NLTs elite
to compete
in Atlanta
By Sean Lewis
Staff Reporter
Running in big meets is noth
ing new for some of the members
of the Nebraska men’s and
women’s track and field teams.
When 11 members of the
Comhusker track team compete at
the U.S. Indoor Track and Field
Championships in Atlanta starting
today, it won’t be the first time.
Although NU Coach Gary
Pepin is still unsure which Husk
ers will travel to Atlanta, he knows
Tom Fish, Shane Lavy, Willie
Hibler, Angee Henry, TYessa Th
ompson, Kerry Doetker and the
women’s 4 X 400-meter relay team
have all qualified for the meet.
Pepin said Henry will not com
pete because of an injury she suf
fered at last weekend’s Big 12
Championships, and Joe Laster has
not officially qualified, but may still
compete.
Pepin said this weekend’s meet
is the perfect time for his top ath
letes to have some of their best per
formances.
riuptiuny, it a tut mut ui jtai
to have terrific performances,”
Pepin said. “We’re going to not just
compete against NCAA people, but
national champions and semi-pro
athletes. It will the very best in the
U.S.”
Fish said although he qualified
for the U.S. Outdoor Track and
Field Championships last year, this
will be a new experience for him.
“I’ve never qualified for some
thing like this indoors, but there
will be some of the same faces I
saw last year at outdoors,” Fish
said. “At the U.S. indoor meet, I’ll
be running against the best in
America.
“After I run against those guys,
I’ll be prepared to run against any
body.”
Although the Husker athletes
know what expect against this high
level of competition, Pepin said no
one knows what to expect what re
sults will happen this weekend.
“I have no idea what the fields
look like because I don’t know
who’s entered and what they’ve
done,” Pepin said. “This meet will
help them get confidence indoors
and will put them up against great
competition.”
Coming off a second-place fin
ish in the 200 meters and a fifth
place finish in the 55 meters at the
Big 12 Indoor Championships,
Fish said he is confident entering
the meet.
“I expect to run well in the pre
lims — that’s the big thing,” Fish
said. “You’ve got to be ready to run
and run well that first round so you
can qualify for finals.”
Oklahoma trip starts with loss
By Antone Oseka
Staff Reporter
Oklahoma snapped the Nebraska
wrestling team’s seven match dual win
streak Thursday night with a 27-9 win
over the No. 8
Cornhuskers in
Norman, Okla.
NU posted
only three victo
ries against the
Sooners, and lost
three tough
matches by one
point.
Coach
Tim Neumann
said he wasn’t happy with the Husk
ers’ performance. At the Cliff Keen
National Duals in Lincoln last month,
Nebraska posted a 22-12 victory over
the Sooners to begin NU’s seven
match winning streak.
“We wrestled at 60 percent of our
normal intensity and focus,”
Neumann said from Norman follow
ing the meet.
Nebraska fell behind 8-0 before
lOth-ranked Brad Canoyer pulled out
a 5-4 win over Bo Eubanks at 134
pounds. Todd Beckerman (118
pounds) lost on a technical fall and
No. 9 126-pounder Jeramie Welder
lost 10-9 to put NU in an 8-0 whole.
Freshman 177-pounder Charles
McTorry posted a 14-8 victory over
Waymon May to score the NU’s final
points.
NU’s biggest win came at 158
pounds with Jason Kraft — ranked
11th — beating sixth-ranked Byron
Tucker 8-6 on a takedown in overtime.
Tucker defeated Kraft 5-2 earlier this
season at the National Duals.
Neumann said Kraft was the
Husker wrestler to compete at his po
tential against OU.
“Kraft beating Byron Tucker was
a big win for him,” Neumann said.
Kraft will have a chance to com
plete a stellar weekend as he faces No.
4 Hardell Moore of Oklahoma State
on Sunday.
The Huskers dual the top-ranked
Cowboys at 1 p.m. in Stillwater, Okla.
OSU Coach John Smith said he is
looking for a good dual from the Husk
ers.
“I’ll be starting my starting team,”
Smith said. ‘This isn’t the time to be
getting upset.” „
Neither Smith, nor Neumann ex
pects NU to upset the Cowboys. Eight
of OSU’s 10 starters are rated in the
country’s Top 10, with four being Nos.
1 or 2, and one—150-pounder Jimmy
Arias — ranked 11th. The only
unranked wrestler for the Cowboys is
heavyweight Ben Lee.
Lee will have the task of facing one
of the four rated wrestlers for NU, No.
3 Tolly Thompson. Thompson sat out
the dual against the Sooners to be eli
gible to wrestle against the Cowboys.
Both coaches can’t wait to see the
two big men square off on the mat.
