Big Eight team wins two Grand Prix games
By uarran rowler
Senior Editor
The Big Eight select women’s basketball
team, coached by Nebraska’s Angela Beck and
consisting of two Comhuskcr players, returned
Monday from Czechoslovakia, where it was
treated like royalty.
“We were treated like queens from the
moment we stepped off the plane to the mo
ment wc got on,” Beck said. “It was wonder
ful. It was definitely the experience of a life
time. It lived up to its expectations and proba
bly surpassed them.”
On the court, the team got a royal treatment
of another kind from the three national teams
entered in the Grand Prix Tournament. The Big
Eight team played six games in six days, losing
four.
•W V Y HHi
“It was a grueling schedule,” Beck said.
It started with 110-63 loss to Czechoslova
kia, then an 89-58 loss to Yugoslavia, followed
by another defeat to Czechoslovakia 93-6S.
The team finished third by beating the Russian
team 83-72, which Beck said was the highlight
of tournament.
The Yugoslavian team won the tournament,
Beck said, behind a player with the last name of
Mujanovic, who stood 6-foot-7 and weighed
about 240 to 250 pounds. She was the tourna
ment’s MVP with 70 points in three games.
She said the team was “blown out” one
more time by the Czechoslovakian team, 118
56, and then beat that country’s junior national
team 87-60.
The losses didn’t bother Beck because the
team was up against Oiympic-caliber players
and coaches in the national teams.
“I would say the tour was a success,” Beck
said. “When I measure it as a success, I’m not
looking at wins or losses because I didn’t think
we would win a game.
*‘I couldn’t ask for a better group of girls.
They gelled well together. We didn’t have one
problem. I was pleased with the way they
handled themselves and the mature level that
they showed on the tour.”
She said it was a wonderful time to experi
ence the Central European country because it
was the first time in more than 20 years that
American basketball had been played there.
The games matched the physical play of the
European countries with that of finesse, speed
and natural ability of the Big Eight team.
Beck said she was pleased with the play ol
the Husker players on the team, Kelly Hubert
and Karen Jennings.
Jennings, a sophomore next season, was the
youngest player on the team. Beck said she
scored a lot of points, played consistently and
learned to play more physically.
Hubert, she said, was a role player and
stabilized the team’s attack with rebounds and
screens.
Beck said that although the team was riot
quite of the same caliber of other teams or what
the fans may have expected of an American
team, it got lop billing with bill boards that read
“U.S.A.,” and standing ovations and fans
swarming the players after games. Moreover,
the dollar was up and the player’s had a heyday
shopping, she said.
“There was nothing disappointing about
it,” she said. “It was highly successful, and I
look for more future success.”
women s team
signs recruits
By Darran Fowler
Senior Hditor
With the addition of four recruits
signed last week, the Nebraska
women’s track team is having one of
its best recruiting seasons in Coach
Gary Pepin’s 10 years.
The women’s recruiting list now
stands at 10, and Nebraska assistant
coach and recruiting coordinator Mark
Kostck, who joined the Comhuskcr
coaching staff the same year as Pepin,
said this class ranks among the top
three or four in the Pepin era-one that
includes sweeping 10-straight Big
Eight indoor and outdoor titles along
with three-straight national indoor titles
from 1982 to 1984.
The letter-of-intcnt deadline is Aug.
1.
“We’re really, really excited,”
Kostck said. “It’s a young g;roup that
could only get better with lime.”
The latest recruits include sprinter
Kelly Westcnriedcr of Lubbock, Texas,
who was rated the nation’s lOth-bcst
high school 200-mctcr runner, and
high jumper Destiny ‘' Duff’ ’ Licbl of
Eads, Colo., who has jumped 5-10 1/
umana wcstsidc s Jenny Johnson,
the Class A 400 and 800 champion,
and Grand Island Northwest’s Krista
Madcr, who finished third in the Class
B shot put, also signed.
Those four join other signccs who
also were among the prep best this
year.
Kwani Stewart, the nation’s num
ber two hurdler; Michelle Johnson,
the top 100-meter sprinter in the state
of Texas; and Shane!Ic Porter, who
ran the nation’s fastest 400, have all
committed to Nebraska.
Nebraska also landed one of the
premier multi-event competitors in
Rita Inancsi of Budapest, Hungary.
Kostek said Inancsi, who will
compete in the heptathlon, is ranked
upon the lop five multi-cventcrs in
the world.
In addition, Kostek said, currently
eight walk-ons have said they will
come here. Six of those attended
Nebraska high schools.
“We’re in really, really good
shape,” he said.
Name
Marlon Jones
David Iicffa
Phouphct Singbandith
Jenny Johnson
Krista Madcr
Kelly Westcnricdcr
Duff Licbcl
Rita Inancsi
Michelle Johnson
Shancllc Porter
Nikywa Prcvosl
Theresa Slelling
Kwani Stewart
Hometown
MEN
Peoria, 111.
Fremont
Anaheim, Calif.
WOMEN
Omaha
Grand Island
Lubbock, Texas
Eads, Colo.
