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J Pago 12 ' ' Daily Ncbraskan Friday, April 27, 103 1
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Nebraska's national indoor champion women's
track team will compete at the Drake Relays today
and Saturday in Des Moines, Iowa, while the men
are sending a split squad to Drake and the Okla
homa Invitational today.
The 75th annual Drake Relays is the largest meet
in the country this weekend and one of the biggest
meets of the season.
The meet features some of the best performers in
the country, including returning Drake Relays 100
meter dash champion Angela Thacker'of Nebraska.
Thacker is slated to compete in the Invitational
100-meter dash, and in the 400-meter and sprint
medley relays. ..
Jennie Badami, Rhonda Blanford and Debra Powell
will run with Thacker in the 400-meter relay. Then
best time is 44.23. They have qualified for the NCAA
outdoor championships May 28 to June 2. Of all
Nebraska relays, men and women, Coach Gary
Pepin said they have the best chance to win at
Drake.
Thacker will be joined in the sprint medley relay
by Holly Ashmore, Blanford and Powell. Nebraska's
1600-meter relay team at Drake will be Badami,
Ashmore, Marcia Tate and Nicole AIL The 1600
relay has also qualified for NCAA's. Also competing
for Nebraska in the relays will be the 3,200-meter
relay team of Ali, Nicole Landmann, Sue Nelson and
Carol Nunnally.
Competing in the individual events for the Nebras
ka women, in addition to Thacker, will be Nicole Ali
in the 400-meter hurdles and Powell and Blanford,
both in the 100-meter hurdles.
Nebraska will compete without three-time Drake
Relays' Outstanding Performer Merlene Ottey, who
has completed her eligibility at Nebraska. Pepin said
the women are not as strong as tsy were a year ago.
He said the young team misses Ottey's scores and is
slowed by injuries. But he said he thinks they are
strong enough to win the Big Eight Outdoor Cham
pionships in Lincoln May 11 and 12.
The men will send 1 5 athletes to Drake and eight
field men to Norman, Oklahoma today.
The three relay teams entered at Drake are the
400 (Stephan Fletcher, Ed Ross, Anthony Small and
Dennis Wallace); the distance medley (Glen Cun-
UNL. Sk
By Stu PospisU
Left in the dark by both Mother
Nature and Wichita State, Nebraska's
baseball team once again failed to
sweep both ends of a double-header at
Buck Beltzer Field Thursday.
A 48-minute rain and hail delay dur
ing the first game, which Nebraska
won 9-7, resulted in Wichita State
winning the second game, 4-2, after six
innings because of darkness. The twin
bill took 6 hours and 22 minutes to
complete.
The Huskers' were never the same
team after the delay. Leading 9-5,
Nebraska could only score two runs in
its final eight innings of the day while
stranding eight baserunners.
Relief ace Bill McGuire pitched
Nebraska out of a jam to save his
fourth game in the opener.
Wichita State had narrowed the defi
cit to 9-7 in the seventh, scoring two
runs off starter Jeff Koenigsman and
reliever Tom Holmes and had loaded
the bases when McGuire entered.
McGuire threw out Victor Dunn at
the plate after the Shockers' Loren
Hibbs hit a chopper directly at the,
Husker pitcher. Rick Wrona then fouled
out to Mike Duncan to end the inning.
"McGuire made a great fielding play,"
Nebraska Coach John Sanders said.
"He didn't get both outs, but he did get
the force play." - : i
Koenigsman, who raised his record
to 5-1, encountered problems early.
After being bailed out of the first
inning by a double play, Koenigsman .
surrendered four runs in the second
on three hits and four walks. "
Nebraska scored one run in its half
of the inning, then erupted for five
third-inning runs.
Freshman Paul Meyers drove in the
first three runs on a bases-loaded
double to left field, then Mark Davis
collected two RBIs on a right-field
ningham, John Hastings, Gerard O'CaUaghan and
Mark Pcrlinger); and the 3,200 (Cunningham, Mark
Gunby, O'CaUaghan and IYr linger).
Competing individually at Drake will be Wally'
Duffy in the 10,000-mctcr run, Stephan Fletcher
and Ed Ross in the 110-ractcr high hurdles, Mark
Gokie in the 1,500-mcter run, J Jones in the 400
meter Imrdles, Jeff Loescher in the high jump, Glen
Loontjer in the pole vault, Kurt Russell in the 3,000
meter steeplechase, Anthony Small in the 100
meter dash and Dennis Wallace in the Invitational
200-meter dash.
The athletes going to Oklahoma are John Irwin,
discus; Mike Schnebel, shot put, discus; Luke Tray
nowicz, discus; Gary Jensen, Steve Belmore and Jon
Claymore, javelin; Mike Blair, high jump; and Mike
Erickson, pole vault.
