Sports
Kansas expected to swim away with title
. By Jeff Apel
Senior Editor
A pre-meet tabulation that pre
dicts a Kansas rout has not discour
aged Nebraska women’s swimming
coach Ray Huppert
Huppert said Wednesday that he is
looking forward to the Big Eight
championships even though tabula
tions by the Nebraska coaching staff
indicate Kansas should win the
women’s portion of the meet by ICO
points. He said he is not intimidated
by the tabulation because he does not
have a lot of faith in it.
“Paper doesn’t mean a dog-gone
thing,” Huppert said. “It’s whatever
they do in die water that matters.”
The Nebraska women and the
Husker men will have an opportunity
to see just what they can do in the
water when the Big Eight champion
ships begin today at the Bob Devaney
Sports Center. The meet will run
through Saturday, with preliminary
competition scheduled for 11 a.m.
and finals at 6 p.m.
Huppert said the Nebraska women
need a total team effort in order to
defeat Kansas, Iowa State and Mis
souri for this year’s title. He said the
Huskers can not afford to have any
lapses in the meet
‘‘It’s going to take a team per
formance from top to bottom,” Hup
pert said. ‘‘If we win, it’s going to be
because we got a total team effort and
we dominated the last day.”
Huppert said Iowa State and Mis
souri will play vital roles in determin
ing who wins the title. He said both
teams could be spoilers by knocking
Nebraska and Kansas athletes out of
scoring contention.
Huppert said he does not expect
Iowa State or Missouri to be in con
tention for the team title.
“Unless Kansas and Nebraska fall
flat or their faces, I don’t think Iowa
State is going to be in the team race,”
Huppert said.
Huppert said he refuses to let
Nebraska carry any disappointments
from a 5-7 season into the meet He
said Nebraska’s record is misleading
because eight of the teams that the
Huskers lost to were ranked in the top
20.
“Sure it’s disappointing to look at
our dual record,’ ’ Huppert said. “But
I’ve said all season long that we
wanted to challenge our athletes
against top competition. I think we’re
a much-improved team going into the
most important part of our season,
and that’s what we wanted.”
Nebraska men’s swimming coach
Cal Bentz said his squad has also
improved since the season began. He
said the Huskers are hoping to use a
simple formula to capture their 10th
consecutive Big Eight title.
“We’re getting ready to swim as
fast as we can,’’ Bentz, said. “We just
have to go out and take it to the other
teams and let the points take care of
themselves.’’
Bentz said Nebraska cannot use its
past success to win this year’s title.
‘ ‘We’re not going to base our per
formance on what we’ve done in the
past,” he said. “We’ve had good
success the last nine years and each
meet has gotten better and better
because there is a lot of great compe
tition.”
Bentz said Nebraska does not
dwell on being the favorite in this
year’s meet.
“It’s the same story as always.
Predictions can be made, but they
don’t mean a thing,” Bentz said.
“It’s nice that everybody is thinking
about us, but we have to concern
ourselves with what we need to do.”
The returning Big Eight men’s
champions who will compete include
Kansas’ Glenn Trammel in the 200
yard backstroke, Iowa State’s Lee
Jay Strifler in 1-meter diving, Ne
braska’s Lewis Meyers in 3-meter
diving, and the Huskers’ Dan
Novinski and Ryan Bell in the 200
and 500 freestyles. The remaining
returning champions include Ne
braska’s Jacob Kruger in the 400
individual medley and 1,650 frees
tyle, Thomas Stus in the 200 butter
fly, Sean Frampton ;n the 100 and 200
breaststrokes and Mike Irvin in the
200 individual medley.
Bentz said he is expecting big
things from Irvin.
“As far as I’m concerned, there
aren’t any performers better than he
is,” Bentz said. “Anybody who
thinks they are going to beat him had
better tighten his suit up because
Mike is going to swim fast.”
Nebraska diving coach Jeff Huber
said he is expecting equally good
results from his athletes. He said
Nebraska’s Lawrence Roddick,
Becki Clark, Julie May, Amy Aarsen
and Meyers combine to form the best
group of divers he has coached during
his 11-year Husker career.
