Sports
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Women gymnasts qualify for NCAA meet
By Trevor Parks
Staff Reporter
Afler losing its first home meet since 1992,
the Nebraska women ’ s gymnastics team couldn ’ t
be happier.
Nebraska earned an at-large bid Sunday for
the NCAA Championships at Athens, Ga., after
finishing second at the Midwest Regionals.
The Comhuskers will be seeded ninth out of
12 teams when the meet begins on April 20.
Nebraska coach Dan Kendig said he wasn’t
worried about his team’s seed.
“We’re just happy to be there, and (we’ll)
give it our best shot,” Kendig said.
And to get to nationals, the Huskers finished
behind defending NCAA champion Utah at the
Midwest Regional Saturday in front of a crowd
of 2,141 at the Bob Devaney Sports Center.
Utah won the regional with a score of
196.625, while Nebraska’s school-record score
of 194.725 was good for second.
Brigham Young finished third with a score
of 194.05, followed by Arizona State, 193.25,
Arizona, 192.875, Utah State, 191.95 and Okla
homa, 191.05.
Kendig said he would take the results even
though his team lost at home for the first time
since he came to Nebraska.
“It’s the first time we’ve been beat at home
since I’ve been here, but I think I’ll suck it up
and take that,” Kendig said. “We showed we
belong on the floor with the best teams in the
country.”
The last time Nebraska had an other-than
first-place finish was a fourth-place finish be
hind Arizona, Oregon State and Alabama in the
Masters Classic, Feb. 16, 1992.
But this time the Huskers performed much
better in defeat.
Nebraska needed at least 47.275 points to
overtake BYU for second place on the final
nfffrtiofl-’&ndltte Htrskefs gOtthM'and more on
the balance beam.
- The Huskers scored a 48.4 to wrap up the
second-place finish.
And the Husker seniors stepped up.
The balance beam began well for Nebraska
as senior Kristi Camp set a career-best with a
score of 9.825.
But sophomore Kim DeHaan fell after Camp,
and the pressure was back on Nebraska.
Kendig said the Huskers responded well
after DeHaan’s fall.
“The first girl rocks, and it takes a little
pressure off people,” Kendig said. “Then Kim
misses, so the pressure’s back on.”
But Nebraska responded when senior Martha
Jenkins landed a season-best 9.7 and senior
Nicole Duval earned a 9.725.
Then sophomore Shelly Bartlett fell off the
beam for the first time this year, receiving a
score of 9.4.
But junior Joy Taylor followed her with a
9.75.
Taylor, who had a career-best score of3 9.075
Jay Calderon/DN
Nebraska gymnast Jennifer Hawkinson competes in the vault at the Midwest Regionals on Saturday. Hawkinson scored a
9.85 in the event while helping the Huskers to their first NCAA appearance since 1991.
for a sixth-place finish in the all-around, said
she didn’t want to become too tentative in her
final event.
“Being last in the beam lineup is tough be
cause ifa couple of people have fallen, then you
have to hit,” Taylor said. “I’ve been in that
position to get that type of a score before and
usually it comes out OK.”
Before the balance beam, Nebraska set a
season-best team score on the uneven bars with
a 48.825.
DeHaan led the team with a 9.825, and Duval
set a season-best with a score of 9.8.
The Huskers started the night off well with a
48.425 in the floor exercise.
Bartlett led Nebraska and finished fourth in
the event with a score of 9.8.
The Huskers followed that with a meet-high
score of 49.075 on the vault. Senior Jennifer
Hawkinson contributed a career-best 9.85, and
Taylor also had a 9.85.
Duval also tied a career-best with a 9.8.
Nebraska hadn’t qualified for nationals since
1991, and Kcndig said no one wanted the sea
son to end without a trip to the NCAA Champi
onships.
“We have something started now that we’re
going to try to keep going,” Kendig said. “That’s
something they’ve strived for, and they did not
want their season to end tonight.”
Husker homers help
team get weekend win
From Staff Reports
The Nebraska baseball team sal
vaged the final game of a three
game series with No. 1 Oklahoma
State in Stillwater, Okla., with an
11-7 win Sunday.
Jed Dalton’s two-run homer —
his second home run of the game—
in the eighth inning broke a 7-7 tie.
