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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (March 21, 1991)
Husker catcher improves hitting By John Gardner Staff Reporter Nebraska catcher Brian Amtzen has dealt with a lot of bad habits, like an admittedly bad attitude, and a problem hitting up to his potential over his college baseball career. Against Wayne State Wednesday, Amtzen showed signs of breaking one of these habits by going two for three, with a double, a single and two RBIs to lead the Comhuskers to a 6-1 win. His first RBI tied the game 1-1 in the fourth inning. Amtzen’s second RBI came in the Huskers’ five run explosion in the fifth. Freshman Trey Rutledge allowed one unearned run in six innings and won for Nebraska to go 3-1. Rutledge allowed four hits and struck out six batters. John Izumi pitched the final three innings with seven more strikeouts and picked up his first save. Arntzen said a lot of the credit needs to go to assistant coach Paul Myers for the change. “Coach Myers has helped me a lot with both my swing and my attitude,” he said. “Because of him, I’m im proving as a hitter day by day, and that’s all I can ask for.” Amtzen, who owns a .296 batting average this season, considers him self neither a power hitter nor a hitter for average. He said he has been consistently hitting better this year. Amtzen said it’s typical for play ers to feel a lot of pressure going into their senior seasons, but for him, the attitude is different, especially with the help of backup catcher Sean McKenna. “Usually you go into your senior season thinking it’s crunch time, do or-die,” he said, “but for me, the pressure is gone and I just play re laxed. “And it’s nice to split with Sean (McKenna), because it’s difficult to catch two games in one day.” Amtzen, a speech communication major, said his ultimate goal is to play professional ball. Since this is his last year of eligibility, he hopes to play quite soon. “If everything goes right, I’ll be playing pro ball this summer,” he said. Originally a physical education major, Amtzen said he wants to use this experience in order to teach and coach, preferably in high school or college. He wants to do this after playing in the pros. “I’m not interested in coaching pro ball, though, because that’s all business, money and politics,” he said. Coach: Swimmers, divers need strong showing to place By Benji Greenberg Staff Reporter The Nebraska women’s swim ming and diving team will have to hope for strong performances from its 200 freestyle relay team and diver Amy Aarsen at this week end’s NCAA Championships if it wants to achieve its pre-season goal of a top 20 finish. “Our goal at the beginning of the season was to place in the top 20 at nationals, but this weekend we’ve got our work cut out for us,” Coach Ray Huppert said. “If we can score in six of the nine events we’re in, which is quite feasible, we could make it.” The Comhuskers have qualified six swimmers and Aarsen for this year’s championship meet, held at the Indiana/Purdue University Natatorium in Indianapolis. Huppert said that no one per former is going help the team achieve its goal of that top 20 fin ish — its going to have to be a total team effort. “If we gel good performances fr°m every°ne'we"to ^ Huppert said. Mindy Matheny, Chns Gmeiner, Lynne Braddock and Chris Freder ick make up the Big Eight and school-record-setting 200-freestyle relay team. Jenell Garcia and Aarsen are returning All-Americans — Gar cia in the 100 butterfly in 1990 and Aarsen in platform diving in both 1988 and 1990. This is the first year Aarsen has qualified in all three diving com petitions. Hocking said he thinks Aarsen can place in the top eight and achieve All-American status in all three. “Everyone’s good at 1-meter, but where someone really stands out is 3-meter, and I think Amy’s proved she has as good shot as anyone by winning the zones last weekend,’’diving coach Jim Hock ing said. “When she’s wound and fired up, she’s a machine.’’ Aarsen will be competing off the platform for the first time since last year’s championships. But Hocking said her previous success in the platform competition makes her capable of placing again. Amy Aarsen, Sr., 1- and 3-meter diving, platform diving Jenell Garcia, Sr., 100 and 200 butterfly Melanie Wirtner, Sr., 100 and 200 butterfly, 200 individual medley Lynne Braddock, Sr., Chris Frederick, So., Chris Gmeiner, Sr., Mindy Matheny, Sr., all for 200 freestyle relay Amle DeFrain/Dally Nebraskan .. .-...