Gymnasts seek spot in NCAA tourney
By Lori Griffin
Staff Reporter
Adrenaline will be pumping when the Ne
braska women’s gymnastics team competes in
the Midwest Regional Saturday night in Nor
man, Okla.
Nebraska women’s gymnastics coach Rick
Walton, whose squad will enter the meet
seeded second behind No. 1-ranked Utah, said
the Comhuskers will receive a stiff challenge in
the meet.
Joining Nebraska and Utah at the competi
tion will be Arizona, Arizona State, Oklahoma
and Houston Baptist. The winner of each of the
five regions receives an automatic bid to the
NCAA Championships April 22-23 in Salt
Lake City, while the remaining seven spots will
be filled by squads receiving at-large berths.
Walton said Nebraska’s losses to Utah,
Arizona and Arizona State earlier this season
will make no difference in the regional compe
tition. The meet begins at 7 p.m. at the Lloyd
Noble Center.
“This is going to be a good competition,”
Walton said. “Anybody who hits their routines
can win. We need consistent performances
because only the best teams should be at the
NCAA tournament.”
Walton said he expects Nebraska to do well
even though it has a strong chance of earning an
at-large berth if it doesn’t win the regional
competition. At-large berths arc distributed
according to team scoring averages, and
Nebraska’s 188.51 average is second to Utah’s
190.50 in the Midwest Region.
Walton said preparations have not changed
for the regional competition. He said Nebraska
is ready for the meet because it is rested and has
momentum after winning the Big Eight cham
pionship earlier this season in Ames, Iowa.
Walton said he is looking forward to com
peting in the Midwest Regional because the
Huskers are in a position to do well. He said
Nebraska, which posted a 186.1-184.7 road
victory against Oklahoma earlier this season,
has traditionally done well in Norman.
Walton said he is pleased that Nebraska is
seeded second entering the regional competi
tion. He said the Huskers, ranked No. 7 with a
12-8 record, are a good team that will have an
impact at the regional and national competi
tions.
Walton said the only team member who will
be competing without tournament experience
is freshman Lisa McCrady. He said Nebraska
will be led by sophomore Michele Bryant and
juniors Crystal Savage and Jcaneane Smith,
who have all scored more than 38.0 in the all
around competition this season.
Walton said Nebraska docs not have to get
motivated for the competition.
“This is something they have worked for and
trained for since August, and they know how
important it is,” Walton said.
Walton said the Midwest Region is difficult
and could produce half of the field for the
NCAA Championships.
“I think this region could produce as many as
five teams at the NCAA Championships,”
Walton said.
Husker bowler has chance to pioneer .
in ‘unnoticed’ sport at national meet
By Steve Sipple
Senior Reporter
Nebraska bowler Mike Shady has
a chance to be a pioneer in a sport that
he said has gone unnoticed long
enough.
Shady, a junior from Ripon, Wis.,
will try to become the first collegiate
bowler to participate on two national
championship teams when the Com
huskers travel to Denver for the na
tional meet April 14-17.
Shady said the distinction give the
Huskers more exposure.
“You hear a lot about the football
team and how much they practice all
the time,” Shady said. “I’m out there
every day putting in three hours.
We’re just starling to get some press
and we’re ranked fifth nationally, but
I think eventually recognition will
come.”
Shady bowled for the University of
Wisconsin-LaCrosse when it won the
national title in 1985 and then trans
ferred to Nebraska in 1986.
Nebraska qualified for the national
meet by finishing first in the 18-tcam
sectional meet March 11-14 in Ros
elle, 111. The Huskers defeated sec
ond-place Illinois State by 550 pins.
The lop two teams in each of the 11
sectionals qualify for nationals.
Shady led the Huskers in Roselle
with 219.99 average per game.
Shady, who earned All-America
honors as a sophomore, said the easy
sectional win served as redemption
for last season when Nebraska fin
ished third and failed to qualify for the
nationals.
“It really did,” he said. “There was
a lot of pressure after what happened
last year, but our coach (Bill Straub)
got us mentally prepared to not beat
ourselves.”
Now Shady said Nebraska will
turn its attention to the national meet.
He said a national title would reward
Nebraska for a season of hard work.
“It would just mean that all the
work would have paid off,” Shady
said. “That’s exactly what you bowl
for — to get to the nationals and win
a gold medal. It’s the ultimate in
collegiate bowling.”
Shady said the Huskcrs arc ready.
“I think the team is at its peak,” he
said. “That’s pretty good heading into
nationals.”
Shady said Nebraska’s main com
petition will come from Wichita
Stale, which is ranked No. 1 in the
current Bowling Writers Association
of America Top 10. But he said Ne
braska will be confident because it
split with the Shockers in the teams’
two meetings this year.
Shady said he averaged between
215 and 220 throughout the season,
and had a single-game best of299. He
said he has bowled the equivalent of
baseball’s no-hiltcr — a perfect 300
— twice in his career, but never in
college. j
His first perfect game came when w
he was 15 and his second came three
years later, he said. A third 300 is
overdue, he said.
“I guess I’ve been in a kind of a
drought,” he said.
Shady is a right-hander who
throws a 16-pound ball that breaks
from the right side of the lane to the
left. He said he was using his style,
called a “hook,” for Wisconsin-La
Crossc in 1985 when he met Nebraska
coach Bill Straubat the national meet.
Wisconsin-LaCrosse is a Division
III school, but there are no classifica
tions in collegiate bowling.
Straub, who is traveling on the
Professional Bowlers’ Tour, was a big
reason he came to Nebraska, Shady
said.
