Gregg Madsen
School record
NU’s latest feat
under Kendig
When the Nebraska women’s
gymnastics team knocked off No. 5
Arizona State 196.62-195.6 on Sun
day, the seventh-ranked Comhuskers
didn’t just demolish the old overall
score team record by almost a point
and run their record to 11-1.
They proved that Nebraska
women’s gymnastics has arrived as
a legitimate national title contender.
Coach Dan Kendig said the new
school record is an important mile
stone for the Huskers.
“There for a while, like three
years ago, we were scoring in the
192s and we wanted to get into the
193s,” Kendig said. “It was the same
way when we went 195 last year. It’s
just kind of like a wall you have to
break down, and when you do, it’s
like ‘wow, we can do that.’”
How much have the Huskers im
proved in the past three years? Con
sider NU’s first-place score in the
1995 Master’s Classic was a 192.05.
In 1995, the Huskers set a school
record of 194.725 at the NCAA Mid
west Regional. This season, the team
average is 194.837 per meet.
NU has also scored the third and
fourth highest team marks in school
history this season — a 195.575 at
Michigan and a 195.45 at Southeast
Missouri State.
Kendig has guided Nebraska to
a new level in his four years as coach.
He has earned conference coach-of
the-year honors in each of the last
three seasons to back that up.
The scary thing is that NU’s
scores are only going to get better.
The Huskers have reached their
lofty scores this season despite inju
ries that continue to plague key per
formers.
Senior Kim DeHaan has endured
a back injury throughout the season.
Despite the pain, DeHaan has con
sistently scored 9.9 or better on the
floor exercise and the uneven bars.
Sophomore Courtney Brown has
struggled to recover from a stress
fracture in her lower leg.
But one score does not make a
national champion, and Kendig is the
first to admit that.
“Obviously, scores aren’t every
thing,” he said. “All you can do is
make your performance improve
from week to week.”
The Huskers see ASU again at
the NCAA Midwest Regional in Salt
Lake City on April 5, along with 10
time national champion and current
No. 3 Utah.
“We’ve got to keep working to
stay with them and hopefully get to
a point where it’s above and beyond
Arizona State and Utah,” Kendig
said. “We’ve got some people ahead
of us that are going to keep us fight
ing and working.”
Madsen is a junior news-edito
rial major and a Daily Nebraskan
staff reporter.
KU’s other guard rips Huskers apart
Halbleib’s 28 points
offsets a 23-point effort
by DeForge.
By Mike Kluck
Senior Reporter
LAWRENCE, Kan. — The Ne
braska women’s basketball team has
had success this season containing
Kansas All-American point guard
Tamecka Dixon.
It’s stopping the other Jayhawk
player who steps up when Dixon
struggles against the Comhuskers that
NU has had the most trouble with.
On Wednesday night in KU’s rus
tic Allen Fieldhouse, Jayhawk senior
Angie Halbleib — who said she hasn’t
been shooting the ball well recently —
scored 28 points to pace No. 8 Kansas
(22-4 overall and 13-2 in the Big 12
Conference) to
a 66-58 come
from-behind
victory over
NU.
The win se
cured the first
ever Big 12
regular season
championship
J ay hawks ‘ m
front of a sparse crowd of 1,648 fans.
Halbleib’s 28 points, one shy of her
career-best 29 she scored Nov. 24,
1996, against Cal-Santa Barbara, has
been struggling. In the past 12 games,
the 5-foot-10 senior guard from
Middleton, Wis., averaged just 7.4
points — three fewer than her average
of 10.9 points per game.
In NU’s first game against Kansas,
a 67-59 loss at the Bob Devaney Sports
Center on Feb. 2, freshman guard Lynn
Pride stepped up for KU to score a
career-high 18 points.
“They are a guard-oriented team,”
NU Coach Angela Beck said.
“Halbleib and Dixon are a big part of
their offense. Halbleib has not had a
great year shooting, and I knew if she
got a couple down, she would get her
confidence up, and she did.”
Halbleib’s 19-point outburst in the
second half almost single-handedly
brought the Jay hawks back from an 8
point halftime deficit. During a 12-2
run that gave KU its first lead of the
second half, Halbleib — who cel
ebrated her 22nd birthday in style
Wednesday night — scored eight
points.
After forging ahead 47-45 with
9:06 left in the game, Kansas never
looked back.
“I was really surprised at times that
they left me open,” Halbleib said.
“Then my teammates got me the ball.
I knew with Tamecka’s knee I would
have to step up my offense.”
