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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 7, 1987)
Snorts Carson redshirts; to return in ’88 By Tim Hartmann Senior Reporter Nebraska’s Pat Carson announced Tuesday he will redshirt this season in hopes of benefiting himself and the Comhusker men’s tennis team. Carson, a senior who teamed with Mike Marsh to give the Comhuskers their first Big Eight doubles title in 1986, said he chose to redshirt be cause he wants to prepare for summer tournaments and his final collegiate season in 1988-89. i “I’m going to play on a circuit next summer, and by lifting weights over the summer I gained some weight, so I hope to regain some quick ness during the redshirt season,” Carson said. Carson Carson, who played on a circuit in Finland with teammate Robert Sjoholm following their freshman seasons, said he plans to play on a circuit in either Europe or the United States next summer. Nebraska tennis coach Kerry McDermott said Carson’s decision to redshirt will help the Huskers in the future. He said Nebraska is stocked with players this season. “A lot of people will be graduating this year so I think I’ll be able to help the team more by playing next sea son,” Carson said. Carson finished with a 12-7 record last season playing in the No. 6 singles competition. He also teamed with Marsh to give the Huskers a Big Eight championship in the No. 3 doubles competition. Carson said his goal after the redshirt season is to capture another Big Eight title. “It was kind of a fun thing to win the Big Eight doubles title, so in the future I would like to win Big Eight titles in both singles and doubles,” he said. Carson said he will spend his redshirt season practicing and playing in open tournaments. He said he is al lowed to play the tournaments as long as he pays his own fees. McDermott said Carson can im prove in several aspects of his game during the redshirt year. “There are some areas we hope he can improve on,” he said. “One is his serve. He has a good serve motion, but he sometimes rushes himself during the match. He also needs to learn to serve to his opponents back hand, and not always to serve to the forehand. “The other thing about redshirting is that it makes you realize how much you miss it. We’d like him to get a little bit more serious with his prac tice habits.” It’s a family affair Runner follows father's footsteps By Rich Cooper Staff Reporter Nebraska sophomore cross country runner Michele Marthaler grew up with running. Marthaler started running in seventh grade. One year later, she finished third in the mile at the Minnesota High School track and field championships. Marthaler said she started run ning because everyone in her fam ily liked to run. Her father, Vernon, was the Minnesota High School champion in the one-mile run for two years. “Running is a pretty big thing in our family,” Marthaler said. Marthaler followed in her father’s footsteps by setting the state record in the two-mile run during her seriior season at Brooten High School in Brooten, Minn. She also was the Minnesota state cham pion for two consecutive years in the 3,200-meter run. Marthaler said she went to the Minnesota track and field champi onships last year to see if her record in the two-mile run would be bro ken. She said it wasn’t “I thought the record would get broken last year because there are a lot of good runners in Minnesota,” Marthaler said. “I’m very surprised the record is still there. “But someday it will be broken because records are made to be broken,” she said. Marthaler said she decided to attend Nebraska because she liked the Comhusker program and coach Jay Dirkscn. She said she was also recruited by Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota and United States Inter national in San Diego, Calif. “All the programs that wanted me were good but I ready wanted to come to Nebraska,” Marthaler said. “Coach Dirksen is a very good coach and I liked the people be cause they were so nice to me.” She finished her freshman sea son at Nebraska by earning a 15th place finish at the 1986 Big Eight Cross Country Championships in Manhattan, Kan. She also earned a fifth-place finish in the indoor mile at the Big Eight track championships and a third-place finish in the outdoor 10,000 meter run. Dirksen said those accomplish ments show that Marthaler had an easy time adjusting to the workouts at Nebraska. “When Michele came here it was like she has been here for a year already,” Dirksen said. “She is a versatile runner, she can run a good mile time and then turn right around and run the 10,000.” Marthaler said she was able to adjust to Dirksen’s workouts be cause she ran a lot of distance races in high school. “My coach (Anne Niklaus) in high school believed in making you run a lot of mileage,” Marthaler said. “When I came here the only thing I had to get used to was the intensity of the workouts and the meets, the mileage was already there.” Dirksen said Marthaler has been veiy consistent this year. At the Minnesota Invitational last week end, she finished 15th out of 260 runners while running as the Husker’s No. 3 runner. “Michele is a very hard worker, she works very hard in practice,” Dirksen said. “She