Two batters later, Darin Erstad hit a
two-run homer of his own to give
reliever Jonas Armenta a four-run
cushion.
Erstad’s 11th home run of the
season capped a four-homer day
for the Comhuskers. Todd Sears
added a three-run home run in the
seventh inning.
Armenta, 5-1, shut down the
Cowboys in the eighth and ninth
innings to move the Huskers to 8
7 in the Big Eight and 19-13 over
all. The Cowboys fell to 11-3 and
31-5.
Bob Courter started on the
mound for the Huskers and pro
vided Nebraska’s best start of the
series, allowing six runs and four
walks in 5 1/3 innings.
Courter, Armenta and Justin
Gomes combined to walk six Cow
boy hitters Sunday, showing
Nebraska’s best control of the se
ries.
Jeff Strasser lasted just 1 2/3
innings, walked eight and hit two
batters in a 9-0 loss to the Cowboys
Friday. Oklahoma State ace Jason
Bell threw a three-hitter to improve
to 8-0.
Nebraska pitchers were even
wilder Saturday, walking 16, hit
ting one batter, throwing three wild
pitches and giving up 26 hits in a
37-18 loss.
Oklahoma State’s 37 runs were
the most ever scored by the Cow
boys, and the most ever scored by a
Big Eight team.
Mel Motley gave the Huskers
their only highlight Saturday. The
junior center fielder went 4 for 4
with a home run and five RBIs.
Third place just enough to earn
Husker men spot at NCAA meet
By Mitch Sherman
Senior Reporter :
Five good events and one bad one
Saturday night at the NCAA West
Regional in Norman, Okla., were
enough to earn the Nebraska men’s
gymnastics team its 18th-consecutive
trip to the NCAA Championships.
Barely.
The third-ranked Cornhuskers,
whose score of 227.125 was good
enough for third place, drew the fifth
spot in the six-team NCAA Champi
onships April 20-22 at Columbus,
Ohio.
Joining Nebraska at nationals are
West Regional qualifiers Stanford and
Oklahoma, as well as the East
Regional ’ s Penn State, Iowa and Ohio
State.
The Huskers, who finished .2 points
behind Oklahoma and more than 1.5
points behind Stanford, edged out New
Mexico, which scored 226.725.
Nebraska coach Francis Allen said
he was not surprised that New Mexico,
ranked No. 1 in the nation, did not
qualify for nationals.
“I said that they weren’t as good as
their scores,” he said of the Lobos,
who had beaten Nebraska three times
this season. “They had been blowing
everyone out and never had any pres
sure on them until regionals.”
Allen said the Huskers were in po
sition to win the meet before their last
event, the pommel horse.
“We were leading,” he said. “We
were just cruising right along. When
we got to horse, we crashed, and
Stanford burnt it up on rings.”
Allen said four Nebraska gymnasts
fell from the horse, and only senior
Richard Grace hit his routine.
“I don’t know what we are going to
do,” he said. “In practice, we have
been hitting our horse routines. But
we lost a lot on pommel horse. We
have been working on some little
changes on horse. I thought we were
unbeatable.”
The Huskers, he said, hit on 79
percent of their routines Saturday
night. Before the pommel horse, they
were in the mid 80s. A year ago at
nationals, Nebraska hit more than 90
percent of its routines and captured
the national championship.
Two weeks from now, Allen said,
the Huskers could do it again.
“I think ifyou look at all the teams,”
he said, “and said all of them had to
hit, Nebraska would win.”
Allen praised the work of
Nebraska’s support crew, made up of
Ted Harris, Ryan McEwen, Lev
Scheiber, Jim Koziol and Don Kinison.
“Our support crew did a better than
the all-around crew,” he said. “They
did a great job keeping us in there.
They were performing. Whenever we
were down team-wise, they were do
ing the right thing.”
Grace,Nebraska’stopall-arounder,
finished fourth with a 57.30. Junior
Jason Christie placed fifth in the all
around, scoring a 56.85.
Huskers who placed in individual
events included Grace (second in
the parallel bars), Christie (fourth in
high bar and fifth in the floor exer
cise) and senior Rick KiefTer (first
in the vault).
