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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (April 3, 1989)
Sports NU women finish 2nd at regional By Jeff Ape! Senior Kdilor Nebraska women’s gymnastics coach Rick Walton touted his team lor the national championship after the Comhuskers finished second at the Midwest regional. Walton said he was pleased with Huskers’ performance Saturday at Salt Lake City because they over came a hostile crowd and some con troversial judging. Utah won the meet with a 192.80 score, followed by Nebraska at 192.40. Oklahoma and Arizona State tied for third at 190, followed by Arizona (188.90), Utah State with (188.30) and Brigham Young (187). Walton said Nebraska should have won the meet. He said Utah used its home-floor advantage to edge the Huskers. “We won the meet,’’ Walton said. “It was a road meet for us and Utah had the advantage of being at home. That’s worth tenths of a point, and that’s what they beat us by.’’ Walton said the narrow loss will not affect Nebraska as it prepares for the NCAA championships on April 14-15 in Athens, Ga. He said the Huskers proved they are legitimate NCAA title contenders by narrowly losing to Utah. The Utes won six consecutive NCAA utles from 1982 to 1987. Nebraska will enter the 12-team NCAA competition seeded fourth in the final rotation. UCLA earned the competition's top seed, followed by defending national champion Ala bama. Utah, the Huskers. Georgia and California-State Fullerton. ‘ I think w e have a chance to w in a national championship," Walton said. “If we go down and hit our routines and let things fall as they will, we could win it.” Walton said Nebraska was plagued throughout the regional meet by controversial judging. He said the judges began the meet by awarding a w ide range of scores for similar per formances, then attempted to solve the problem by holding conferences before issuing their scores. Walton said the judges hurt Ne braska because they gave the Huskers a low score each time a discrepancy arose. He said he attempted to solve the problem by talking with the meet referee, who told him that there was nothing she could do because the scores were within range. “We lost every time.” W'alton said. “There were seven conferences — four on the last event. We just didn’t understand why all die scores were being conferenced.” Walton said Nebraska could solve the problem by staging future re gional competitions at the Bob Deva ney Sports Center. He said the Husk ers have been burned by scoring for the last three regional competitions. “This has been three years in a row,” Walton said. “We need to put in a serious bid to host the rcgionals so we can get some better judging.” Walton said Nebraska’s second place finish was a total team effort. The Huskers were led by sophomore Lisa McCrady, who finished third in the all-around with a 38.60 score. Utah’s Patti Massocls and Okla homa All-American Cassie Frey tied for the all-around title with 38.75 scores. Nebraska’s Michele Bryant and Angie Burdette tied for fifth with 38.40 totals, while the Huskers’ Tami Bair was 10th with a 38.10 mark. “1 think we did a good job,” Walton said. “It was an outstanding meet for us.” Robinson, Rockenbauer qualify for NCAAs By Darran Fowler Staff Reporter Nebraska’s Renita Robinson and Nora Rockcnbauer didn’t waste any time qualifying for this year’s out door track and field championships. Robinson and Rockcnbauer turned in NCAA-qualifying perform ances during Nebraska’s first outdoor meet of the year at Tucson, Ariz. The Comhusker men, behind double win ner Mark Perry, finished second. Nebraska won the women’s com petition with 188 points, followed by Arizona with 123. Colorado finished third with 92 1/2 points, while Cali fomia-Irvine was fourth with 67 1/2 points. Nebraska was second to Arizona in the men’s competition. The Wild cats tallied 178 points compared to the Huskcrs’ 151. California-Irvine was third with 115 1/2 points and Colorado was fourth with 102 1/2. Robinson, who qualified for her second national meet, won the triple jump with a leap of 41 feet 5 1/4 inches. Rockenbauer, a freshman form Budapest, Hungary, won the javelin with a throw of 187-4. Nebraska assistant and distance coach Jay Dirksen said he considers Rockenbauer to be a contender to win the javelin at the NCAA meet in Provo, Utah. “She’s an outstanding javelin thrower,” Dirksen said. “It was a good opener for her, but she’s (going to) throw a lot further than that by season’s end.” Dirksen said because more teams compete outdoors than indoors, the standards for qualifying outdoors arc more difficult. But based on the per formance of some athletes in their first outdoor competition, Dirksen expects others to soon qualify. Dirksen said junior Joanne Gomez missed