IP try success
By Sam McKewon
Staff Reporter
Imagine a runner being a soldier
and a cross country course being a
battlefield.
Then one would know the men
tality of Nebraska freshman Amy
Wiseman, who runs cross country
for the Huskers.
“With Amy, every step she takes
in race is a war,” NU coach Jay
Dirksen said. “She is the fiercest
competitor that you’ll ever want to
find in cross country.”
Wiseman said she agreed with
her coach’s assessment.
“Oh, definitely, that’s me,”
Wiseman said. “I want to win. That’s
what I’m out there to do.”
Wiseman, who is from Lee’s
Summit, Mo., has already finished in
the top 15 of her first two races of her
collegiate career, including a third
place finish at the Woody Greeno
Invitational. She finished 11th at the
Roy Griak Invitational in
Minneapolis last week.
In both meets, Wiseman has been
the Huskers’ top runner.
Dirksen said Wiseman is as good
a freshman as NU has ever recruited.
“She’s the best that I have ever
seen that’s an American,” Dirksen
said. “She races at a very high level.”
Wiseman credits her fiery spirit
to her family, especially her father,
Pat, whom Wiseman says she e-mails
every day.
“My dad taught me to want to
win and he’s always taken me to all
of the big races all around the
nation,” Amy Wiseman said. “So,
he’s always been there for me.”
Coming out of high school,
Wiseman was one of the most
recruited cross country athletes in
the nation. As a junior, she finished
fifth in the Foot Locker High School
Championships and was also a mem
ber of the U.S. Junior National Team.
Wiseman said she picked
Nebraska for its proximity to her
family, its overall strength in cross
country and its track tradition, an
event in which Wiseman said she
plans to participate in the spring.
Now that Wiseman has been here
a month, she said Nebraska is the
perfect fit.
“I love it here,” Wiseman said.
“I’m so thankful that I came here and
not somewhere else. I love the pro
gram, I love Jay, and I love all the
girls on the team. It’s a great atmos
phere.”
Before coming to Nebraska,
Wiseman spent the past summer at
the World Championships in Italy. In
spending time with some of the
world’s best long-distance runners,
Wiseman said she realized what it
takes to reach a world level.
“It changed my whole perspec
tive on running,” Wiseman said. “It
was a good experience for me
because it showed me how hard you
have to work to be great.”
One thing Wiseman has done to
run up front is to find out who the
best runners are in a race and try and
track them down as the race goes on.
“I like to know who’s right in
front of me,” she said. “That’s how I
like to compete.”
The addition of Wiseman to NU
should help the Huskers in recruit
ing, Dirksen said.
“Amy knows all the best runners,
so we should be getting some of the
best around,” Dirksen said. “She’s
opened up a lot of avenues for us.”
Sandy Summers/DN
NU FRESHMAN AMY WISEMAN fights for a position among the runners at the
Woody Greeno Invitational. Wiseman has been the Huskers’ top finisher in
both of Nebraska’s first two cross country invitationals this season.
Wiseman said it’s her goal to help a young team, and that we’re getting
build NU into a top five program. better all the time. We want to be a
“That’s why I came here,” she top five team.”
said. “I tell a lot of runners that we’re , ^ /
m .m*.
KSU quarterback says victory is feasible
BISHOP from page 9
just have to go out and do it. We
can’t do a lot of talking, we just
have to go in and play.”
Through the Wildcats’ first
three games, Bishop has complet
ed 49 percent of his passes for 407
yards. But it is his mobility that
scares Nebraska coach Tom
Osborne.
“He is an excellent runner and
a good thrower as well,” Osborne
said. “They will probably run a
few more options than in years
past. Quarterback scrambling - the
quarterback draw - is now a sig
nificant threat.”
This season Bishop has rushed
for 117 yards and is averaging 3.9
yards per carry on the ground. At
Blinn, the 6-foot-3, 195-pounder
carried the ball for 830 yards in
two seasons.
