Ingram wins lone title for NU
TRACK from page 9
Shane Lavy.
Lavy, who came the top-ranked
high jumper in the conference, fell to
rival Mark Boswell of Texas. Boswell
cleared 7 feet 414 inches on his third
and final jump, and Lavy was unable to
clear the height Lavy came closest on
his second try, when his foot nipped the
bar, sending it crashing to the mat
“I wasn’t carrying my speed up to
the bar,” Lavy said. “I was kicking the
bar off. It was just little things.
“It was just technical things. I felt
great. I felt like I could have jumped 7
6 lA today.”
Pepin said that he knew NU would
have problems winning on the men’s
side, where the Huskers were consid
ered the co-favorite along with Texas.
“We enter the second day in a pre
carious position,” Pepin said. “Not get
ting Brandon in the finals hurt us.
“And Vince’s finish hurt, too. We
needed him to perform big today, and
he didn’t”
Pepin did say he was happy with the
performance of the NU jumpers, both
on the men’s and women’s side. NU’s
lone event winner in the entire meet
came with Dalhia Ingram in fee long
jump. Ingram jumped 2014 feet, ahead
of runner-up Trina Radske of Iowa
State, who jumped 19-10 V*.
“I didn’t know what I was doing
wrong for awhile,” Ingram said. “I told
my teammates, ‘You’ve got to cheer for
me, you’ve got to cheer for me.’ They
did that and I made feat jump.”
Ingram finished second in fee triple
jump to fee No. 1 triple jumper in fee
«
It was just technical
things. I felt great. I
felt like I could have
jumped 7-6 V2 today.”
Shane Lavy
NU high jumper
! country, Baylor’s Stacy Bowers. For the
men, Sheldon Hutchinson had second
place finishes in both the long and
triple jump, both behind Chris Hercules
of Texas. Tobyn Rucker, Ryan Stairs
and Keyuo Craver joined Hutchinson
with solid performances in both events.
For the women, Jessica Thompson
and Carrie Braness tied for second in
the high-jump behind Aldrich and
Stella Klassen faded in the final lap of
the 800 meters to finish second Lesley
Owusu was third in the 400 meters.
For the men, Joe Erdkamp finished
second in the 35-pound weight throw,
Jack Melson was third in the shot put
and Guy Emry was fourth in the pen
tathlon.
Overall, Pepin said, the meet was
part-success and part-disappointment
But one thing was clear: Texas isn’t
going anywhere in the Big 12, and NU
finally has a rival, one it didn’t have in
the Big Eight when consistently rolled
over foes.
I “We know what Texas could do
coming into this meet; we knew what
kind of teams they had,” Pepin said.
T aw WTrwwn'Fmif/nW
DALHIA INGRAM won the long jump competition on her fifth jump of the
meet. Ingram was the only Husker to win an individual title in the Big 12
Championships.
Hot shooting dooms NU against Tech
TECH from page 9
not very good,” Sanderford said. “We forced some
shots and missed some and then we started press
ing (on offense).”
NU was resilient in the second half, and cut
Tech’s advantage to 32-31 with 17:41 left. But the
Huskers would never take the lead as the Red
Raiders went on a 8-0 run.
Down the stretch, the defensive emphasis was
placed on Hanebutt, and Braziel came alive. The
Big 12 player of the year candidate scored 9
straight points for Tech, and finished with 21
points and 12 rebounds.
“We didn’t know if we should help on Angie or
help on Hanebutt,” NU senior Monet Williams
said, l hat is when Angie became more ot a
threat.”
Junior Nicole Kubik led the Huskers with 17
points. Guard Brooke Schwartz was the only other
NU player in double figures with 14.
Freshman Candice Blackbird got her second
start of the season, but did not score - neither did
senior Con McDill or junior Charlie Rogers.
“I just don’t know what buttons to push right
now,” Sanderford said. “Our veterans need to be
effective this time of year.”