“I think the women have a realis
tic shot at the top three spots,’ ’ Huber
said. “There’s no question that Lewis
(Meyers) and Lawrence (Roddick)
are two of the best in the country.”
H M SMjwMvbally N*bf«sun
Nebraska Beck I Clark performs on the 3-meter board.
Gymnastics teams to be tested on the road this weekend
By Mike O'MIalky
Staff Reporter
A pair of tough road tests await the
Nebraska men’s and women’s gym
nastics team this weekend.
Nebraska men’s gymnastics
coach Francis Allen and women’s
coach Rick Walton said their squads
are ready for the challenges that await
them. The Nebraska men will travel
to Columbus, Ohio, to face the 4th
ranked Ohio State Buckeyes on Sat
urday, while the Comhusker women
will face Alabama, Georgia and Penn
State in the Bulldog Classic Sunday
in Athens, Ga.
Walton said the Nebraska women
will have to battle three talented
teams and a supportive crowd that
will be fueled by a natural rivalry.
Alabama is the defending national
champions, while Georgia claimed
the No. 1-ranking two years ago.
Alabama and Georgia are both mem
bers of the Southeastern Conference.
Walton, who coached at Georgia
prior to coming to Nebraska in 1983,
said he knows what it’s like to com
pete against the Bulldogs on their
home floor.
“They compete well at home and
have turned in some pretty respect
able scores,” Walton said. “They’ll
have a pretty big crowd for this meet
because of the big rivalry between
Alabama and Georgia.”
Alabama women’s gymnastics
coach Sara Patterson said she does
not expect any record scores to be set
in the meet even though it will be
highly competitive. She said the
Crimson Tide, which achieved the
highest team score of the year by
tallying 194.30 points earlier this
season, might be fatigued on Sunday
because they face Oklahoma Friday
in Norman, Okla.
"It’s going to be a rough travel
weekend,' ’ Patterson said. ‘ ‘This will
be a difficult weekend for us. It’s
going to take a very good perform
ance to compete."
Nebraska’s Jeaneane Smith said
the Huskers are not backing away
from the tough competition.
"If we’re consistent, we’ll
score,” Smith said.
Nebraska’s Lisa McCrady said the
10-1 Huskers can’t dwell on their past
accomplishments if they are going to
do well.
"We have to look forward,”
McCrady said. "We can’t look back
and be happy. We have to move on. ’ ’
Nebraska assistant women’s gym
nastics coach Peggy Liddick agreed.
"We’ll have to be better than
good,” Liddick said. "Georgia’s
judges will help them out, so we have
to be five-tenths better than them, so
when we get three-tenths under
scored, it won’t matter.”
Walton said he isn’t setting any
high expectations entering the meet
“Our purpose is to go down and
hit a high percentage of routines,”
Walton saia. ‘ ‘We want to hit 22 to 24
of the routines. If we do that we
should have a good meet.”
Allen said the 3rd-ranked Ne
braska men also want to hit a high
percentage of their routines against
Ohio State. He said the 4th-ranked
Buckeyes will show Nebraska how
good they arc.
‘ ‘ I need to find out how my team is
going to perform under pressure,”
Allen said.
Allen said Nebraska will be with
out junior Patrick Kirkscy, who will
be competing in the America’s Clas
sic in Jacksonville, Fla. He said
Kirkscy’s absence means sopho
mores Ted Dimas and Brad Bryan
have to perform well.
“It will be good for Ted Dimas
and Brad Bryan,” Allen said. “If
we’re going to win the NCAA (title),
I have to count on Brad Bryan and
Ted Dimas. We can’t win an NCAA
without them.”
Allen said he is confident entering
the meet.
“Ohio State is real good at home,
but I really don’t believe that they’re
as good as we are,” Allen said. “If
we hit and they hit, they won’t beat
us.
“On the other hand, if they ‘home
town us’ a little bit, it will change the
ballgame.”
Nebraska’s Bob Steller said the
Huskers know they are in for a tough
challenge.
