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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (May 6, 1997)
Hard work reaps rewards for NU YEAR from page 10 ment game, and the Huskers then downed Duke to improve to 23-0 and earn the right to play national power house Portland in the quarterfinals of the tournament. The Pilots won 1-0, but the experience gained by Nebraska will certainly prove beneficial in the future. In the least-heralded sport of the autumn, runners Jonah Kiptarus and ^Cleophas Boor, both of whom jour 1 neyed to Lincoln from Kenya, pro ~ ^vided a one-two punch like NU has never seen on its cross country team. Both athletes shattered nearly ev ery mark in the Nebraska record books, and Kiptarus placed second at the NCAA Championships, one spot ahead of Boor. The Nebraska men fin ished seventh, their highest spot ever, and the Husker women placed 20th. a__— a:a~ n i_:__ __ n uu yy uiuii i uiuig u viuui^w/ in success for Nebraska athletes and teams. In the four full months since Jan. 1, five Husker team’s have won conference titles and two athletes — Thompson and Nelson—wrapped up individual national titles with stellar performances. What started out as a promising season for the Nebraska women’s bas ketball team ended in huge disappoint ment. After a school-best start of 16 1, the Huskers faded fast, losing eight of their final 11 games and finishing 19-9. Then the Huskers had to face the agony of watching the NCAA Tour nament selection show in March only to find that out of the six Big 12 teams selected, they were not one of the cho sen. While the women were in a fight for the NCAA Tournament, the men’s basketball team ended up in a famil iar place — the National Invitation Tournament. The Huskers did put hopes of their first Big Dance berth in four years into the hearts of fans. NU pulled off its most meaningful victory in three sea sons by winning a74-69 overtime thriller at No. 7 Iowa State. Tyronn Lue poured in 30 points in playing 44 minutes as the Huskers won on the floor of a top-10 foe for the first time since Feb. 6, 1982. ruui uays laici, ieiunieu uuiuc i to beat Oklahoma State. That set up a < game at the Bob Devaney Sports Cen- < ter with No. 1 Kansas. Had the Husk- 1 ers won, they would have had a shot at the field of 64. But they disappointed again, los- I ing to the top-ranked Jayhawks 85-65 1 and then falling in the first round of the Big 12 Tournament to Missouri. ( The Huskers went to the NIT for ’ the third straight year and looked like j they would defend their title after beat ing Washington and Nevada handily j in the first two rounds. In round three, j NU ran out of gas at Connecticut — ' just one game shy of returning to i Madison Square Garden. j A month after both teams’ seasons i ended, both men’s coach Danny Nee ] and women’s coach Angela Beck in terviewed for jobs outside UNL.. < Nee interviewed for the job at ] Rutgers saying, “If they met all that I wanted contractually, I would be very serious about it. The opportunity to go : home would be attractive.” The Scarlet Knights opted against ■ Nee, choosing Rider Coach Kevin ] Bannon to fill the spot. But Beck made a better impression. . On Sunday, April 20, she held a tear- | fil led team meeting to say she was tak- j ing the job with the American Bas- ] ketball League’s San Jose Lasers. The news became official two days later. ( “I know I’m leaving a great situa tion,” Beck said. “One that was built j with a lot of time, pride, love and per- , sonal investment, not only from my self but my entire staff. , While the hard court was filled I with off-the-court action, many other Husker teams were full of surprises in i their sports arenas. i The NU women’s swimming team i upset Texas to earn the first-ever Big 12 title and later in March finished a school-best eighth at the NCAAs, bet- i ering two ninth-place finishes in 1985 ind 1995. The NU men finished sec >nd at the Big 12 meet and had their >est finish at the NCAA meet since [990, finishing 12th. Both the women’s and men’s track earns wrapped up the first-ever indoor 3ig 12 titles. The women earned their [ 8lh straight indoor title by beating eventual national third-place finisher lexas and the men rocked Iowa State or theirs. One of the finest NU individual performances of the year was turned n by shot putter Tressa Thompson, rhompson, who set an NCAA indoor ecord with a toss of 60-feet 7 3/4 nches and won the Big 12 indoor title, von the biggest title of