Budapest, Hungary
Bonham, Texas
Cheyenne, Wyo.
L.A. Valley Jr. College
Auburn
Yuba City, Calif.
Events
Middle Distance
Long Distance
Triple Jump
Sprints; Distance
Throws
Sprints
High Jump
Heptathlon
Sprints; Jumps
Sprints
Sprints
Distance
Hurdles
I
NEBRASKA a )
Brian Shellilo, Daily Nebraskan
Three athletes commit to
Comhusker men’s team
By Darran Fowler
Senior Editor
The Nebraska men’s track recruit
ing list may be short, but that does not
mean it is short of talent.
With the signing of middle dis
tance runner Marlon Jones of Peoria,
Illinois, last week, the Comhuskers
now have commitments from three
athletes.
“The three men’s signccs we feel
are quality athletes who can make an
impact at the Big Eight level in a year
or two,” said Mark Kostek, a Husker
assistant coach and recruiting coordi
nator.
Jones had an impact at Limestone
High School where he captured the
Illinois Class A 800-mctcr run title,
and more impressively, owned the
nations second fastest prep time in
that event this year.
Another impact performer, who
signed earlier, is Phouphct Singban
dith of Anaheim, Calf. Singbandith
was the nation’s second best prep
performer in the triple jump this year.
Fremont distance runner, David
Iteffa, who also signed earlier, could
be a top performer if he develops,
Kostek said.
“With David we really don’t know
how good he is going to be and nei
ther does he,’’ he said. “We feel he is
going to be a very, very fine runner.
“I know (distance) Coach (Jay)
Dirkscn is real excited to have him as
a member of the cross country team
next year.’’
Kostek said thatcurrently 12 walk
ons have said they will compete for
the men’s team this year. Four of
those hail from Nebraska.
The reason the number of men’s
recruits is so much lower than that of
the women’s team, with 10, Kostek
said, is because there was not a high
turnover of seniors this season, so the
amount of money for partial scholar
ships is limited.
The deadline to sign mcti and
women to lettcrs-of-inlent is Aug. 1.
How many more Nebraska signs will
depend on the amount of allotted
scholarship money that remains and
how much of it coaches want to offer
a particular athlete.
i1""-" 1 .. 1 »
Comhusker coach announces men s,
women’s track team award winners
The Nebraska men’sand women’s
track team award winners for this
year were announced last week by
Comhusker coach Gary Pepin.
Named the Most Valuable Per
formers and the Most Outstanding
Track Athletes for their teams were
senior Sammie Gdowski and sopho
more Tamas Molnar.
Gdowski earned two All-America
awards, won three Big Eight titles
and broke five school records.
Indoors, she won Big Eight titles
in the 3,000- and 5,000-mctcr runs
and was the runner-up in the 5,000 at
the NCAA Indoor Championships.
Outdoors, she was the Big Eight’s
5.000 champion, and she was fifth in
10.000 at the NCAA Championships.
Her school records came in the
3.000 and 5,000 indoors, and the 1,500,
5.000 and 10,000 outdoors.
Molnar, who also earned to All
America awards, was the Big Eight’s
indoor and outdoor 200 and 400 cham
pion.
At the NCAA Outdoor Champion
ships he became the Husker men’s
first AU-Amcrican sprinter since
Charlie Greene in 1968. He also an
chored an all-sophomore 1,600 relay
team to a third-place tinish.
He set records in the outdoor 200
and in the 400 both indoors and out
doors.
The other award winners for the
men’s team: sophomore Gerry Marscc,
Most Improved Track Athlete; sopho
more Rick Schwiegcr, Most Improved
Field Athlete; and Anthony Adkison,
Most Outstanding Newcomer.
Marsoc, with Molnar, was a member
of 1,600 All-American relay team.
Schwiegcr won All-America honors
in the decathlon-lhe first Husker to
do so-and Adkison was the Big Eight’s
outdoor 100 champion.
On the women’s side: Lisa Darley,
middle distance, Fran tenBensel, dis
tance, and Denise laicas, sprints, shared
the Most Improved Track Athlete
award; Mcredy Porter,an All-Ameri
can in the high jump, and long and
triple jumper Shanta McGkuhan shared
the Most Outstanding Field Athlete
award; and Kim Walker, an NCAA
qualifier and Big Eight outdoor cham
pion in the 200, was named the Most
Outstanding Newcomer.
Moseke named
Grand Marshal
Former Nebraska women’s
track coach Carol Moseke Frost
has been named the Grand Mar
shal of the sixth-annual Com
husker State Games to be held
July 16 to 22.
Frost, of Wood River and a
teacher at Grand Island Senior
High, coached the Nebraska
women to their first Big Eight
championship in 1980 by sweep
ing the indoor and outdoor titles.
Frost is a member of the na
tional AAU Hall of Fame in bas
ketball.
As Grand Marshal, she will
lead the opening ceremonies pa
rade July 20 at Scacrcst Field,
and give the Athletes’ Oath to
State Games competitors, which
will be televised on NETV.
