Image provided by: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries, Lincoln, NE
About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (July 19, 1990)
Ed Weir Stadium hosts games, junior nationals By Darran Fowler Senior Editor For all track and field buffs, Ne braska’s Ed Weir Stadium looks like a place to be this week. On Saturday, the sixth-annual Comhusker State Games, featuring amateur athletes from around the state, will host its track and field events there. Then, starting Tuesday and continuing to Sunday, about 6,500 athletes from all 50 states will com pete in the 24th-annual National Jun ior Olympic Track and Field Cham pionships. In addition, both competitions will feature opening ceremonies at Sea crest Field. The state games’ are Fri day, while the Junior Olympics’ will be Wednesday. “If you want to see a full week of track and field, you can certainly do that,’’ said Mark Kostek, a Nebraska assistant track coach and organizing committee chairman and meet direc tor of the Junior Olympics. This is the eighth lime Lincoln has hosted the Junior Olympic nationals. The last time it was held here was 1986. “Obviously, people think Lincoln does a good job,” Kostek said. Ages range from 8 to 18 in the junior nationals, with each athlete needing to qualify in regional compe tition and be a member of The Ath letic Congress. The 6,500 entries is an estimate, but the meet has the potential of 9,600 considering each of the 20 events has a maximum of 48 athletes and there are 10 divisions. An additional 13,000 family members, coaches and fans are ex pected to attend, Kostek said. Thirty three committees were needed to organize the event, he said. “You’re looking at a really, really big meet,” he said. “It was a real, real test of administrative procedures. It takes a lot of people handling tasks in order to make the thing run smooth. “We have had tremendous sup port from the people at the University of Nebraska.” Those attendance numbers are advantageous for the Nebraska track program, Kostek said. “It really gives us a recruiting edge,” he said. “Obviously you get to show off your facilities and the campus, and that helps. “In 1986, the next two years after that were great recruiting years be cause we had a handle on some of the kids.” How much of a handle Huskcr recruiters have on prospects depends a lot on the public, he said. “One thing we’re interested and concerned about is that Midwest hospitality ...come through,’ ’ he said. “With an estimated 13,(XX) in Lin coln, and if Lincoln puls its best foot forward and they have a good experi ence and feel they have been treated fairly, then we in turn athletically have a great advantage when we go in the home of those athletes.” rormer N U gymnast loses lead due to last-second reaction, fall By Darran Fowler Senior Editor Former Nebraska gymnast Mark Warburton led the 1990 U.S. Olym pic Festival men’s all-around compe tition up until the last event, and then something s jange happened. “It was weird because I was hav ing a pretty flawless meet,” War burton said, “then on the last pass of the last event (the floor exercise) I thought I was going to under-rotate the final Hip of my routine so I pulled my tuck in tighter and ended up over rotating.” The last-second reaction in the final run of his floor exercise resulted in a fall and ended his chances at a pos sible all-around gold medal. Instead, he took the bronze at the festival held in Minneapolis last week, finishing six-tenths out of the lead with a score of 56.80. Warburton, a senior member of this year’s national championship Nebraska team, bounced back to later capture an individual event gold medal in the pommel horse and two silvers in the still rings and parallel bars. Former Comhuskcr teammate Patrick Kirkscy was scheduled to compete at the festival, but backed out because of a sore shoulder, Husker.. recruit Dennis Harrison won the bronze in the vault. Another recruit, Scott Barnes, competed but did not medal. In hack and field at the festival, for mer Husker Harald Graham placed fifth in the steeplechase. Had Warburton not suffered the major break in the floor exercise, he still was not sure he could have held the lead. “It would have been close.” he said. “The floor is not the highest scoring event for me, and the other guys were on events that were high scoring events for them, so there’s no way of knowing for sure.” Although the floor exercise is not his forte, Warburton said he was confident going into the event. “It’s one of my weaker events, but I’ve been fairly consistent in it all year, so I didn’t expect any prob lems,” he said. “It was just one of those things I missed.” He said his four-medal effort at festival was pleasing. Warburton has competed in sev eral national and international com petitions, but this was his