■ -** -,r -) Robin Trimarchi/Daily Nebraskan Nebraska’s Eddie Anderson asks umpire Brian Halstrom for time out after taking second base during the Cornhuskers’ five-run fifth inning. Volleyballers finish undefeated at hoop By Benji Greenberg Staff Reporter The Volleyballers finished a sea son undefeated, only this season was during the winter and not the fall, and the sport was not their usual forte, it was basketball. Linda Barsness and Becky Bolli led the Volleyballers to the champi onship of the women’s All-Univer sity intramural basketball tournament Wednesday night. “This was fun and it was a pleasant change from volleyball,” Barsness said. The Volleyballers, rarely tested this season, crushed Alpha Omicron Pi 48-29, dominating with their height and athletic ability. Barsness, Stepha nie Thaler, Chris Hall and Sara Hesch all are 6-foot-2. “The keys to our success on the basketball court are our physical strength and our big bodies inside with Stephanie, Chris, Sara and my self,” said Barsness, who scored a game-high 16 points. Even though the Vollcyballers won the championship game, Bolli said her team was out of synch on defense and offense. “We seemed to be rushing things and not taking care of the ball,” Bolli said. “Since we’ve been playing vol leyball, we forgot how aggressive basketball was. “I’ve missed basketball so I was very intense throughout the entire season, and this was just fun to get out and play.” Bolli scored 14 points and Thater added seven. Denise Dolezal led the AOPi’s with 11 points. AOPi Jennifer Klabundc said the Volleyballers’ strength, height and aggressiveness were factors, but the AOPi’s didn’t play well, either. “Our shooting and passing were off tonight, thanks to the intimidation posed by the Volleyballers’ size,” Klabunde said. “Had we executed better and passed better, the game would have been better.” The Volleyballers extended their lead to as many as 22 points in the second half, pulling away from a 12 point halftime advantage. Hot property Intramural star may be Huskers’ hope I went to an intramural game as a spectator. I had shaken hands and spoken with couple of the participants, but I couldn’t call any of them friends. Yes, I’m a sick man in need of a hobby. It’s not easy to watch an intramu ral game as a spectator. I was just about to give one of the rent-a-refs a hard time about an obvious but uncal led foul, when another watcher beat me to it. The official threatened to have the fan thrown out. Like we’re supposed to be scared of the phone cops. The court was full of people like Clete Blakcman, Kenny Walker and Brent Pick, all former Nebraska foot ball players. Those gridiron stars doing well on a basketball court proves that great athletes are great athletes and great competitors are great competi tors. But I was there for a better reason than just to kill time or to glory in the presence of former football Com huskers. I was there to sec Jamar Johnson, who is known for basketball first. The game was a men’s All-Uni versity quarterfinal. The Hosers fought The Law and the Hosers won, which ruined a great line. Johnson plays for the Hosers. Domeier Johnson is a scholarship recruit for the Nebraska men’s basketball team, but he’s sitting out because of Prop 48. That, of course, means he’s a hot intramural property. I wanted to see Johnson because Nebraska might need him at point guard ne ;t season. Clifford Scales and Keith Moody, Nebraska’s top two point guards in the Huskers’ just-completed season, were seniors. Point guard No. 3, Jose Ramos, jumped ship from the Husk ers at the Big Eight tournament. He’ll probably be back on board next sea son, but you can never be sure. Even with Ramos back and start ing, he’ll need a backup. Though Nee will likely sign a point guard with one of his two remaining scholarships, Johnson is top candidate. When Ramos left the team, Coach Danny Nee didn’t beg him to rejoin immediately. Naturally, Nee couldn’t freak out publicly, but the joke was, “Jamar Johnson must be playing well in intramurals.” Johnson is playing well. The Hos crsare undefeated and he is the team’s top scorer. Monday, he scored 34 points,, He started the game Tuesday lookingtike he would score three or four points, front-rimming ail of his shots. ■* He never did find that hot shooting touch, but he did find ways to score. In the second half, the Hoscrs would just throw the ball downcourt to Johnson and let him lead a one-on one, two-on-two or three-on-three before the court got cluttered. Johnson was too quick, too strong and too smooth for The Law. He finished with 22 points. Of course, 22 points in intramurals doesn’t mean he can score in Division I NCAA basketball, and it doesn’t mean he can help Carl Hayes or Tony Farmer score 22 points next season. His primary job as point guard will be to distribute the ball. For the Hos ers, his job is to score. His last assist Tuesday was sweet, though. He ended the game by flip ping the ball off the backboard for Walker. Walker came in and crashed down with the dunk; I haven’t heard of a tree flying like that since Ml. St. Helen’s erupted. See DOMEIER on 14