thursday, february 15, 1979
page 10
daily nebraskan
Lady gymnasts confirm
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Photo by Ted Kirk
UNL gymnast Patty Carmichael
By Paul Huscher
UNL womens gymnastics Coach Judy
Schalk said her team has a good chance to
repeat as conference champs at this year's
Big Eight Conference meet in Boulder Sat
urday. "We're going to win the Big Eight this
year," Schalk said. "I have the best team a
round." Four other schools in the conference
besides NU have women's gymnastic teams,
including Kansas, Oklahoma State,
Colorado and Iowa State. All will compete
Saturday.
"Colorado and Oklahoma State are scor
ing very comparable to us," she said. "But
we have more depth than they do.
"We have three good all-arounders while
the other teams only have one or two," she
said.
Those Husker all-arounders are Peggy
Liddick, Patty Carmichael and Renee Reis
dorff. The three finished first, second and
third respectively in last week's meet
against Kansas in Lincoln.
Carmichael agrees
Carmichael, a junior, said she also thinks
Nebraska has an excellent chance to win
the conference meet.
"We have three strong all-arounders and
if everyone does well I think we'll win it,"
she said.
She said she agreed with Schalk that
OSU and CU will give the Huskers their
toughest competition in the much
improved Big Eight conference.
"I think the talent is better throughout
the conference this year," she said.
Carmichael placed first in the OSU-NU
dual earlier this year edging out former
high school teammate Barbie Cantwell.
"It was the first time I beat her
(Cantwell) and I was really happy about
that," she said.
NU's other all-arounders include senior
Liddick and freshman Reisdorff who grad
uated in January from Bryan High School
in Omaha.
Good addition
"Renee has been an excellent addition
to the team," Schalk said. "It's usually
close between Carmichael and Reisdorff in
the all-around."
"And I'm really pleased with Liddick's
scores which have been steadily
improving," Schalk said.
The Huskers, 3-2-1 in dual meets, also
have three strong specialists on the squad.
They are Marcia Austin on the uneven
bars and the vault, Vicky Harvey in the
floor exercise and balance beam and Crissy
Robertson in the vault.
"In each event, the top four scores are
used and in all cases I have four strong
competitors," she said.
"Vaulting is definitely our strongest
event," Schalk said. "We have one of the
best vaulting reams around.
"The balance beam may be our weakest
event because of our inconsistency," she
added.
Optimistic attitude
Austin, from Lincoln High School, said
she also is optimistic about this weekend's
meet and that the attitude of the whole
team is good.
"We really think we can win it," Austin
said. "Everybody's working hard and we
don't have any major injuries."
"Being a freshman, I haven't seen many
of the teams, but the upperclassmen on the
teams are very confident about the meet,"
she said.
Liddick has been a major factor of the
team's success, according to Austin.
"Peggy is a senior and she is having a
great year," she said.
Continued on page 1 1
Senior milers winning streak writes UNL track history
By Jack Schockley
Mark Fluitt is on a hot streak.
Within three weeks, the Husker senior has:
-broken the school indoor record in the mile.
-qulaified for the NCAA indoor track champion
ships in Detroit March 9-10.
-run three of the fastest indoor miles ever re
corded by a Nebraska runner.
Fluitt established a Nebraska school record Jan. 27
when he ran a 4:05.56 mile in a triangular meet against
Doane and Nebraska Wesleyan which qualified him for the
NCAA national meet.
In a dual against Kansas Feb. 3, Fluitt ran a 4:06.3
mile, equaling the old mark held by Lynn Hall. In last Sat
urday's Husker Invitational, he anchored Nebraska's win
ning distance medley relay by running a 4:08 final leg.
Fluitt, it would appear, is emerging as one of the
premier milers in Nebraska track and field history.
But it hasn't always been easy for the 5-foot, 135
pounder. Fluitt came to Nebraska after a fine track career at
Bellevue High School where he was a state champion in
the 880 and runner-up in the mile.
His college track career, however, had a less-than -auspicious
beginning.
"I only ran in one meet my whole freshman year,"
Fluitt said, "and that was the first indoor meet of the sea
son." He said personal problems, injuries and the difficulty
culty of making the transition from high school to college
track hindered his performance as a freshman.
"My best time in the mile my treshman year was 4:33,
and I was running that in the 10th grade," he said.
"I guess you could say I was kind of undisciplined
when 1 was a freshman, and some people didn't take me
seriously."
But after his disappointing freshman season, Fluitt re
solved to apply himself.
Fluitt ran 4:08.7 outdoor mile as a sophomore, had a
personal best of 4:13.1 in the indoor mile last season, and
has surfaced this year as one of the Big Fight's top miler.
"I feel like I'm only a junior," he said. "It feeis like I
started my college career when I was a sophomore."
Fluitt's accomplishments in the mile have come in spite
of a lack of great speed.
"I only run about a 51 -or 52-second quarter (mile),"
he said. "I think the fastest I've ever run was a 50-point
something in a workout two years ago."
Fluitt said he set an indoor season goal of 4:05. I
thought it would be easily in reach because I'd been run
ning all summer. I'm just surprised I got it in the first
meet."
Fluitt called breaking the four-minute barrier in the
outdoor mile "a realistic goal."
"It's something that's in the back of every miler's
mind. I have the potential," he said.
But he played down the significance of the four-minute
mile.
"Mainly, it's a psychological barrier," he said. "People
for so long have had so much respect for the four-minute
mile, but it's really an obsolete time - it's no longer world
class,"
Running a sub-four-minute mile is still one of his ob
jectives for the outdoor season.
"Since it's my last season, I have a three fold goal,"
Fluitt said.
"The first is to break four minutes in the mile. If I do
that, two other things would probably come about from
that.
"One would be breaking the school record (which is
4:00.2 by Bob Unger, who is now a Nebraska assistant
coach) and the other would be winning the Big Fight."
Fluitt said he feels the Huskers, who are unbeaten in
indoor competition, have a good chance to win the Big
Fight indoor championship.
"I've been gearing up for indoors all season long
because I felt we had a shot at the Big Eight title," he
said.
An outdoor championship is also within reach, he add
ed. "It's there, " he said. "If everybody works to their po
tential, we can win it. We had the Big Eight nearly won
last year and we just gave it away.
Fluitt praised NU's track program and the coaching
philisophy of Coach Frank Sevigne.
"One good thing about Frank is he treats people like
adults. Some guys want their coaches to pamper them,
but Frank won't do that. He treats all his athletes like ma
ture men," he said.
Fluitt added that he is glad he decided to come to Ne
braska instead of the other schools that offered him track
scholarships.
"I had scholarship offers to UNO, here and Drake," he
said.
"At one time, I was set to go to UNO. But I wouldn't
trade coming here for anything in the world."
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Photo by Jerry McBrid
Senior Mark Fluitt