Runners improve
in national meet
By Gregg Madsen
Staff Reporter
Despite high winds and stiff com
petition, three Nebraska cross coun
try runners ran tough Monday at the
NCAA Cross Country Champion
ships in Ames, Iowa.
“My thoughts on the race were
that all three of our runners per
formed well,” Cornhusker cross
country coach Jay Dirksen said.
“We went in hoping that we would
be able to compete with the level of
competition at this type of meet,
and I think we did that.”
Senior Brady Bonsall led the
Huskers by finishing 87th in a field
of 184 runners, covering the 10,000
meter course in 32 minutes and 39
seconds. Bonsall improved on last
year’s 128th-place finish.
“He gave a good, solid effort,”
Dirksen said. “Brady ran a lot bet
ter than he did last year.”
Dirksen said sophomores Nora
Shepherd and Christina Blackmer,
who were also competing in their
second national meet, gave a strong
effort as well.
Blackmer finished the women’s
course in 18:34, good for 108th
place.
That was an improvement from
Blackmer’s 142nd-place finish at
the national meet in 1993, and it
“My thoughts on the
race were that all three
of our runners
performed well. ”
JAY DIRKSEN
Nebraska cross country coach
was the first time this year that
Biackmer, who redshirted in 1994,
finished ahead of Shepherd.
Shepherd, who finished 105th
last year as a true freshman, crossed
the line four seconds after Biackmer
and finished in 118th place.
“Nora was up there for a while
and then she fell back a little bit,”
Dirksen said. “She couldn’t quite
hold on, but it wasn’t like she fell
apart. There was a span of four
seconds that determined 24 places
when she finished.”
Dirksen said that considering the
level of competition, the perfor
mances were very competitive.
“I think it will give Christina and
Nora something to look forward
to,” he said. “They are both sopho
mores, so they will have a couple
more shots at this. And it really will
give them some confidence head
ing into the track season.”
OU not scared of NU volleyball
By Trevor Parks
Senior Reporter
The Oklahoma vol leyball team is not
scared of playing Nebraska anymore.
Twice this season the Soonershavc
learned the lesson of what happens
when an experienced team dominated
a young Oklahoma squad.
Now, for the third time this season,
the Sooners must face the top-ranked
Cornhuskers. Oklahoma and Nebraska
meet Friday in the semifinals of the
Big Eight Tournament.
Sooner coach Miles Pabst said this
time his team would perform better.
“Our players were scared of Ne
braska when we played them earlier,
but I don’t think they are scared any
longer,” he said. “There is a certain
respect for Nebraska, but we are defi
nitely not scared.”
That look of fear showed in the
second match at Norman this season.
Nebraska beat Oklahoma 15-7,15-7,
15-5, but the Sooners played much
better than they did in the two teams’
first match, at the NU Coliseum, where
Nebraska won 15-9, 15-2, 15-2.
In the second match, the Huskers
had their lowest hitting percentage of
the season, .162, after hitting only
.267 in the first match. Nebraska made
16 errors in the second match with 35
kills compared to Oklahoma’s 37. In
the first match, the Sooners had 30
errors and only 28 kills, hitting -.009.
The Sooners were hurt by hitting er
rors once again in the second match
with 28 errors.
“We need to play defense on an
equal level the whole match,” Pabst
said. “We’ve made too many unforced
errors in the first two matches, and
that really hurt us.
“In the match in Norman, we
worked really hard and should have
scored 10 to 12 points each game, but
we just made too many errors.”
The Sooners finished the regular
season 19-11 and 7-5 in the Big Eight
but have lost four of their last five
matches. Oklahoma, Iowa State and
Colorado all finished with the same
conference record, but because of a
tie-breaker system, the Sooners re
ceived the fourth seed.
“We needed to beat Colorado to
take third or second, but we lost and
now we have to play the big bad Husk
ers again,” Pabst said, “that ’s OK with
me though.”
Pabst wants his team to gain expe
rience by playing in bigmatches. Okla
homa has only one senior, Heidi
Luehmann.
“By playing them for the third time
this year, we can only get better,”
Pabst said. “Three years ago we had a
chance to beat them in the tourna
ment, and that was a great experi
ence.”
In 1992, Oklahoma won the first
two games 15-11 and 15-8 before the
Huskers rallied to win the final three
games 15-4, 15-0 and 15-7.
The Sooners and Huskers have met
in the past three Big Eight Tourna
ment semifinals, with the Huskers
winning all three times. Last season,
Nebraska won 15-4, 15-4, 15-5.
Big 8
Continued from Page 7
well against them.”
When Nebraska sets foot on the
court Friday night, it will be the first
time in nine days that the Huskers
have played. After playingsixmatches
during the first 15 days of November,
Nebraska has been idle since a 15-2,
15-4,15-0 win over Missouri on Nov.
15.
Nebraska had few problems han
tiling the Sooners the First two times
the teams met this season. The Husk
ers beat Oklahoma 15-9,15-2,15-2 in
Lincoln on Sept. 30, and 15-7, 15-7,
15-5 on Nov. 10 in Norman, Okla, a
match in which Nebraska recorded a
season-low hitting percentage.
“I think they improved some,” Pettit
said. “I think they were probably a
little more comfortable playing in
Oklahoma. They did a pretty good job
on us defensively. We have worked
on some things to counteract that.”
Winsett said anytime you face a
team tor the third time in one season,
the challenge becomes greater.
“We’re just going to have to keep
concentrating on what we are doing
on our side, and making those adjust
ments we have been working on,”
Winsett said.
NOTE:
• Weston, Winsett and setter
Christy Johnson were among six play
ers chosen to the GTE Academic All
District Seven team.
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