them all at the TCAA meet in Indianapolis. Thompson’s throw of 59 feet out listanced a 5714-feet toss by Southern Methodist’s Marike Tuliene. But Thompson wasn’t the only Tusker to have individual success this spring. Marshall Nelson won two indi /idual titles at the NCAA Men’s Gym tastics Championships in Iowa City, kelson won the national champion ;hip on the high bar (9.7875) and the parallel bars (9.95) and finished fifth n the vault and 10th on the pommel lorse. “It’s nice to know that all the work pver the years has paid off like this,” Melson said. “They don’t realize how nuch effort goes into this kind of com petition.” As a team, NU failed to qualify for he NCAAs for the second consecu ive season. A week after winning the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation ;rown, the Huskers finished fifth at he NCAA West Regional and were put of luck to compete as a team in Iowa City. But perhaps the most impressive earn of the spring was the NU women’s gymnastics team. This year, the Huskers won the Big 12 title, set a school record with a score of 196.625 and made the Super Six finals for the first time. At the NCAA Championships in Gainesville, Fla., NU and nine-time champion Utah tied at 196.025 on the first day ofcompetition. But the Husk ers won the tie-breaker when the total of its sixth gymnast eclipsed that of the Utes. “We still didn’t really believe it,” NU Coach Dan Kendig said. “They were adding up the scores about 10 times, and we ended up ahead of them. It was just cool.” The other cool things from that meet were the ninth-place finish in the all-around by Shelly Bartlett and the All-American finishes by Bartlett, Misty Oxford and freshman Heather Brink. Other sports this spring had stars of their own. The women’s golf team saw the emergence of freshmen Hanne Nyquist and Elizabeth Bahensky. NU finished third at the Big 12 meet and will vie for its first-ever NCAA Championship appearance this weekend at the NCAA West Regional in Tucson, Ariz. The men’s team finished sixth at the Big 12 meet. The Husker baseball and softball teams stmggled this season but play ers like Jennifer Lizama, Jenny Voss, Todd Sears and Francis Collins — who set NU’s hits-in-a-season record on Sunday—all had outstanding per formances. Although the Huskers couldn’t conjure up a repeat performance of last season’s national titles or the nation wide attention, the athletic programs at NU had many outstanding indi vidual performances and achieve ments this sports year that will be re membered forever. Sports in Review Here is a list how all the Cornhusker athletic teams faired this year: Football The Huskers finished the year 11-2 losing to Arizona State and Texas, but beat Virginia Tech 31-21 in the Orange Bowl. Volleyball NU made its second straight trip to the Final Four and finished the year 30-4. Soccer In its third year, NU completed the regular season as the only undefeated Division I team at 21-0. The Huskers beat Minnesota and Duke in the NCAA Tournament before losing to Portland. Cross Country Jonah Kiptarus was second and Cleophas Boor finished third at the NCAA meet. Wrestling The NU wrestlers were 12th at the NCAAs as Heavyweight Tolly Thompson finished third. Men's Swimming A runner-up finish in the Big 12 was followed with a 12th-place finish at the NCAAs. Women's Swimming They won the Big 12 title and finished a school-best eighth at the NCAAs. Men's Gymnastics Won the MPSF title, but failed to make nationals. Marshall Nelson won individual titles in the parallel bars and high bar at the NCAAs. Women's Gymnastics Set a school-record team score of 196.625 during the year and won the Big 12 title. Also made the Super Six for the first time. Men's Basketball Finished the year 18-15 after winning two games in the NIT. Women's Basketball Were 19-9 but fell just shy of an NCAA Tournament bid. Lost Coach Angela Beck to the ABL's San Jose Lasers. Men's Golf Were sixth at the Big 12 meet and should make regionals. Women's Golf Compete in regionals this weekend in an effort to make first-ever NCAA Finals. Finished third at Big 12s. Baseball Are currently 26-33 with three games remaining at Iowa State. Softball Finished the year at 27-22 and are waiting to see if they make regionals. Men's Tennis Finished the year with a loss in the first round of the Big 12 Tournament. Women's Tennis Lost to conference runner-up Texas A&M in quarterfinals of Big 12 Tournament. 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