“We’re just going to have to go
out and hit the majority of our rou
tines,” Stelter said. “Obviously
that’s going to be kind of hard. We ll
just try to score as high as we can.”
bmotional Kansas team downs Huskers
By Nick Hodge
Senior Reporter
Nebraska men's basketball coach
Danny Nee said the Comhuskers ran
up against an emotionally high Kan
sas team in Lawrence, Kan., Wednes
day night, causing the Huskers’ 80
71 loss.
Preganie ceremonies honoring
four Jayhawk seniors playing their
final game in Allen Field House and
former Jayhawk star Danny Manning
and coach Larry Brown ignited Kan
sas, Nee said.
Despite the high-flying Jayhawks
and 45,000 screaming Kansas fans,
Nee said he was pleased by the Husk
ers’ performance.
“Wc were never out of the
game,” Nee said during his post
game radio interview. “They made a
10-point run and we came back, but
not enough.’’
Nee said Kansas is a difficult place
to try and win; ■
“We were just not in sync,” Nee
said. “Kansas’ pressure defense re
ally got to us.
“We had to come down here and
try to help our post-season chances.
It’s a really down locker room right
now.”
The loss, Nebraska’s 1 lth-straight
conference road loss, dropped the
Huskers into 7th place in the Big
Eight with a 4-9 mark and a 16-13
overall record.
Meanwhile, Kansas took over 6th
place and improved to 18-11 overall
and 5-8 in the conference.
Nebraska battled evenly with
Kansas for much of the first half until
Jayhawk forward Milt Newton took
control. Newton scored seven
straight points for Kansas to increase
a one-point Kansas lead to eight at
31-23 with 4:17 remaining in the first
hah.
The Huskers scored the game’s
next five points. However, the Jav
hawks held on to take a 39-34
halftime lead..
Kansas recharged its emotion at
halftime.
Jayhawk center Mark Randall
scored the first six points of the sec
ond half to propel Kansas to a 45-34
advantage. Another basket by Ran
dall with 13:55 left increased the
Jayhawk lead to 58-45.
Nebraska scrapped its way back to
within four points of Kansas at 69-65
on a basket by guard Eric Johnson
with 4:48 remaining in the game.
However, the Jayhawks made
nine of 12 free throws in the game’s
closing minutes to seal the victory.
Forward Ray Richardson led Ne
braska’s scoring effort with 19
points. Center Richard van Poelgeest
and forward Beau Reid each added 14
and 12 points respectively.
Van Poelgeest pulled down eight
rebounds for the Huskers.
Newton and Randall shared game
scoring honors with 20 points each
for Kansas. Jayhawk guard Lincoln
Minor scored 11 points and guard
Kevin Pritchard added 10 points.
By Craig Christensen
OCR Relations Director
r\. Hosers (5-0)
2. Spanish Flyers (5-0)
3. ATO A (5-0)
4. Sig Ep B-2 (6-0)
5. ATO B-2 (6-0)
6. Dell B-2 (6-0)
7. Fiji A (4-1)
8. Running Rebels (4-1 )*
9. UNL TCOB (5-1)
10. BETA A (4-1)_
Beginning today, 325 teams will com
pete in the playoffs for 17 spots in the all
university tournament.
* forfeited because of an ineligible player.
Tough DN defense
crushes Ice-Rocs;
Hosers’ challenged
After seeing his team post a 49-44
overtime victory against the Ice
Roc’s, Daily Nebraskan player-*
coach Mike Kluck issued the ultimate
challenge.
Kluck said the DN wants to face
the Hosers. The Hosers have been
ranked No. 1 all year, and finished the
regular season 5-0.
“We don’t think we could beat
them. We know we could,’’ Kluck
said. “They aren’t in the same class
with us.’’
The DN closed out its regular sea
son with a 4-2 record by using a late
rally to defeat the 1-5 Ice Roc’s. The
DN trailed by as many as nine points
midway through the second half, but
used a strong inside game and a tough
zone defense to secure the victory.
The game will be shown on Ca
blevision channel 5 tonight at 10 p.m.
It will be rebroadcast Saturday at i 1
a.m.