Pepin said the men are getting better all the time.
He said he is pleased that they have set five school
records this season.
In the high jump, Darren Burtow leaped a school
record 7-4 V. Burton js out of action after cutting his
toe, but Pepin said he should be back for Big Eights.
For other school records, Mark Gokie ran 3:45.07 in
the 1,500 and Illinois transfer Wally Duffy ran
30:13.9 in the 10,000. Ed Ross ran 13.82 in the 110
hurdles and Glen Loontjer pole vaulted 17-9.
Loontjer set his pole vault record last Saturday at
the Kansas Relays. He held the old record of 17-6.
Pepin said he was pleased with the performances
of the men and women at the Kansas Relays. In spite
of bad weather, freshman Jill Noel broke her school
record in the 3,000 meter-run with 9:37.47. Use
Nebraska women's mile relay team set a new sta
dium record, running 3:42.62. For the men, Steve
Belmore won the javelin, throwing 225-1, and Den
nis Wallace won the 200 in 21.04.
Also qualifying for the NCAA's on the women s
team were Thacker, 100, 200 and long jump; Blan
ford 100 hurdles; Tate, 400; Heather Smith, high
jump; and Deb Clark, heptathlon. Thacker's perfor
mances qualified her for the Olympic trials. Blan
ford also qualified for the trials.
For the men, Darren Burton and Jeff Loescher
qualified for the NCAA's in the high jump. Loescher
has jumped 7-0. Loontjer in the pole vault, and Ed
Ross in the 1 10 hurdles also qualified for nationals.
Ross, Loontjer and Burton have qualified for the
Olympic Trials.
Blanford sets 1984 Olympic goals
By Scctt Ahlstnmd
Rhonda Blanford knows what it means to be a
champion, and the junior hurdler for Nebraska's
women's track team says she hopes to continue the
tradition in June's U.S. Olympic Trials.
The Big Eight's defending indoor and outdoor
champion hurdler, Blanford has set her sights on
making the 1984 U.S. Olympic team in the 100-meter
hurdles. .
Blanford currently is ranked seventh in the U.S. in
the 100-meter hurdles, but said she could jump up
the list and finish in the top three at the trials. .
"I'm seventh now, but when the trials come
around I could be higher" she said. "Everybody's
going to have a chance at the trials. It won't matter
what your ranking is, just how good you're running
that day. Whoever gets hot is going to make the
' if- i 11 ' rt 1 1' i
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team. You have to be confident to stand a chance.
And in my opinion, I have as good a chance as
anyone at making the team."
Blanford said making the U.S. Olympic team has
been a goal of hers since she began in track. The No.
1 -ranked high school hurdler her senior year at
Aurora Central in Denver, Blanford said just making
the trials in '84 has been satisfying to her.
"I'm happy that I made it this far. My goal at the
start of the year was qualifying for the trials. Now
that IVe made it, I'd like to run my best," she said. "If
I don't make the team I'm still going to be pleased
with what I've accomplished."
The hurdlers ranked ahead of her are all older
than Blanford. Blanford said she is enthusiastic
about her chances at' making the 1CC3 Olympic
team.
77 77 77
double.
An inside-the-park home run by
Duncan, in the fifth inning, was marred
by centerfielder Hibbs colliding with
the outfield fence. He was not seriously
injured and remained in the game.
The second-game woes for Nebraska
again began in the first inning. Dunn
singled, and two outs later, Hibbs
knocked his third homer of the season
onto Avery Avenue.
Losing pitcher Mike Dobbs, 3-3, retir
ed nine straight batters until Wichita
State strung together three singles and
a double by Tim Raley for two runs in
vthe fifth.
Nebraska, which had stranded two
runners in the first and three in the
second, produced a third-inning run
on Duncan's triple past the rightfielder
and McGuire's RBI single. r
Davis pulled the Huskers to within
4-2 on a pinch-hit home run to lead off
the sixth, but Shocker reliever Shawn
Pumphrey then retired the next three
batters to earn the save.
The game was called in the seventh
inning after Holmes had walked two
consecutive batters with one out.
Wichita State, of the Missouri Valley
Conference is 30-13. Nebraska, ranked
10th by Collegiate Baseball magazine,
is 40-14.
The Huskers will play North Central
Conference member Morningside Sun
day afternoon at Beltzer Field if Morn
ingside and UNO complete their four
game weekend series. If played, the
games will start at 1 p.m. and no
admission will be charged.
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Nebraska's trr;r 'o spriiri weather driest cut chert the II u.!
The same weather turned bzclz to sunny seconds Liter, tl:
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cr.a the show west on. '
