduled on a four-year
program when they enter UNL, but Walsh encourages
them to take at least one summer session.
This year all three basketball seniors, Bob Siegel,
Rickey Harris and Allen Holder, will graduate.
Although Borgialli didn't have figures he said the
graduation rate among wrestlers was close to 100 per cent
before this year. Borgialli said wrestlers work on a four
year academic program.
"I don't try to exploit the kids," Borgialli said. "I try
to get them a degree and get them out of here."
It appears to this writer that there is a breakdown of
communication between some coaches and Walsh.
She is here to help and willing to help and I think the
coaches should use their ability to get the players their
degrees. ,
My job is not keeping the athletes eligible, but getting
them an education," Walsh said.
laybe if the coaches let Walsh do her job we can avoid
the disaster that took place this year.
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