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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (March 19, 1984)
Peg 3 0 Daily Nebraskan Monday, March 19, 1984 Sooners claim Big Eiglrc gpianastics title By Petty Pryor NORMAN, Old a. The competition at the Big Eight men's gymnastics champ ionships was as close as it comes, with the Oklahoma Sooners emerging with a victory against two-time defending champion Nebraska, 279.65-279.55. Iowa State was third with 276.35. The Huskers led going into the final event, 232.95-23 1 .75. But then, OU jun ior Mark Oates turned in a 9.8 perform ance on the high bar followed by senior Mike Sims' clinching 9.85 routine which sealed the Sooners' win. "I expected it to be close, so I pre pared my team that way." OU coach Greg Buwick said. That's the thing about this conference you never know what's going to happen." Nebraska dominated the all-around competition, placing three gymnasts in the top four. Sophomore Chris Rie gel won the title with a combined com pulsoryoptional score of 1 13.50. It was Riegel's first all-around title as a Hus ker. Senior teammate Jim Mikus was second at 112.85, followed by Sims at 112.15 and Nebraska's Wes Suter at 110.0. Riegel, suffering from a variety of injuries, often has perfomred at less than top form this season. "I've had a real shaky year, but I'm glad I picked it up here," he said. "I got a lot of nerves out at this meet. These were my first compulsories since June." Riegel got off to a slow start in Fri day's compulsories with major breaks in both floor exercise (9.0) and pom- L Nebraska's Chris Riegel performs Bob Devaney Sports Center Feb. 4. Big Eight Championships in Norm mel horse (9.1 5). His parallel bars rou tine Saturday was a shaky one, too. But he covered up adequately to sal vage a 9.35. The bar was a little loose and I just lost my balance and had to recover as quickly as I could," he said. "It was a dumb mistake and makes me feel bad, because I could have won it (the meet) for us." - Riegel hit stride in the vault, scoring a 9.85 Friday night and a 9.8 Saturday to win the individual title in the event. Dave TroubaDa!!y Nebraskan on the still rings during a meet at the Biegel won the all-around title at the an, Okla., Saturday. Parallel bars proved to be a problem for the Sooners, too, when Rob Mahur in's 9.6 was the only noteworthy score. "I thought we threw it away after the p-bars bur performance there was nowhere near' what we're capable of doing," Buwick said. "We had our prob lems, but Nebraska had theirs, too." Among the Huskers' problems was an overall poor showing on pommel horse, NU coach Francis Allen said. "We didn't perform as well as we should have on pommel horse," he said. "We gave up one or two points there." Still the Huskers were able to cap ture the top three places in the event. Mikus took third with 9.55, Riegel was second with 9.65 and senior Frank Hibbitts won his first Big Eight medal tying Sims at 9.7. Another first for Nebraska was fresh man Neil Palmer's appearance in all around competition. Although Palmer placed last in the field of nine, his 107.20 performance pleased Allen. "He did a tremendous job on com pulsories," Allen said. There's going to be a bright future for that kid." Both Allen and Buwick were looking ahead to NCAA competition and meet ing top-ranked UCLA at Pauley Pavil ion April 12-14. This one (the Big Eight champion ship meet) is history," Allen said. "We've got to get busy and get on UCLA" Nebraska results All-around 1. Chris Riegel, 113.5; 2. Jim Mikus, 112.85; 4. Wes Suter, 110.0. Floor exercise 3. Riegel, 9.65; 4. (tie) Mikus, 9.55; 6. (tie) Suter, 9.5. Pommel horse 1 . (tie) Frank Hib bitts, 9.7; 3. Riegel, 9.65; 4. Mikus, 9.55. Still rir,3 3. Mikus, 9.6; 6. Bran don Hull, 9.45. Vaulting Riegel, 9.8; 5. Suter, 9.5; 6. (tie) Mikus, 9.4. Parallel bars 1. (tie) Mikus, 9.6; 4. (tie) Suter, Riegel, 9.35; 6. Hull, 9.3. High bar 3. Mikus, 9.7; 5. (tie) Suter, 9.6. DePatil, Wake - Forest roll to easy NCAA wins A coaching legend stayed alive and the last Big Eight team in the NCAA tournament field died Sunday when the Lincoln-hosted Midwest Regional ended at the Bob Devaney Sports Cen ter. , Ray Meyer, making his last tourna ment