Halbleib started another run that
slammed the door shut on any Ne
braska comeback hopes.
After Anna DeForge made a bas
ket to cut KU’s lead to 52-50 with 6:26
Please see KANSAS on 8
Ryan Soderlin/DN
ANDY MARKOWSKI defends Oklahoma State’s Adrian Peterson as the Cowboy
guard shoots during Nebraska’s 77-68 win Wednesday.
NU erases
slow start
to win by 9
Piatkowski provides
Nebraska with a needed
spark off the bench.
By Mitch Sherman
Senior Reporter
Bruised and battered but still
breathing, the Nebraska basketball
team emerged victorious from the Bob
D e v a n e y
Sports Center
Wednesday
night, clinging
to renewed
hope and
braced for its
biggest battle
in at least three
years.
The
Cornhuskers
(16-12 overall and 7-8 in the Big 12
Conference) used a ferocious second
half to pull away from Oklahoma
I
State, out-muscling a physical group
of Cowboys in the final 20 minutes.
Nebraska’s 77-68 win, its fourth in
five games, sets the stage for Sunday,
when No. 1 Kansas visits Lincoln with
NCAA-Tournament implications
hanging in the balance. But for the first
20 minutes Wednesday, NU appeared
headed for a meaningless Sunday.
The Pokes (14-13 and 6-9) clawed
their way to a 40-30 lead at the break,
out-rebounding the much taller Husk
ers 20-11 and shooting 50 percent from
the field, including 4 of 4 from 3-point
range.
“We couldn’t keep them off the
glass,” Nebraska Coach Danny Nee
said after his team improved to 12-2
at home before a crowd of 11,414.
“Oklahoma State did about what we
thought they were going to do.”
Behind an effective box-and-one
Please see OSU on 8
Terry, Tobin use year to mature
By Sam McKewon
Staff Reporter
Two Nebraska wrestlers have
found that sitting out is hard to do.
Three years into their brilliant ca
reers, Ryan Tobin and Temoer Terry
both decided to take a year off from
NCAA competition and redshirt this
season. The reason: to prepare for their
senior year and a better-than-average
shot at winning the national title in
1998.
Terry and Tobin both finished third
at the NCAA championships in 1996.
Terry — owner of an 81-22 career
record — compiled a 25-3 record at
158 pounds while Tobin — who is 82
45 at NU — went 33-9 wrestling at
190.
After three seasons at NU, Terry
and Tobin were both approached about
the idea to redshirt.
Coach Tim Neumann said a
redshirt year for Terry and Tobin will
make the duo’s skills much better.
“Most of all it is just physical ma
turity,” Neumann said. “They both
would have been great this year, but
next year, they’ll be all that much bet
ter and strong.”
Since redshirting in the fall, Terry
and Tobin have taken different paths
in the last 10 months.
Tobin, a native of Brandon, S.D.,
has excelled in his year off.
He has won five open tournaments,
including the Sunkist Invitational, a
meet against international competition
in Arizona. There Tobin also beat the
nation’s fourth-ranked heavyweight,
Jason Lakitis of Edinboro College, 7
2 in Arizona.
“It was easier because you don’t
have any expectations,” Tobin said.
“There was some great competition
there.”
Tobin said it has been hard at times
to just work out with the team and sit
out of the meets.
“Sometimes you want to go out
there and wrestle,” Tobin said, “but it’s
easier to do knowing you still have a
season left.”
Terry’s redshirt year has been an
exact opposite.
Terry, from McPherson, Kan., in
jured his shoulder at the NCAA Cham
pionships last March in his semifinal
match against Illinois’ Ernest Benion.
Terry went on to finish third, but has
not wrestled since. He had surgery in
August, ending his senior season.
Terry said the rehabilitation hasn’t
always been easy.
“Initially I wanted to redshirt to
progress, but then it became an issue
of healing my shoulder,” he said.
“Even after I came back I limited for a
while. Only recently have I been able
to do any real work.”
Once the two are back on the mat,
their focus turns toward winning an
individual NCAA title.
“I think I’m going to win it,” Tobin
said. “I’ve put the time in and I’m
ready.”
“I will be disappointed with any
thing less,” Terry said. “I want a na
tional title.”
Note:
The No. 8 Nebraska wrestling team
faces Oklahoma in Norman tonight at
7:30. The Huskers (15-4) beat OU 22
12 at the Cliff Keen National Duals in
January.
Both teams are hot as NU has won
eight straight duals while the Sooners
have won five of their last six.