qualifying in the triple jump by one centimeter and the women’s 400-mcter relay team of Tanya Lidy, Linetla Wilson, Ximcna Restrepo and Prema Govindan missed qualify ing by one-tenth of a second. Their winning time was 45.44 seconds. They had only been outdoors one lime to practice their handoffs and so they should qualify,” Dirksen said. In addition to winning the 4(X) relay, Lidy and Wilson also contrib uted team points in other events. Lidy, a freshman from Pampa, Texas, won the 100 in 11.96 and the 200 in 24.89. She also combined with Restrepo, Susan Hedrick and Wilson to win the 1,600 relay in 3:48.04. Wilson won the 400 hurdles in 1:00.23. Teammate Sammie Resh won the 5,000 in 17:20.84. ‘ ‘We have a tremendous women’s team with a lot of quality athletes and depth,” Dirksen said. The men’s team was without some of its key performers and had just one entrant in some events which hurt the Huskers in the team scoring, Dirksen said. “It was a pretty close meet,” he said. “The women pretty much dominated, but the men’s was a lot closer than the score looked.’ Perry won the 100 and 2(X), lead ing the men with times of 10.48 and 21.43. Also winning for the Huskers were Scott Parker in the triple jump with a leap of 48-3 1/2 and Joe Kirby in the steeplechase with a time of 8:59.61. In addition, Jeff Hooper won the discus with a heave of 176-4 and Roddy James captured the javelin with a throw of 204-4. Ken Waller, Dale Burrage, Jerry Marscc and Mark Jackson teamed to win the 1,600 re lay in 3:11.03. “We got off to a good start and we were really encouraged by what we saw,” Dirksen said. “We have two really fine teams.” interim coach in unlikely position SEATTLE (AP) - Steve Fisher has brought as much at tention to the word interim as he has to the Michigan basketball team he has been coaching for the X five games. storybook career of in terim ends tonight when Fisher’s Michigan Wolverines face Seton Hall in the champi onship game of the NCAA tour nament. The game, which will be televised by KMTV (chan nel 3) begins at 8:13 p.m. i ne imai game oi me col lege basketball season is an unlikely place for an interim coach to be. Until last season it was just as an unlikely place for a Seton Hall team to be. Fisher’s story started 48 hours before the tournament began when Bill Frieder was Fired by Michigan after agree ing to take over as the coach at Arizona State next season. Since then, the Wolverines have not only not lost but they have played their best basket ball of the season and their best of any recent NCAA tourna ment “Timing is everything and I jumped in at the right time,” Fisher said. “We have not been lucky in the tournament the last six years. Balls bounced off instead of in. We’ve gotten lucky but the players have put inciii^v. ui pMuuu iu wih games.” The five victories included Saturday’s 83-81 victory against Illinois. Seton Hall advanced to to night’s championship game by using a tough defense to defeat Duke 95-78. The Pirates* de fense has shined throughout the tournament, as no team has managed to shoot better than 40 percent in the second half, id *'We’re able to wear teams DaryH Cards will win N.L. East without Cox Hope is the byword for baseball fans today. With only 162 games left to play, all the things that could go wrong with a team haven’t yet. The Major League fantasy begins again and lasts until October. _I-Z-1 I Of course that fantasy will be more pleasant for some fans than others. But the race for the National League Eastern Division pennant should be exciting enough to chase the boogieman out of Cubs’ and Phil lies’ fans worst nightmares. Step aside New York Mets. Here comes the 1989 N.L. Eastern Divi sion champions — the St. Louis Car dinals. Starting pitching is the only weak ness on this Cardinal team. Danny Cox is out for the season with a blown elbow but the Cards still have a re spectable rotation that includes Jose DeLeon, Joe Magrane and Scott Terry. This is the healthiest staff Cardi FORSALE = Slue Chip computer, IBM compatible, dual disk drive, 840K memory, Panasonic printer, $800 or best offer. 