appearance after 42 years as coach at DePaul, saw his Blue Demons steamroll past Illinois State 76-61 . Junior center Tyrone Corbin scored 20 points and collected nine rebounds for the 27-2 Demons. Kansas, which had to come back from a 12-point deficit early in the second half to beat Alcorn State Fri day night, fell to Wake Forest 69-59. The Demon Deacons led by as many as 15 in the second half, despite trailing by one point at halftime. Wake Forest, now 22-7. will meet DePaul in St. Louis Friday, with the winner taking on the survivor of the Houston-Memphis State game for the Midwest Regional title. "It was real difficult for us to chase them with our size and their quick ness," said first-year Kansas Coach Larry Brown. "It's tough to come back against a zone team with the quickness Wake Forest has." The difference, Brown said, was the activeness of the Wake Forest front line. "When we came out in the second half, we didn't look active at all I don't know what could have caused that, but our kids were standing around and their kids were making things happen," Brown said. The Jayhawks were getting the shots they wanted in the second half, he said, but they weren't going down. Jayh?.vk senior Kelly Knight had par ticularly bad luck, missing several open jumpers from the corners and a slam shot as the Jayhawks continued to slip. "We really had the shots," Knight said. "But it just happened that what ever they did worked and whatever we did didn't." - Wake Forest Coach Carl Tacy kept Kansas off balance with changing de fenses and patient offense that waited for the 6-6 Green, who finished with 20 points, to post up the smaller Jay hawks guards near the basket. When ever Kansas succeeded in double teaming Green's attack, it usually left Teachey or a guard open.' "We felt they might get a little tired if we stayed after them," Tacy said. The full court pressure had an effect for us in the latter stages of the game. "We rested on offense. We wanted to control the temp of the game with our defense, and I think we did that." ' Kansas was led by Knight's 12 points and eight rebounds. Teachey and Lee Garber had 13 points for the Deacons behind Green's 20. n DePaul didn't come to town until Saturday morning, by which time Illi nois State's Redbirds were already cele brating their first-ever NCAA tourna ment victory. A 17-foot jumper by Lou Stefanovic with eight seconds left gave Illinois State a 57-56 victory against Alabama Friday. But while the Redbirds were moti vated by a close 69-66 loss to DePaul in December, they were only able to manage a 30 percent shooting performance in the first half. In addition three Red birds had three fouls each. v r Dm TrcutsDc:." Ksbrts&sn Kenny Green (21) f Waie Forest stretches for a rebound o tcanmats Lea Garber and Kssss' Gre Dreilln-? lisn'r m. v" Fm Eeccnd-round N CAA Tournament game, CO-ED CBndsy ct the Ecb Devaney Cpcrts Center. n ; i i Nebraska (18-11) vs. Xavier (21-9). Monday March 19, 8:10 EST Cincin nati Gardens, Cincinnati, Ohio. The Starters: C Jeff Jenkins G Victor Fleming G Ralph Lea Sr. 6-8 16.8 5.8 Sr. 6-6 14.6 4.2 So. 6-3 7.0 3.9 Pot. Nebraska Yr. Hi. Pt. Reb. F Curtis Moore Jr. 6-4 3.0 NA F Ronnie Smith Jr. 6-3 2.5 2.5 C DaveHoppen So. 6-11 19.7 6.8 G David Ponce Sr. 5-10 8.0 1.5 G Eric Williams Sr. 6-2 7.7 2.4 Pet. Xar Yr. Ht FM. Rsb. F- Dext0r Baiiey Sr. 6-5 9.6 6.0 F John Shimko Sr. 6-5 8.2 2.8 The Game: The Musketeers moved this season from their on-campus gym to the Cin: cinnati Gardens for home games. They were 11-0 at the Gardens and 14-0 a home. They also played three games at Riverfront Coliseum. Xavier sports information director Dan Benedict said the Musketeers use -multiple defenses and a fast-moving cfTense. The team averaged 72.2 points per game this season while allowing opponents 65.4 points. Xavier is a Jesuit school with an enrollment of 4,500. The Musketeers are in the Midwestern City Conference. They finished third in the conference during the regular season behind Oral Roberts and Loyola of Chicago. Loyola, despite finishing ahead of Xavier, was ignored by both post-season tourna ments. Xavier just missed a repeat trip to the NCAA tourney, losing to Oral Roberts, 6S-GS, in the conference tourn ament final