Sports
Baseball team to face
fifth-place Cyclones
By Peter Theoharis
Staff Reporter
As Nebraska’s baseball team edges
closer and closer to a Big Eight Con
ference Tournament bid, its coach
emphasizes more and more his belief
in “one game at a lime.”
Nebraska travels to Iowa Stale this
weekend to face the fifth-place Cy
clones (8-12),
The two teams arc scheduled to
begin play Friday in a 1 p.m. double
header. The scries concludes Satur
day with two games scheduled to
begin at 1 p.m.
“We have two scries left with eight
games on the road,” Coach John
Sanders said. “The players arc look
ing up to the challenge, but we need
to focus on looking at each game at a
time and not doing mathematics.”
For those who care about mathe
matics, the 28-19 Comhuskcrs are
third in the conference with a 9-7
. mark and must finish among the top
four clubs to advance to the tourna
ment May 15-17 at Oklahoma City.
The Huskers trail 14-6 Oklahoma
and 13-7 Oklahoma State. Nebraska
is four games ahead of fourth-place
Missouri in the loss column. The Tigers
are 9-11.
Iowa State is 20-20 overall and
tied for fifth with Kansas State.
Under Sanders, Nebraska has
compiled a 36-15 record against the
Cyclones. The two teams split their
series in Lincoln last season.
Sanders said the Cyclones were a
solid club.
“They pitch well and play good
defense,” Sanders said. “Recently they
have put some offense together, as
well.”
The rotation for the Huskcrs will
contain Mike Zajcski, John Izumi and
Josh Bullock, Sanders said.
Bullock and Zajcski have been the
two workhorses for Nebraska. Bul
lock leads the team with 83 innings
pitched and has a 8-4 record with a
4.88 earned run average. Zajcski is 5
4 with a 4.54 ERA in 73 innings
pitched.
Zajcski leads the team in strike
outs with 87. Bullock is second with
73.
Offensively, Nebraska is hitting
.318, which ranks second in the Big
Eight. The Huskcrs’ .300 mark in
conference games lies them for first
with Oklahoma Slate.
Freshman Jed Dalton leads Ne
braska with a .354 average. Dale Hagy
is second at .352 and leads the club
with 11 home runs and 38 runs batted
in.
Troy Brohawn is third in confer
ence balling at .408. He has 10 RBI in
49 times at bat.
—
NU softball team must play harder
in conference tourney, coach says
By Jeff Griesch
Staff Reporter_
Heading into the Big Eight soft
ball loumamcni, Nebraska coach
Ron Wolforth is looking for his
team to step up its level of play a
notch.
“We need to play at a higher
level this weekend,” Wolforth said.
“We arc going to need good pitch
ing and defense every single game
if we arc going to have a chance at
winning the tournament.”
The loumamcni will be played
this weekend at Hall of Fame Sta
dium in Oklahoma City.
The Huskers, 22-28, and seeded
fifth going into the loumamcni,
will face No. 4 seed Missouri at
noon on Friday. If the Huskers win,
they play No. 1 seed Kansas at 4
p.m.
The championship game will be
played Sunday at 3 p.m. with the
champion representing the Big Eight
at the NCAA Softball Champion
ship.
The tournament will showcase
three of the top 15 teams in the
country — Missouri, Oklahoma
State and Kansas. Despite the qual
ity of competition in the confer
ence, Wolforth said he believed
that Kansas was the clear favorite.
“Kansas is definitely the team
to beat,” Wolforth said. “They have
two or three of the top pitchers in
the conference, and that makes them
extremely tough to beat.”
Despite the tough pitching in
the conference, Wolforth said hit
ting was not a major concern to
him.
“This is one of the top one or
two offensive ballclubs in the his
tory of the University of Nebraska,”
Wolforth said. “But you won’t win
the Big Eight with hitting, you
need pitching to be successful.”
The Huskers will rely heavily
on the arm of NU pitcher Lisa
Shandy, 14-14, to carry them
through the tournament.
“Lisa has been pitching ex
tremely well, and the team seems
to be playing with an air of confi
-44
This is one of the
top one or two offen
sive ballclubs in the
history of the Uni
versity of Nebraska.
Wolforth
NU softball coach
-M -
dcncc behind her,” Wolforth said.
“She will probably pilch as many
games as she possibly can for us.”
Despite having a difficult regu
lar season, Wolforth said Nebraska
was anxious to compete in the
tournament and eager to prove it
self against the quality competi
tion in the conference.
“From the first team meeting in
September, the team has been look
ing forward to the Big Eight,”
Wolforth said. “I wish we could
have played a little better during
the season, but with better pitching
and defense we can win this thing.”
Weekend track contest
to prepare Husker men
By John Gardner
Staff Reporter
It’s crunch lime for the Nebraska
track and field teams.
With the NCAA Championships
just weeks away, the Huskcrs first
will play host to a quadrangular Sat
urday at the Ed Weir Track. Teams
from Kansas, Kansas State and Iowa
will attend.
Coach Gary Pepin said his teams
must gel the job done this weekend.
