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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (April 11, 1994)
Daily Nebraskan Monday, April 11, 1994 SPORTS Page 7 Men gymnasts take title at West Regional By Trevor Parks Staff Reporter___ The Nebraska men’s gymnastics team is in the position it wants prior to heading into the NCAA championships in Lincoln on April 22 23, Coach Francis Allen said. Allen The Cornhuskers put themselves in that spot by winning the NCAA West Regional at Colorado Springs, Colo., on Saturday. The Huskers scored 287.025, their second high est mark of thcjscason, in beating two-time defending NCAA champion Stanford, which finished second with 284.65 points.Oklahoma fin Frazier back, NU scrimmage picks up speed Quarterback impacts offense and defense By Tim Pearson Senior Reporter Nebraska quarterback Tommie Frazier was back at full speed Saturday. And that meant the Nebraska defense wason full alert. Frazier, a second-team All-Big Eight pick I ast season, missed Nebraska’s first major scrim mage last Saturday because of a sprained ankle. But in Saturday’s second scrimmage, Frazier connected for 85 yards on 6-of-9 passing. Having the junior quarterback in the scrim mage helped the defense, outside linebacker Dwayne Harris said. “Tommie Frazier was probably good for the tempo,” he said. “It’s more of an up-tempo game with Tommie in there. “He helps both offensively and defensively.” The defense had 10 quarterback sacks and one interception in Saturday’s scrimmage. Backup Brook Bcrringcr wassackcdeight times for 65 yards in losses and walk-on Vinnie Murphy was sacked twice. Sophomore reserve outside linebacker Jared Tomich had four sacks, and defensive tackle Jason Jenkins had three. Harris said the Husker defense performed as well as last week. “We feel great out there.” he said. “But we didn’t get belter or worse.” By the end of the spring. Harris said, the defense should be ready to go. “The spring helps everybody get back into the groove of playing football,” he said. “It makes you think about the things that you’ve got to get done before next year.” Comhusker coach Tom Osborne was pleased with the play of his defense. “The effort was good,” he said. “But I’m still somewhat concerned about the turnovers and sacks. The defense played fairly well. “They gave up two or three big plays, but we were using a lot of different combinations on both sides of the ball and that makes it hard to be real consistent.” Osborne said having Frazier back in the lineup could only help the Huskcrs. But for the defense, he said, it really doesn’t matter who lines up behind center. - u--— This is the best. It’s nice to be No. 1 coming out of the regionals. — Allen NU men’s gymnastics coach -- 99 ~ ishcd third with 284.475. Stanford and Okla homa qualified for the NCAA championships as well. Allen said the Huskers’ performance would be a spark going into the NCAA champion ships. “We lost at Stanford and we lost at Okla homa earlier this year,” Allen said. “After beating them this time, I know our guys have to feel good about themselves.” The Huskers scored a school-record 48.725 on the still rings, breaking the previous record set in 1988. Nebraska also had a season-best 48.7 on the horizontal bars. Nebraska’s Dennis Harrison finished sec ond in the all-around with a 57.625. UCLA’s Steve McCain won the all-around with a score of 58.225. Harrison also finished second in the floor exercise (9.70), third on the still rings (9.825) Shaun Sartin/DN Nebraska l-back Marvin Sims heads up field during the Huskers’ scrimmage Saturday. Sims, who had reconstructive surgery on his knee a year ago, was the sixth leading rusher during the scrimmage with 16 yards on four carries. “It doesn’t make any dilTcrence to them,” Osborne said. “Everybody’s competing for a certain position. It doesn’t matter who they go against.’’ Despite the sacks, al I three quarterbacks had some success throwing the ball Saturday. Bcrringer was 9-of-14 for a team-high 97 yards, and Murphy ofColorado Springs, Colo., threw for 90 yards while completing nine of his 13 pass attempts. and second on the parallel bars (9.80). Allen said he was happy to see the senior leadership of not only Harrison but also Che Bowers, Sumner Darling and Burkett Powell. “The seniors are putting it together,” he said. “They’re playing just perfectly.” Richard Grace won the parallel bars with a score of 9.825. Bowers finished third on the pommel horse with a 9.80. Jason Christie won the horizontal bar, scor ing a career-high 9.925 in the event. In the East Regional, second-ranked Ohio State scored just 282 points, live less than the Huskers. “This is the best,” Allen said. “It's nice to be No. 1 coming out of the regionals.” Defense snags weekend wins forComhuskers By Jeff Griesch Senior Editor The offensive execution was inconsistent. The pitchers had trouble finding the strike zone. But the Nebraska baseball team’s defense was perfect as the Cornhuskcrs beat Oral Rob erts 3-2 Sunday to complete a three-game sweep of the Golden Eagles at Buck Belt/.er Field. witninc sweep, me husk ers improved to 19-16 on the season, while the Golden Eagles fell to 22-16. “It p robabl y wouldn ’ t h a ve come down to a one-run game if we would have executed a little better,” Nebraska coach John Sanders said. “We didn’t get it done a couple of times, but that happens. Sanders Twice on Sunday, Husker hitters failed to get bunts down, which may have cost Nebraska two big innings. In the fourth inning, Darm Petersen twice bunted foul with no outs and men on first and second. In the fifth, Alvie Shepherd lined a bunt to third, as the Huskers again failed to advance two runners. The failure to execute on offense led the Huskers to score just three runs on 10 hits. While the offense had problems executing, Nebraska pitchers also struggled. Starter Craig Sanders had given up one run on two hits and had walked five batters in just 2 1/3 innings of work before being relieved by Cody Wingct. After Sanders walked three batters to load the bases in the third. Wingct walked the first batter he faced to force in a run. But Wingct then got Oral Roberts’ Sean Foster to ground into a double play to end the inning. Wingct pitched five innings of no-hit relief but walked four. Error-free defense kept the Huskers from getting burned. “Our defense has been great al 1 year,” Sand ers said. “It has been our main thing and the one constant we have had. We have had troubles with the pitching, and we went through a hitting slump, but our defense has remained solid the whole way.” See DEFENSE on 8 Pepin gets wish as track and field teams roll to titles By Derek Samson Senior Reporter Nebraska track and field coach Gary Pepin was granted both his wishes — a team victory and the opportunity to experiment — in Saturday’s six-team meet at Nebraska’s Ed Weir Track. The Husker men left the competition in the dust, racking up a team score of Pepin 265 1/2 points. Colo rado State finished second with a score of 111. Nebraska also ran away in the women’s standings, scoring a 202. Colorado State was second at 139. Pepin said he knew coming into the meet that it was a perfect opportu nity to experiment. “You always have some expecta tions coming into the meet,” he said. “First, you want to win it. But I think it was more important that we had a lot of people at a lot of different events. ” Of many strong performances, Pepin singled out Brady Bonsall’s first-place Finish in the 3,000-metcr steeplechase. Bonsall’s time of 8 minutes, 59.1 seconds was 14 seconds better than his previous personal best. “There were a lot of good perfor mances out here,” Pepin said. “Brady Bonsall in the steeplechase was really good to sec. You’re always trying to improve around this time. You hope to sec improvements in these early meets, but the important thing is to be ready down the road.” The men’s team had 11 first-place finishes Saturday, while Nebraska’s women were first in 12 events. “In a meet like this, this early in the season, you hope to have a good, competitive performance,” Pepin said. “You want to stay healthy and hope fully win the meet. At the same time, we didn’t try to pump into the people that we needed to rack up the big team - it You hope to see improvements in these early meets, but the important thing is to be ready down the road. — Pepin NU track and field coach -ff - scores. ” Paulette Mitchell won both the shot put and discus, while Kwani Stewart earned the top spot in the 100-mctcr hurdles and tnc long jump. Pepin said h is team responded well to its first home meet of the outdoor season. “It’s nice to gel back home, but it would’ve been even nicer to have bet ter weather,” he said. “The kids get tired of traveling. It’s good to use your own facilities and have some home crowd support.”