Note: Kubik was named defensive player of
the year by the Women’s Basketball Service. Kubik
leads the nation in total steals and is second in
steals per game. Kubik was also named to the ser
vice’s All-American second team.
«
We didn’t know if we should
help on Angie (Braziel) or
help on (Rene) Hanebutt.
That is when Angie became
more of a threat
Monet Williams
NU senior
Men’s golf season
opens today in Texas
By Jason Merrihew
Staff writer
As the snow falls over Lincoln, the 21st
ranked Nebraska men’s golf team opens its
spring season on Monday and Tuesday at the
UTSA Invitational in San Antonio, Texas.
Nebraska heads to the UTSA Invitational as
the defending tournament champion. In last
year’s Invitational, the Huskers shot a 574,15
strokes better than second-place Baylor and „
Southwest Louisiana
Coach Larry Romjue has four senior
returnees to make up Nebraska’s top four Jamie
Rogers, Steve Friesen, Scott Gutschewski, and
Josh Madden. Senior Ryan Nietfeldt, freshman
Seth Porter and freshman Dean Beste will com
pete for the fifth spot on the tournament roster.
The golf team hopes to continue the success
it had during the 1998 fall season. The Huskers
took part in five tournaments and earned a victo
ry at the Colorado State Ram Collegiate and
three top-three finishes in the Falcon-Cross
Creek Invitational, The Nelson, and the Duke
Golf Classic. NU’s worst finish was at the
Kansas Invitational where the team placed
fourth.
NU’s men concluded the fall season with a
287.47 stroke average. Leading die Huskers dur
ing the fall was senior Steve Friesen with a 70.93
stroke average. Senior Jamie Rogers f nished the
fall season a close second with a 71.73 stroke
average.
The UTSA Invitational is one of five regular
season tournaments the Huskers will participate
in during the 1999 spring season.
Huskers spend weekend
piling up 3 straight wins
By Jake Bleed
Staffwriter
The men’s tennis team was vindicated this week
end after picking up three victories, including
Sunday’s triumph over No. 71 Texas Tech (5-1, Big 12
1-1).
“This is a huge victory,” Coach Kerry
McDermott said after winning against Texas Tech in
Lincoln. “I’m just pumped. I’m going to shave my
head.”
NU’s victory over The Red Raiders was the
Husker’s second of the weekend after taking Drake 6
1 Saturday. NU finished the weekend with a win at
Creighton 7-0.
McDermott said he hoped the weekend’s victo
ries would push No. 70 NU (4-3, Big 12 1-2) into the
top 50 when new national rankings were released
March 1.
NU’s match with Texas Tech (5-1,1-1 Big 12)
looked good from the start. The Huskers took the dou
ble’s point 3-0 and five singles players won their first
set
No. 5 Juan Hamdan swept Texas Tech’s Petar
Danolic 6-0 in the first set and was up 2-1 in the sec
ond when, returning a serve, he suddenly fell to the
ground gripping his shoulder.
“I felt it and I heard it - crack crack - and then it
just popped out” Hamdan said. “I had him.”
After a brief attempt to return to the game,
Assistant Coach Rick Stempson shook his head and
Hamdan retired from the game, giving Texas Tech the
point -
No. 2 Lance Mills responded for NU, picking up
his third singles victory of die season over Ryan Shupe
6-2,6-2.
Texas A&M trounces
Husker women 9-0
From staff reports
The women’s tennis team dropped to 4-2
after a disappointing 9-0 loss in its Big 12 open
er at Texas A&M.
The Aggies (4-0, Big 12 1-0) broke NU’s
winning streak at three games. The match was
moved indoors due to bad weather in College
Station, Texas.
No. 2 Katarina Balan fell in two sets 6-4,6
2, as did No. Gina Pelazini 6-4, 6-2 and No.
Amy Frisch 6-3,6-0. No. 1 Sandra Noetzel lost
in three sets, 4-6,7-5,6-4. No. 3 Ndali Ijomah
fell 2-6, 6-1, 6-2 and No. 5 Danica Hardy also
fell in the third set 6-1,3-6,7-6.