“This is the lime of year where the
competitors need to be in their best
shape and get ready for the confer
ence or national meets,’’ he said.
All one has to do is look at the
current Big Eight charts, Pepin said,
to realize there is still room for im
provement.
“There arc some events where we
just aren’t ranked high, so we need to
get more people up in those areas,” he
said. “Our objective right now is to
continue to improve our performances
and get more people qualified for
nationals.”
One thing Pepin said he was wor
ried about was all the injuries his
teams had sustained over the course
of the year.
“This is by far one of the worst
years we’ve ever had in getting people
recovered from injuries,” he said. “At
the same lime, if those people can’t
compete, you can’t dwell on it, you
just have to go with what you have.”
And Nebraska has done just that
all year. In fact, Pepin said, he is
happy with the way things have been
going.
“We’ve had a real good season so
far,” he said. “Especially last week
where we had a great meet at Drake
under very adverse weather condi
tions.”
The weather will be fine this week
end, however, so times should reflect
this, he said.
“We should have some real good
performances because of the weather,”
Pepin said. “Some events will be real
good, some will not be so good, but
up and down the line, it should be a
good meet.”
And just another meet used up.
“We’re running out of meets here,”
Pepin said.
Husker sprinter Lucas plans to go out with a ‘bang’
By John Gardner
Staff Reporter
Denise Lucas is peaking ai just the
right time.
The senior sprinter from Nebraska
has improved her times from week to
week all through this outdoor season.
And basically she just wants to
keep getting better.
,JAfter improving as much as I
have this year, I
know now that I
can keep improv
ing," Lucas said.
This sudden
improvement
came from out of
nowhere, too.
“I really have
n’t done anything
Lucas different," she
said. "I think it’s jusl running out
doors. The outdoors jusl pumps me
up.”
This Saturday, Lucas will com
pcic in the first of two final home
meets for her. She wants to do some
thing special.
“This will be the last time I’ll run
on our track,” Lucas said. “I want to
go out with a bang, that’s for sure.
“I know I’ll miss practicing even
though I complain all the lime.”
But the Nebraska coaches aren’t
complaining.
Lucas’ coach, Steve Rainboll, has
nothing but praise for her. »
“Denise is really running well this
year,” Rainboll said. “I don’t think
people realize how well she is run
ning because she’s been overshad
owed her whole career by great sprint
ers.”
The feelings are mutual.
“Coach (Rainboll) is great,” Lucas
said. “He just loves his girls.”
Rainboll has reason to love Lucas
this year. So far in this outdoor sea
son, Lucas has posted provisional
qualifying marks in three events and
an automatic qualifying time in an
other.
In the 100*mctcr dash, Lucas has
recorded a lime of 11.47, which is a
personal best and ranks her fourth on
Nebraska’s all-time charts. In the 200,
she has run a 23.54.
Lucas also has joined Kathy Travis,
Kwani Stewart and Shancllc Porter
on the 400 relay team, which has run
a qualifying lime of 44.37. She also
runs a leg on the 1,600 relay, with
Stewart, Porter and Susan Hcdrick
Rchm, helping them to a season-best
time of 3:38.06.
r It would be filling for Lucas to
finish her career with a high placing
at the NCAA Championships.
Not that she’s never been there
before.
As a freshman in 1988, Lucas ran
on the 400 relay team that qualified
for nationals. It went on to place six th
at the “big dance,” giving Lucas All
America honors. She said that was
quite a thrill.
“My freshman year was really fun,”
she said. At me in^aa meet, i was
screaming because we placed sixth. I
also got to meet Jackie Joyner there.
“I was just happy to be there.”
Lucas said at this point she didn’t
really think she was all that good.
“My coach did, though,” she said.
“I was just like, ‘Okay, whatever you
say.’”
During her sophomore year, she
was good. Lucas captured the Big
Eight outdoor 100 title in a time of
11.54, and came close to placing at
nationals.
Then in 1991, Lucas picked up a
couple All-America awards by plac
ing sixth in the 200 (23.61) and ran a
leg on the third-place 400 relay team
that ran a 43.71.
Now in her senior year, Lucas has
even greater goals. She said she would
like to place high in all four events
she runs in, and then it’s on to bigger
and belter things.
“I’m going to run the 200 at the
Olympic Trials this summer,” Lucas
saiu. II WUUIU UV^ Illkiuiiuiv UMUII III
the Olympics, bul il would be a great
shock if I actually made the team.”
Bui Lucas said if she kept improv
ing the way she had this year, there
might be a chance.
“But that will be it,” she added.
“There won’t be a 1996 for me. I’m
an old lady.”
Twcnly-two years old, to be exact.
Lucas celebrated her birthday on a
day when most people arc recovering
and watching bowl games. Her birth
day is on New Year’s Day.
“It never was very fun growing up,
though,” Lucas said. “It seemed like
il was always snowing out, so I could
never enjoy myself.”
If the Olympic dreams don’t come
true, at least Lucas has a back-up. She
will receive a degree in human devel
opment and elementary education next
May.
“I really want to leach fourth-grad
ers,” she said. “Hopefully I can coach
track to the kids, loo.”