Neumann said he wants Thomp
son to see all the possible competition
before the Big 12 Championships next
week.
Smith said wrestling Thompson is
a positive for Lee.
“There’s a lot of things to gain,”
Smith said of the matchup. “The only
thing to loose is an injury.”
Neumann said a team loss by the
Huskers is avoidable.
“We need to upset some people for
seedings for the Big 12’s,” Neumann
said. “But a win probably isn’t in the
cards for us.”
Swim teams in second
at conference meet
By Jay Saunders
Staff Reporter
Nebraska Swimming and Diving
Coach Cal Bentz has talked about get
ting a shot at Texas all season long.
But after the first two days of the
Big 12 Conference Swimming and
Diving Championships, the
Comhuskers need a big boost to catch
the Longhorns.
The Husker men and women, who
finished 4-0 in Big 12 Conference dual
meets, are both in second place at the
Big 12 meet in College Station, Texas.
The NU men trail UT 290.50
200.50. The Husker women are in sec
ond behind the Longhorns, trailing
355-287.
On the second day of competition
the Nebraska women combined to
have six NCAA automatic qualifying
times, three NCAA provisional quali
fying times, two school records and a
pair of Texas A&M Student Recre
ation Center pool records.
Senior Julia Russell set a school
record in the 200-yard individual med
ley with an automatic NCAA qualify
ing time of 1:59.13. Anna Windsor
finished third with an NCAA quali
fying time of 2:01.42.
Helene Muller and Beth Karaica
each finished with NCAA automatic
qualifying times in the 50-yard
freestyle. Muller finished first with a
pool-record time of 22.98 seconds.
Karaica was third with a season-best
time of 23.04.
The 200-yard freestyle relay team
of Muller, Karaica, Russell and
Windsor won the event in an NCAA
automatic qualifying time of 1:31.60.
That was also a pool record and
smashed the former NU record of
1:33.01 set in 1991.
On the men’s side, Nebraska be
gan the day with a second-place fin
ish in the 200-yard freestyle relay.
Juan Benavides, Adam Pine, Alex
Shleifman and Mark Bennett finished
behind Texas with a time of 1:19.22.
The 400-yard, medley relay team
of Pine, Shleifman, Valery Kalmikov
and Benavides finished fourth with a
school-record time of 3:16.70.
NU placed three swimmers in the
finals: Michael Windisch in the 500
yard freestyle with a school-record
time of4:23.86, Kalmikov in the 200
yard IM and Benavides in the 50-yard
freestyle.
With the dual season the Huskers
put together, Bentz said Nebraska will
benefit from the opportunity to prove
itself in the new conference.
“We feel we have everything to
gain and nothing to lose,” Bentz said.
“It is uplifting to know you are in a
position to make a big impact.”
An impact is not the only thing the
Huskers want to accomplish, Bentz
said.
“The best possible outcome is to
win two championships,” Bentz said.
“We all believe it isn’t above the realm
of possibility.”
On the first day of competition, NU
diver Danny Bergman finished second
in the one-meter diving competition.
Title game
may move
tolfexas
/
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — The
Big 12 Conference football cham
pionship game likely will move to
San Antonio’s Alamodome from
St. Louis, a published report said
Thursday.
The Austin American-Statesman
reported in Thursday editions, quot
ing an unnamed source familiar with
the selection process, as saying the
choice might be made Friday.
If not, the league may wait more
than a week to make an announce
ment so attention will not be di
verted from the Big 12 men’s and
women’s basketball tournaments in
Kansas City, Mo.
Big 12 Conference spokesman
Bo Carter said the proposal to move
the game had been under discus
sion since the first conference
championship game in December,
but said he did not know when an
announcement might be made.
“They’re getting into the final
stages but they haven’t finalized it
yet,” he said Thursday.
The newspaper’s source said
San Antonio had a 90-percent
chance of landing the game.
Big 12 athletic directors hope
to discuss proposals from San An
tonio, St. Louis, Dallas and Hous
ton by telephone on Friday, and
could reach a decision about where
the Dec. 6 game will be played.
Last year’s game was held at the
Trans World Dome in St. Louis
where Texas beat Nebraska 37-27.
NU tries
to stop skid
at tourney
By David Wilson
Staff Reporter
With a solid pitching rotation,
the Nebraska baseball team is only
as good as it hits — and through
eight games, the Comhuskers are
batting .242.
Nebraska (5-3) will look to snap
a three-game losing skid tonight at
6:30 against Minnesota (1-6) in the
first game of the Hormel Foods
Classic at the Metrodome in Min
neapolis.
Against the Gophers, the
Husker offense needs to produce,
NU Coach John Sanders said.