first appear ance in the festival. And he will have another meet this summer when he competes for the U.S. national team against the Soviet national team in San Jose, Calif., Aug. 5. .He.will join former Husker.Tom Schlesinger on that team. Nebraska’s Dapreis Owens (00) and Carl Hayes were mem bers of a Big Eight Select team that competed in Spain last W/Pf>k NU forwards gain experience, but hate food in Spain By Todd Cooper Staff Reporter Excluding the cuisine, Nebraska forwards Carl Hayes and Daprcis Owens returned from the Big Eight Select team’s trip to Spain with a favorable taste of international and Big Eight basketball. “The food was terrible,’’ Hayes said. “I probably lost about five pounds. “We couldn’t associate very well with the people, either.” Owens added that “other than the food, the Canary Islands were a lot of fun.” Their appetite may not have been filled, but Hayes and Owens said their experience playing against the inter national teams and with their Big Eight counterparts will be valuable in the upcoming season. “they play real physical over seas,” said Hayes by phone from his Chicago home. “After a game, I just said to myself, I need to settle down and get stronger for next season.” Owens agreed. “The physicalness of the older guys especially gave me a chance to test what I’ve worked on in prac tice,” he said by phone from his home Spp SPAIN nn 7 NU player leads basketball team to bronze medal in sports festival By Darran Fowler Senior Editor Comhusker Karen Jennings’ North basketball team at the U.S. Olympic Festival found success whenever the Nebraska sophomore was its leading scorer. From another perspective, when ever the North played the South, which had Nebraska coach Angela Beck as an assistant coach, Jennings’ team was successful. Jennings produced 16 and 19 points in two victories over the South to lead her team to a 2-2 record and the bronze medal at the festival, held last week in Minneapolis. That left Jen nings’ college coach without any hardware to take home. “That made me feel pretty good,” Jennings said about the correlation of team victories to her scoring output. “It went really well for me. I started every game at power forward, and 1 was pretty happy with the way I played.” Jennings said her minutes were limited, so she didn’t have as many scoring opportunities in the North’s two losses, but responded with the 19-point effort in her team’s game against the South for the bronze medal. Jennings said Beck was in a tough situation-wanting to see her South team win, while at the same time hoping Jennings was fortunate. “She was very supportive,’’ Jen nings said. “I really appreciated having her there. It added to the trip. She actually gave me more encourage ment than the coach did on my team. ’ ’ This marked the second time Jen nings and Beck were involved in summer competition. The fwo were on the same side when Beck coached a Big Eight select team that included Jennings and another Huskcr player, Kelly Hubert, in a June inp to Czecho slovakia. After the trip to Czechoslovakia, where she was introduced to a more physical style of game, Jennings said she thinks she may have found her niche in life. “International ball is excellent,’’ she said. “I hope I have a chance to play that type of ball in the future. I like it because it’s real aggressive and fast-paced. That was one of the best basketball experiences I’ve ever had. I really enjoyed that trip.’’ Jennings said she concentrated on adding a couple more inside moves and running the floor better during her summer outings. ‘ ‘ Any time you play a lot... spend time with the game working on de fense, passing, the fundamentals, hopefully in time you’re going to get better,’’ she said. But now that the summer team competitions arc over, she said she is looking forward to continuing work on her own moves to post inside and improve her outside shot for next season. “Being able to go inside and out side is what I like lodo,” she said. “If they leave me open I want to be able to hit the shot.” JN U rootbali coach moves to varsity From staff reports Nebraska volunteer assistant foot ball coach Shane Thorell, who coached the junior varsity team, will move to the varsity this fall,Comhuskcrcoach Tom Osborne announced July 19. Thorell, who posted a three-year record of 10-4-1 with the junior var sity, will assist defensive backficld coach George Darlington. Thorcll’s replacement will be socond-year gradu ate assistant Bill Weber, a four-year letterman from 1981 to 1984 at de fensive end for the Huskcrs. After spending four years asa bank examiner, Weber joined the Husker staff last year, coaching the junior varsity receivers for Thorcll. Weber started three years for the Huskers, earning academic All-Big Eijjht honors three times, and was named al (-conference his senior year!
