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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 21, 1997)
Seniors Wistrom, Peter star in solid defensive front four By Antone Oseka Senior Reporter The Nebraska defense has a lot of question marks this season. None of them involve the front four. Despite the loss of two seniors from last season’s team, they should be replaced with two reliable players. The anchor of the NU defensive front four will be right rush end Grant Wistrom. Wistrom, a returning All American will be the focus of many NU opponents this season. Wistrom loses tag-team partner Jared Tomich on the left side, but will benef t from the tandem of Chad Kelsay and Mike Rucker, who will be taking Tomich’s place. Kelsay should start, but Rucker should see significant playing time. “Chad is a great football player, Mike is a great football player. I don’t see much of a dropoff coming,” Wistrom said. Jason Peter returns at defensive tackle. Peter said he hopes he and Wistrom see some double-team block ing early in the season. “There’s a chemistry between the front four guys,” he said. “If they double team us, they leave someone else open.” Wistrom said that if he and Peter are Heistaska PfBMiBffl Mike Rucker and Chad Kelsay should split playing time at defensive left end. Defensive Line Name Ht. Wt Yr. Jason Peter 6-5 285 Sr. Grant Wistrom 6-5 255 Sr. Chad Keisay 6-3 250 Jr. Mike Rucker 6-6 250 Jr. Jason Wiltz 6-3 310 Jr. Steve Warren 6-1 295 So. " Statistics are from the 1996season getting double teamed, but not making tackles, they will be doing their jobs. “We’re supposed to keep the line men off the linebackers,” Wistrom said. “We’re not supposed to make tackles.” Wistrom set a personal record with 15 tackles against Colorado last season. Peter recorded 11 tackles against Arizona State last year, his personal best. Both also recorded touchdowns during the 1996 season. Wistrom inter cepted a pass against Michigan State and ran it back nine yards for the score. Peter recovered a fumble in the 1997 FedEx Orange Bowl and ran it back 31 yards for the score. Kelsay, Rucker and Jason Wiltz, who replaces Jeff Ogard in the middle of the defensive line, all know the task they have in replacing the players that left. “With Chad, once you get the start ing nod, it’s a little different,” Peter said. This whole season is a little different for the defensive line. As a unit, they have one goal, to return to Miami and the Orange Bowl to play for the national championship. To get there, the defense has to win the Big 12 North Division and then win the Big 12 championship game, a game in which the defense was disappointing last season. “The whole defense was pretty dis gusted with ourselves,” Peter said. “One game, we let it slip through our fingers. We want a dominant defense and it all starts up front.” Cross country runners aim to win more than meet By Sam McKewon Staff Reporter Mention a golf course to a golfer and thoughts of birdies, bogeys, water hazards, trees and sand will quickly come to mind. But mention a golf course to a cross country athlete and a totally different picture will come to mind. The majority of all cross country meets run on golf courses. The national championship this year will be run on the University of South Carolina’s golf course. Running on golf courses is just one of the many aspects that makes cross country a unique sport. “We mostly run in the rough, not on the fairways,” said Nebraska men’s and women’s cross country coach Jay Dirksen. “Sometimes we’ll run around the greens, but not very much.” Cross country is different from the . majority of typical sports because it opts for a system that puts the emphasis on the end of the season instead of winning each meet Depending on the difficulty of the meet, a team can be among the country’s top five and not win a meet all year. That is a possibility for the NU men’s team this season. Last season, NU had two runners, Jonah Kiptarus and Cleophas Boor, finish in the top three at the NCAA Championships, but the Husker cross country team finished sev enth overall. National champion Stanford didn’t have any runners finish within the top three, but all five of its runners finished within the top 15. Dirksen said another thing over I looked about cross country is the physi cal punishment that an athlete must endure throughout the race. “You’re in so much pain toward the end of the race, that it takes a lot of men tal toughness to finish strong,” Dirksen said. “Only the best runners are able to hold up through that kind of difficulty.” In the end, though, the goal for cross country runners is the same as any other athlete’s - to perform the best they can. “It doesn’t always show up in head to-head competition, like football,” Johnson said, “but you want to go up against the best to measure yourself. 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