seems a httlc more relaxed in meets and because of that, she is running better.” Marthaler said it was difficult to relax last year in meets because college competition is more in tense than high school athletics. Marthaler said this year is dif ferent because she has a year of experience. “This year I know what I have to do in the big meets,” she said. “I expect a lot from myself this year because I feel I’m better then last year.” Marthaler said the first half of her season has been tough because of the intensity of the workouts. She said she will feel better about running later in the season because the workouts will involve less dis tance and more speed. “I’ve been feeling pretty tired the last couple of weeks because we’ve been putting in a lot of mile age,” Marthaler said. “But as we start to taper our workouts I will start to feel more rested. “I really am pushing myself right now because I want to get stronger. At the end of season I know everything is going to pay off.” Marthaler said she likes the support her parents provide. She said her parents have already made the trip from Minnesota to sec her run this season. ,0 “My parents are my No. 1 fans,” Marthaler said. “Last weekend at the Minnesota Invitational my whole family was there and it helped me so much.” Marthaler said she enjoys run ning in races because it lets her know how she compares to other runners who are at her talent level. “I love to compete,” Marthaler said. “But when I start to lose that competitive edge, that’s when I’ll give it up.” Dally Nebraskan file photo Michele Marthaler Osborne: Kansas game is little threat By Mark Derowitsch Senior Reporter Nebraska football coach Tom Osborne said Tuesday that the Com huskers should have no problem de feating Kansas this Saturday in Lin coln. Kansas, with a 1 -3 record, broke a 10-game losing streak as freshman quarterback Kevin Verdugo replaced Nebraska native Kelly Donohoc and led the Jayhawks to a 16-15 victory over Southern Illinois. Verdugo completed 14 of 26 passes for 128 yards as the Jayhawks won for the first time since a 35-23 defeat of the Salukis Oct. 4, 1986. Osborne said the big problem sur rounding the 1:30 p.m. game at Memorial Stadium is the atmos phere. He said he is concerned that the Nebraska players may be absorb ing the fact that the game is supposed to be easy. Osborne said that although Ne braska should win the game, he is concerned because the Buskers will be playing without quarterback Steve Taylor. Taylor suffered a bruised left shoulder and a severe headache dur ing Nebraska’s 30-21 victory over South Carolina last Saturday at Memorial Stadium. Osborne said Taylor’s absence concerned him because Kansas upset Oklahoma 28-11 in 1984 when Sooner quarterback Danny Bradley sat out the game with injuries. “You don’t have to look back very many years when Oklahoma played Kansas in Lawrence in about the same type of situation,” Osborne said. “And it wasn’t too many years before that when Kansas again beat them when Oklahoma had Steve Davis playing and he was healthy.” “Those things happen. The things that we have to do is to really play well. We can’t let Kansas get encour agement or momentum in the game. And I’m sure they’ll come in here and try hard.” Osborne said senior quarterback Cletc Blakcman will replace Taylor. Blakeman guided Nebraska to a 70-0 victory over Kansas last season as Taylor sat out the game with injuries. Osborne said the Jayhawks aren’t as bad as their record indicates. “Kansas probably has better play ers than what the average person would think,” Osborne said. “We tried to recruit a lot of them and not everybody we recruited goes to Ne braska. They got size and they have some talent at a lot of positions.” “I think we have more good play crs than Kansas has and wc have more depth. And we have a lot more things going for us in terms of momentum. But it isn’t to say they can’t play football. I f they get a lot of opportuni ties and we don’t play well, then they could make a very good ball game out of it” Osborne said the Jayhawks will try to run the ball at Nebraska. ‘i think Kansas tried to change their philosophy somewhat. At one time, there were a lot of people going to come into the Big Eight and kind of revolution things by throwing the football,” he said. “Now, for some reason, they’re all going back to the run. 1 don’t know why, 1 guess they just felt they haven’t been able to do very well the other way.” Osborne said the Jayhawks have improved this season. “I think I’ve seen some improve mcnt in their team over the last three or four weeks,” Osborne said. “They lost some disappointing games but they’ve gotten better. I predict that they will come in here and try to run the ball and control the ball as much as they can, and keep the ball away from our offense as much as they can.” , Osborne said he also expects the Jayhawkstoblit/ like South Carolina. “Anytime you show yourself vul nerable to something, you belter be ready for that to happen,” he said. “We’ll prepare this week against some of the things South Carolina did even though Kansas has not shown it.” Osborne said the Huskers need to improve in a few areas, including turnovers. Nebraska has committed 15 turnovers this season.