“We need to score runs,” Sand
ers said. “Right now our offense is
lagging and that’s why we’ve lost
three games. I’m really pleased
with our pitching and our defense.”
Senior right-hander Steve Fish
(2-0), who will make his second
stan ot tne season tor tne Husxers
today, was named the Big 12
pitcher of the week after tossing a
complete-game one-hitter Feb. 21
against Creighton.
In 13 innings this season, Fish
has struck out 17 batters and has
only allowed one earned run.
“I feel confident,” Fish said.
“When I’m out there, I feel that the
only person that can beat me is my
self.”
The Huskers, who were shut out
3-0 by Kansas in Lawrence on
Tuesday, have scored 12 runs in
their last four games while being
out-hit by their opponents 40-27.
But outfielder Gabe Garcia said
he is confident the Nebraska bats
will break out of their slumps.
“This is a new experience for a
lot of guys,” Garcia said.
Even senior Francis Collins,
who led the team with a .424 aver
age last season, has struggled.
Collins has started all eight games
for the Huskers but has produced a
team-low .171 average.
“He’s not used to that,” Sand
ers said. “He’s a catalyst. As he
goes, we go.”
Nebraska will face Minnesota
sophomore right-hander Brad
Pautz (0-1), who was rocked for
eight runs in 4 1/3 innings in his
first outing Feb. 17 against South
Alabama.
Nebraska will pit senior left
hander Pat Driscoll against second
ranked UCLA (17-2-1) at 7 p.m.
on Saturday. Driscoll (0-1) has
struck out 18 hitters in 15 1/3 in
nings and boasts a 2.35 eamed-run
average.
Senior right-hander Peter
Lythgoe will take the hill against
Washington (4-6) at 5 p.m. Sun
day to close out the tournament.
NU happy for homestand
MEN from page 9
“We just need to capitalize on things and
start to do better in taking advantage of op
portunities,” he said.
Allen said the Huskers have used strong
performances from each gymnast to stay in
contention for the school’s ninth national title.
Despite a foot injury, sophomore Marshall
Nelson has emerged as one of the NU’s top
scorers on the parallel bars, high bar, floor
exercise and pommel horse, Allen said.
At Oklahoma last Friday, Nelson won the
parallel bars (9.85), the high bar (9.75) and
was second on the vault (9.55).
“I just think maybe he’s matured a little
bit, both physically and mentally,” Allen said.
“I tell you what, he’s a pretty fierce competi
tor. A few little nagging injuries slow some
people down, but they don’t slow Marshall
down.”
Injured or not, Nelson and the rest of the
Huskers should benefit from having their next
four meets at home, Allen said.
Freshman all-arounder Derek Leiter said,
competing in three straight meets on the road
has been hard on the team.
After losing to Oklahoma Feb. 1 in Lin
coln, the Huskers went 2-3 on the road with
losses at No. 7 New Mexico, No. 6 Oklahoma
and top-ranked Ohio State.
Leiter, who had a career-high 57.1 all
around score at Ohio State, said the Huskers
are anxious for the chance to have four home
meets in a row.
“I would say it’s going to be a big confi
dence factor,” Leiter said. “Most people that
come in here are going to be looking to knock
us off.”
The Hawkeyes don’t have a top-20 all
arounder, but Leiter said the meet is one of
NU’s toughest of the season.
NU duals ISU minus two
WOMEN from page 9
Kendig said.
Kendig said sophomore Courtney Brown
will not compete Saturday, either. Brown was
held out of practice this
week to rest a stress frac
ture in her left leg.
Brown, who will
return next week, has
been a consistent scorer
for the Huskers on the
vault and the floor exer
cise, he said.
“With Courtney
and Laura out, we’ve ba
Ofeleatftrf ' sically lost an all
arounder,” Kendig said. “But if the other girls
do their job, we shouldn’t feel the loss too
much.”
Kendig said the Huskers — who are oth
erwise healthy — will not have much room
for error against ISU.
Nebraska defeated the Cyclones in the sea
son-opener at Ames, 193.675-191.675. Since
the Jan. 11 meeting, both teams have im
proved considerably, Kendig said.
The Huskers set a school record Sunday
in defeating fifth-ranked Arizona State,
196.625-195.6. The Cyclones also set a school
record last week, knocking off Oklahoma
195.6-190.75.
Thursday night the Cyclones played host
to Iowa before turning their attention to NU.
Kendig said the injuries to Ohlendorf and
Brown will be harmful, but not totally dev
astating.
“We’H probably struggle to get the score
that we got last weekend,” Kendig said. “But
I don’t think they’re better than us.”
