page 14
daily nebraskan
thursday, december 7, 1978
sports
mm i
UNL athletic squads have busy weekend scheduled
A number of Nebraska athletic teams
will be busy over the weekend -and espec
ially busy competing in Colorado.
The UNL varsity men's and women's
swimming teams travel west to face
Colorado and Colorado State in dual
meets Friday and Saturday. Nebraska's
gymnastics teams, both the men and
women, will journey to Colorado for
the Rocky Mountain Open tournaments.
UNL's wrestling team opens its con
ference season this weekend with a pair of
duals against highly ranked Oklahoma and
Oklahoma State.
The women's volleyball squad will also
be among elite company over the weekend
at the 1978 AIAW National Champion
ships hosted by the University of Alabama.
Nebraska's women's basketball team
continues a busy schedule with a Home
game tonight at the Bob Devaney Sports
Center. The game will be first of four in
seven days for the Huskers.
Men's swimming
Men's swimming coach Cal Bentz
expects strong competition from both
Colorado teams this weekend.
"Colorado recruited a strong kid in
George Tidmarsh, and while they have a
small squad we're going to have to swim a
good meet and place our people well to
offset their talent," Bentz said. "Colorado
State under a new coach is pretty much in
the same situation we are. Seven or eight
years ago they had probably one of the top
15 or 20 teams in the country, but theii
program has backed off and they're trying
now to turn it around again."
Last weekend the Huskers finished
fourth at the Big Eight relays, which was n
an encouraging start under first -year head
coach Bentz.
Steve Elliott and Lance Green combined
for a first place finish in three meter diving
and a second place finish in one meter
diving to pace the Huskers.
Nebraska also received a strong perform
ance from the 800-yard free relay team of
Dick Conradt, Bengt Jonsson, Anders
Rutqvist and Joe Standfield as they
captured third in the event, setting a new
Nebraska school record of 7: 10.62.
Bentz remains optimistic but is not pre
dicting a Big Eight championship for the
Huskers. He said, "For the first compet
ition this season, we did extremely well."
"Up to this point everything said about
the Nebraska program has been
speculation, but now everyone knows
we're for real and they will have to deal
with us at the Big Eight meet in March,"
Bentz said. "The meet was not really an
accurate reflection of our level of
conditioning. We feel we are better pre
pared at the middle distances, especially
in the strokes and the individual medley."
Women's swimming
UNL women's swimming coach Ray
Huppert is preparing his team for the
Colorado trip after a fourth place finish
in the second annual Husker Invitational
over the weekend. So far the women have
been led by sophomore JoDea Eckstrom.
who has established new school records
this year in the 400 individual medley and
the 100 backstroke.
Women's gymnastics
Women's gymnastics coach Judy Schalk
said that, with the exception of the balance
beam event, she was pleased with her
teams' performance over the weekend in
a triangular with Oklahoma State and
south Dakota State. The women are work
ing out for the Rocky Mountain Open
which will be held in Colorado Springs
this weekend.
"We've had a lot of problems with the
beam this semester and until we get that
problem solved well just have to hope for
higher scores in the other events," the
third -year coach said.
Men's gymnastics
Coach Francis Allen's men's gymnastics
team is on the road again this weekend,
traveling to Denver for their half of the
Rocky Mountain Open. The meet is the
fifth straight road trip for the Huskers.
Last week, although Coach Allen and
Husker All-American Larry Gerard were
in London, England for an international
gymnastics exhibition, the No. 1 ranked
Huskers managed to finish third in the Ball
State All Around Classic.
Assistant Coach Jim Gott schalk was en
thusiastic about UNL's performance and
is looking forward to this week's compet
ition when Gerard joins the team.
"I'm very happy with our performance
at the Ball State Classic," he said. "With
out Larry and with Jim Hartung still
hampered a little by his injured hand,
we did well to place third. Mark Williams
and Chuck Chrnelka came through in
the all around scoring with their season
high."
Nebraska will face strong competition in
the Rocky Mountain Open with most of
the top teams in the Midwest entered in
the meet.
"It's going to take another strong team
performance for us to do well this week
end, but if we're at full strength, it will be
interesting to see how we do, "Allen said.
Wrestling
After competing last weekend in the
Iowa State Invitational Tournament,
first-year head coach Bob Fehrs and his
wrestling team are facing a tough inaug
uration into the conference season. Friday
night the wrestlers will be in Norman to
face the third ranked Sooners and Satur
day travel to Stillwater to meet Okla
homa State, the nation's fourth ranked
team.
"It's early in the season, but both
are extremely powerful teams. Both will
create a challenge for us but we have the
men to give them a battle. They will be
good matches," Fehrs added.
Fehrs was pleased with the team's per
formance at Iowa State. The wrestlers were
led by 167-pounder Court Vining, who
placed second in the overall competition,
and Agron Vasha, who placed third in the
meet. Another bright spot for the Huskers
was 145 -pound Al Freeman, a freshman
from Griswold, Iowa, who was defeated
on a criteria decision after tying his oppon
ent in overtime.
"I think the team progressed quite a bit
from the previous tournaments. We got a
lot out of our men and are looking for
ward to the dual season," Fehrs said.
