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