“He can definitely hurt you,”
NU senior rush end Grant Wistrom
said. “He reminds me a lot of the
quarterbacks we’ve had here, who
are just as lethal running the foot
ball as they are throwing it. We’re
really going to have to focus on
keeping him in the pocket.”
While being recruited, Bishop
drew some comparisons to former
Husker quarterback Tommie
Frazier. In his career at Nebraska,
Frazier compiled 5,476 yards.of
total offense and averaged 5.7
yards per carry on the ground.
Though the validity of the
comparisons don’t concern
Bishop, the Wildcat signal caller
said his mobility does add a new
dimension to the offense.
Former Kansas State quarter
backs Chad May (1993-94) and
Brian Kavanagh (1993-96) were
both known as passing quarter
backs, but a successful passing
game has not equaled victory
against Nebraska in the past.
The Wildcats, who have not
defeated the Huskers in Lincoln
since 1968, have totaled a negative
one yard on the ground against NU
since 1994. In 1993, backed by a
489-yard passing performance
from May, Kansas State lost 45
28.
The new look at quarterback
has drawn the attention of
Osborne, but Kansas State coach
Bill Snyder said mobility is a
“two-way street.”
Bishop is still perfecting the
Kansas State offense, Snyder said,
and will be working on new things
this week - not learning new tricks
to pull against the Huskers.
“We’re just in the instructional
and teaching stage,” Snyder said.
“It’s not like all of a sudden this
week we’re going to teach him dif
ferent things.”
Despite his lack of Division I
experience, Bishop said, a victory
over Nebraska is.attainable.
KSU coach emphasizes focus
SNYDER from page 9_
first time in 29 years.
Both teams come into the game
3-0, but Nebraska has the upper
hand with an off-week last week
after a tough road trip to
Washington. Kansas State has
beaten Ohio, Northern Illinois and
Bowling Green.
Snyder wasn’t too impressed
with the effort his team gave on
Monday in practice, however.
“If we were to play the game on
Monday, we would have called it
off and watched the Monday game
of the week on TV,” he said.
Snyder said he hopes he doesn’t
still feel that way when the KSU
bus leaves for Lincoln on Friday.
One of the biggest aspects he
said he wants to address is the
kicking game. So far this season,
KSU’s James Garcia ranks sixth in
the conference in punting (averag
ing 40.83 yards per punt), while
punt return man Lamar Chapman
ranks fourth (averaging 13.8 yards
per return and one touchdown).
These numbers don’t seem to be a
concern, but history is not on the
Wildcats’ side.
“(The kicking game) showed up
last year because we prepared
poorly,” Snyder said. “Two years
ago, we missed a tackle on a return
and opened the game wide.
Hopefully, we’re going to be better
prepared than last year.”
Snyder said he just wants a win
more than anything at this point hi
the season.
«
Id be upset if we
lost a ball game and
had a great time
doing it.”
Bill Snyder
KSU football coach
Nebraska coach Tom Osborne
called the Wildcats the best team
on the remainder of NU’s schedule.
Snyder doesn’t like that.
“I’d just as soon they weren’t
worrying about us,” Snyder said.
But he is worrying about
Nebraska, and how to stop the dif
ferent dimensions of NU’s option
offense.
“You try to run the option
down, try to run (Ahman) Green
down,” Snyder said. “Then, they
slip that trap in there and (Joel
Makovicka) is running down the
other side of the field.”
For Kansas State and Snyder,
the main thing isn’t to have fun on
the field —it’s to put a great amount
of “effort, emotion and execution”
into the game and hope it is enough
to come out victorious. To do that,
you have to attack the contest with
passion and genuinely invest your
self in the outcome, Snyder said.
' “I’d be upset if we lost dball
game and had a great time doing
it,” Snyder said.
Snyder’s
Halts stows
Before Bill Snyder’s
arrival at
Kansas St,
the Wildcats
had gone
4-40-1 the
previous four
years.
Year
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