The Huskers open their home season on
Dec. 11 against Wyoming at 7:30 in the
Bob Devaney Sports Center.
Volleyball
UNL's varsity volleyball team, who cap
tured the Region 6 championship by
defeating Southwest Missouri State, have
been seeded 11th in this weekend's 24
team AIAW National Championships.
UCLA is top-seeded for the 1978
tourney. Hawaii seeded second and
Southern Cal, the defending champion,
seeded fourth.
The tournament is split again into four
pools of six teams each. The UNL women
play third -seeded Utah State, sixth -seeded
San Diego State, Kentucky, Ohio State and
Rutgers.
Other teams in the tournament include
Pepperdine, Texas A&M, Southwest Miss
ouri State, Arizona, Florida State, San Jose
State, Texas-Arlington, Pittsburgh, Oregon,
Alabama, Brigham Young, Purdue, Port
land State, Northern Kentucky and Missi
ssippi. "We're really pleased with the seed
ing," said Husker coach Terry Pettit. "I
think that shows tremendous respect for
our program."
UNL is now 34-21 on the season and
has won 20 of its last 24 games since
compiling a 14-17 record by the halfway
point of the season.
Women's basketball
The Nebraska's women's basketball
team, now 4-3 on the season, will host Mid
land College tonight in a 7:30 contest at
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the Bob Devaney Sports Center.
Coach Lorrie Gallagher's squad is led by
Diane Delvigna's 19.1 points a game and
Carol Carey's 16.1 point average. Garey
is also Nebraska's leading rebounder at
over eight grabs a game.
After Tuesday's 77-71 loss to Kansas
State, UNL faces four opponents in a one
week span. The women travel to Missouri
Western Friday and then return to Lincoln
to host California-Fullerton Monday night
at 7:30. On Dec. 13 the women will face
Wichita State in a 5:15 preliminary game
before the Nebraska men take on Cali
fornia State-Sacramento.
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Photo by Tad Kirk
Andrew Parker (24), last season's leading scorer in the Big Eight Conference with a
22.9 average, returns to lead the Cyclones again this year.
Last seasons darkhorse team
to contend for conference title
By Jim Kay
Sports ad itor
Editor's note: This is the first in a series
of articles previewing Big Eight Conference
basketball outlooks this season.
They were last season's darkhorse team,
young and steadily improving as they came
from preseason obscurity to challenge for
the conference title.
But this year Iowa State won't have the
advantage of being an unknown quantity.
Last season's Big Eight team of surprise
in basketball was Iowa State University.
In a year when the young Cyclones were
supposedly rebuilding, second -year coach
Lynn Nance led his team to a 14-13 record
and a 9-5 league mark, which was good
enough for a second-place tie with
Nebraska behind national power Kansas.
sports shorts
A full-length color film "On the Thresh
hold of Eternity" will be featured on the
Dec. 7 Outdoor Nebraska program on the
Nebraska Educational Television Network.
The film deals with conservation efforts
to protect both endangered and marginal
species of wildlife.
The Lincoln Chamber of Commerce
and UNL announced Monday that the
Amateur Athletic Union has awarded its
AAU-Sears National Junior Olympics to
Lincoln for the third straight year. The
1979 Junior Olympics will be held August
9 through 12.
The University Recreation Department
is offering a cross-country skiing trip to
Rhinelander, Wis. Dec. 29 through Jan. 5.
The $64 cost includes transportation, lodge
accommodations, insurance and equip
ment. The only extra cost will be for food.
For more information contact Dan
Steller at the Recreation Office, 1740
Vine, 472-3467.
There are also a few positions still avail
able on the backpacking and climbing trips
to Mexico over Christmas break. Interested
persons should contact Mark Ebel at the
Recreation office.
This season will not, however, afford the
Cyclones the chance to sneak up on oppon
ents as they did a year ago.
Ten lettermen return this season, in
cluding four starters and four others who
saw starting duty last year. Highlighting the
returnees are the Big Eight's leading scorer
of a year ago, Andrew Parker, and the
nation's leading rebounder, Dean Uthoff.
Parker averaged 22.4 points per game
and Uthoff had 14 rebounds per game, and
both were consensus All Big Eight picks at
season's end .
The two other returning starters are for
ward Bob Fowler and guard Charles Harris.
Fowler was the fifth leading scorer in
the Big Eight against conference opposition
with 15.9 points per game and Harris was
second in the league in assists with 88.
Chuck Harmison, a 6-foot -9, 220 pound
junior, will fill the other forward position
vacated by the graduated Steve Burgason.
Harmison was the Cyclones' second leading
rebounder last year.
The depth at guard will come from
lettermen Jon Ness, Carlton Evans and Jon
Gideon. Double letterman John TiDo will
provide depth at both guard and forward
as the sixth man on this year's team. Ivan
Gruhl is the backup center.
The newcomers on this year's team
are guards Eric Davis of Chicago and
Chuckie White of St. Louis, and forwards
Robert Estes of Kansas City, John Kunnert
of Dubuque, Iowa, and Bill Buchanan from
Campbellsville, Kentucky.
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