467-1750. Manual typewriter ribbons 53 cents eaoh (tax moluded). Daily Nebraskan office, basement of the Nebraska Un ion. 472-2566. nals manager Whiiey Herzog has had on opening day in years. Count on him to work his rotation magic. DeLeon showed promise last sea son of becoming the pitcher he was predicted lobe since his early years at Pittsburgh. Look for him to win 20 games this season. The bullpen has solid middle relief with Ken Dayley and Frank DiPino and closer Todd Worrell rarely falters. The baiting order is the best in the majors with an incredible balance of speed and power. With Vince Cole man, Ozzie Smith, Willie McGee, Pedro Guerrero, Tom Brunansky, Terry Pendleton, Tony Pena and Jose Oquendo, the Cards will lead the majors in stolen bases, and lead the league in visiting home runs. That lineup also includes three Gold Gloves. They’ll stop scoring as well as produce runs. ' But the Cardinals had better not look over their shoulders or the Mets might slip by. The Mets still have the dominate pitching that has made them the dec ade’s winningest team. The rotation of Dwight Gooden, David Cone, Ron Darling, Sid Fernandez and Bob Ojeda has only one weakness - the defense behind them. Manager Davey Johnson insists on playing Howard Johnson at third base, no matter how many teeth he’ll lose, for another season and moving Gregg Jeffries out of position to sec ond base. If this doesn’t work Johnson plans to give HoJo more time at shortstop. Center fielders Lenny Dyksira and Mookic Wilson could run 15 40-yard sprints a game to field grounders missed at short. The once feared power lineup of the Mets has wasted with age. Gary Carter’s bat has no more long-ball. Darryl “Mr. Attitude” Strawberry and Kevin McReynolds carried the team through some lean low scoring summer months last season and will have to do it again this year. The Mcts have the pitching and enough offense to repeat as division champs, but inconsistency in the field and the heralded tension in the club house will slop them. The spoiler this season will be the Pittsburgh Pirates. A great defensive team with catcher Mike LaVallicrc, shortstop Rafael Belliard, second basemen Jose Lind and center fielder Andy Van Slykc up the middle, will not allow many cheap runs against them. The Pirate pitching is solid with starters Doug Drabek, Mike Dunne and relievers Jim Gott and Jeff Robinson. Offense will be a problem in Pitts Montreal Expos. Loaded with of fense players including Tim Raines, Andres Galarraga, Hubic Brooks and Tim Wallach, they will be a fun team to watch. The Expos finally improved their defense with the addition of shortstop Spike Owens. Their pitching is at the middle of the pack with the average Kevin Gross acquired to complement the average Dennis Martinez, Bryn Smith and Pascual Perez. The bull pen isn’t deep and will lose some games. The most painful thing in all base ball is to be a Chicago Cubs fan in the winter. That’s when the Cubs trade their proven, talented young players for unproven pitchers. So long Rafael Palmeiro, hello Mitch Williams from Texas; a re ported 90 mph plus hurlcr who occa sionally gets it over the plate. Of ‘The Cubs’lineup doesn’t have the power of years past, with Andre Dawson being their only legitimate long-ball threat. ’ burgh. The Pirate pitching staff com bined for more RBls than the Pirate shortstops last season (17 and 16 re spectively). Switch hitter Bobby Bonilla is an impressive offensive threat bin needs help. Van Slykc is as good as Straw berry against right handers but can’t hit lefties. Look for some low-scoring games in the heat of July. The enigma of the National League East will once again be the I course if Lee Smith was stilt in Chi cago instead of Calvin Schiraldi (who knows where A1 Nipper will be), the Cubs might have a bullpen. The Cubs cooked Rich “the Goose” Gossage last season and are smart enough not to want leftovers. There is some promise on the staff, however. Rick Sutcliffe has lost weight and Greg Maddux starts the •season' ■with-’a' fresh' arm. ■ Maddux shouldn’t poop-out after the All-Star break this season. The brightest spot will be rookie Mike Harkey. Harkey will start the season with the Cubs’ AAA club in Dcs Moines because of a rocky spring training, but he’ll be in the big leagues soon and win Rookie of the Year honors. The Cubs’ lineup doesn’t have the power of years past, with Andre Dawson being their only legitimate long-bail threat. But the Cubs will be fun to watch with the best defensive infield in the major leagues. Rync Sandberg will win his lOlh-consccu tive Gold Glove and 1989 is the sea son Shawon Dunslon will replace Ozzic Smith as the best shortstop in the league. __i..__..u •_i t iiv/ urn; j/oiu turn V/Uuiu iivai being a Cub fan is being a Phillies fan in 1989. Philadelphia will be the worst baseball team this season. The Phillies’ starting rotation won 19 games in 1988. Their best second baseman, Juan Samuel, plays in ccn terfield. Their double-play combina tion of Dickie Thon and Tommy Herr has the range of an orthopedic reha bilitation nurse. My worst fear this season is turning on the television some late summer evening and the only game on is Philadelphia against Atlanta. The predicted finish: Win* Lone* Garnet back St. Louis 102 60 New York 95 67 7 Pittsburgh 85 77 17 Montreal 79 83 23 Chicago 71 91 31 Philadelphia 62 100 37 Laucr is a Junior news-editorial major from Lincoln and is a Daily Nebraskan pho tographer and baseball predictor.