“He showed me what he could do ■
on the lanes, and I was really im- P
pressed,” he said. I
Shady said Straub has built a top- H
notch program that will only get bet- B
ter.
“We’ve built a program that’s
really took off,” Shady said. “Junior
bowlers throughout the state have
really began to lake notice. And we’re
getting letters from bowlers all over
the nation. L
“I think it’s only going to get big
ger.”
_A_I
Eric Gregory/Dally Nebraskan
Shady
Tennis teams face Colorado, Wichita State this weekend
By Nick Hodge
Staff Reporter
A contrast in the opponents’ level
of competition is likely to produce
different results for the Nebraska
men’s and women’s tennis teams
today and Saturday.
The Nebraska men’s team will
face Wichita State at 1 p.m. today at
the East Campus Courts, and the
men’s and women’s squads meet
Colorado Saturday at 10 a. m.
Nebraskacoach Kerry McDermott
said he expects the 10-4 Comhusker
men to defeat Wichita State and Colo
rado. But, he said, the Colorado
women’s squad will be too strong for
Nebraska to handle.
Wichita State and the Husker
men’s team both faced Minnesota
earlier this season in the Califomia
Irvine Marriott Classic in Irvine,
Calif. Nebraska dropped a 5-3 deci
sion to the Golden Gophers, and the
Shockers also lost
McDermott said the Wichita Stale
match is important because the
Shockers are in Nebraska’s regions.
He said that means Nebraska is in a
must-win situation.
“They’re a good team,” McDcr
mou said. “I expect us to beat them,
but they generally win their confer
ence every year.
“We have more depth, but we have
to make sure our guys are ready.”
McDermott said Nebraska is look
ing at Big Eight opponent Colorado
more than Wichita State because
conference results are more impor
tant at this point in the season.
“We must be mentally ready,”
McDermott said. “We have to bear
down and concentrate on them. They
can play tough and could upset us if
we take them lightly.”
McDermott said Colorado and
Wichita State are similar to Iowa
State, which Nebraska defeated 7-2
last Friday in Lincoln.
“They’re (Colorado) down a liule
from last year’s team,” McDermott
said, “Colorado has a new coach who
can motivate his players.”
McDermott expects Nebraska’s
men to beat Colorado and pick up
their second conference win.
“Colorado has some people who
can play,” McDermott said. “If we
play well, we should beat them
soundly. We won last year 7-2, so
there could be some revenge factor to
keep in mind.”
The Nebraska women’s team, 3-6,
will face a strong opponent in Colo
rado, McDermott said. He said the
Buffaloes are the favorites to capture
this year’s conference crown.
“Our women will have a tougher
time than the men,” McDermott said.
McDermott said Nebraska’s
women are heading into the Colorado
match in a positive way after defeat
ing Iowa Stale 6-3.
“They (Colorado) have a lot more
experience than us,” McDermott
said, “but we’ll give them a run for the
money. We’ll make them work for
everything, since we’re going in with
some confidence."
Coaches hoping tor good attendance at weekend meet
By Kyle Schurman
Suff Reporter
To many fans, the outdoor track
season isn’t as important as the indoor
season.
That’s why Nebraska track
coaches hope Comhusker fans will
attend the First annual Nebraska Inter
collegiate meet Saturday at 10 a.m. at
Ed Weir Track.
“In past years the track season at
Nebraska seemed to end when the
outdoor began,” Husker assistant
coach Mark Kostek said. “We don’t
want that. Track and Field is an out
door competition, and we feel like
there needs to be more emphasis
placed on the outdoor season.
Kostek said one way to emphasize
the outdoor season is to have home
track meets. Nebraska had no home
meets last year, but has four sched
uled for this season.
Another reason Nebraska wants
more home meets, Kostek said, is of
the new surfaceat Ed Weir Track. The
track was resurfaced last summer.
“We felt like the University of
Nebraska was kind enough to let us
resurface the track, so we need to hold
meets on it,” Kostek said. “We need
to develop a good outdoor schedule.”
Kostek said the Nebraska Intercol
legiate meet is a good starting point
for developing a strong schedule. He
said every college and university in
Nebraska has been invited to the
meet.
“Every college in Nebraska will be
represented,” he said. “We’ll have a
full turnout of schools, and that's
what we were hoping for when we
conceived this meet.
Chadron State, Concordia, Doane,
Hastings, Kearney State, Midland
Lutheran, Nebraska Wesleyan and
Wayne State will join Nebraska at the
meet. Kostek said the University of
Nebraska at Omaha and Creighton
don’t sponsor track, but UNO will
send some unattached athletes to
compete.
It should be a really well-con
tested meet,” Kostek said. “The state
have some really good ath
No team scores will be kept during
the meet, so “coaches don’t feel like
they have to enter athletes in a large
number of events and try to score
points,” Kostek said.
Nebraska sent some of its top ath
letes to the Texas Relays meet today
and Saturday in Austin, Texas, but
Kostek said the Huskers who compete
at the Intercollegiate meet should do
well even though the state colleges
will provide tough competition.
“For the athlete that’s on the Uni
versity of Nebraska team that's not
maybe a top-line athlete, it will be a
tightly contested meet,’* Kostek said.
Kostek said the Intercollegiate
meet will help Nebraska prepare for
an important quadrangular in Eu
gene, Ore. on April 16. Louisiana
State, Oregon and Washington State
will join the Huskers at that meet
Kostek said the state colleges are
ready for the Intercollegiate meet
“I thought we had a real good
response,” he said. “All the coaches
are pretty excited about coming. It
should be a well-contested meet on a
nice surface."