No. 3 Jorge Abos-Sanchez followed suit, win
ning 7-5,6-3 and improving to 5-1 for the season.
No. 1 singles player Dinko Verzi had a tough loss
to BorutMartincevic 6-1,3-6,6-7. After fighting off 7
match points, Verzi fell in a tie-breaker 8-6.
I No. 4 Kai Rieke fell not long after, 7-5,3-6,2-6,
leaving No. 6 Andrew Wiese the responsibility of car
rying die victory.
Wiese, the only Husker to not win his first set,
came back to claim die victory forNU 6-7,7-6,6-4.
“Andrew really stepped it up when we needed it,”
McDermott said. “He was Cool Hand Luke out there.”
McDermott said he thought Hamdan’s injury was
not serious and that he would be back for next week’s
match at Southern Methodist.
Hardabura
helps Nebraska
past Hawkey es
GYM from page 9
win the all-around with a score of
58.125. It was his third straight all
around victory and his second
straight score above 58.
His first 58 came Friday night
with a 58.15, his career best, in a
Huskers romp over winless
Minnesota (228 05-213.975).
Hardabura became the first NU
gymnast to score a 58 or above since
Richard Grace did it at the 1995
NCAA Championships, in which he
won the all-around.
“That’s my goal - to hit 58, but I
sure hope I haven’t reached my
peak,” Hardabura said.
“What was even better than my
58 was that the team scored a 229.
We’re here to win as a team.
“There was no way we were
going to let Iowa come in to our
house and beat us. We weren’t going
to let them control anything.”
Hardabura was neck and neck
with Strada the whole way and the
two consistently performed back-to
back, keeping eagle eyes on each
other.
But Strada could only watch
Hardabura put together the clutch
routine of the year, so far, as
Hardabura stuck a 9.875 on the high
bar, his career best score in the event
and the best individual performance
in any event of the dual.
After the meet with the Gophers
Friday night, Hardabura said that the
team had been fired up to face Iowa
all season.
But the run-in of Hardabura’s
teammate, junior All-American
Derek Leiter, with Strada, who was
the fourth-ranked all-arounder in the
nation prior to the dual, at last week’s
U.S. Winter Cup Challenge in Las
Vegas, heated NU’s torch a notch.
‘Todd just kind of joked to Derek
about how he would feel to lose at
home,” Hardabura said.
“We posted it on a board in the
gym so we could be reminded of that
all week. Honestly, we were already
pumped for Iowa just because they
are Iowa, and Todd’s a classy guy -1
don’t think he meant much by saying
it - but still, that gave us a spark.”
As Hardabura landed his near
flawless routine, the crowd rose to its
feet, as any question as to who would
win the team or indi\ idual title was
laid to rest
“I’m telling you, Jason’s an awe
some gymnast,” Allen said. “We
expect him to score 58, but to see him
actually do it is great .”
As usual, Hardabura had little to
say of himself and loads to say about
his achieving teammates. This time
he singled out junior Blake Bukacek,
who scored two career highs against
Iowa.
Hardabura got help from
Bukacek on die parallel bars all sea
son, where Hardabura’s best score
had been 9.05 going into the week
end. He scored two straight career
best 9.625’s against UM and Iowa.
“I want you to give Blake a lot of
credit for the way this team is com
peting,” Hardabura said.
“He is the first guy in the gym
every day and the last guy to leave.
He’s always the first guy that stops
whatever he’s doing to tell a team
mate how they’re doing.”
And Bukacek reaped the benefits
of his hard work by scoring two of his
own career bests Sunday, including a
third-place-winning 9.75 on the high
bar.
He also added a couple of proph
esies about the dual and the
Nebraska-Iowa rivalry, saying he
expects to meet up with the
Hawkeyes again this year when the
NCAA Championships come to
Lincoln in April.
“I knew we could beat them, but
they weren’t at their best today,”
Bukacek said.
“They probably don’t care.
They’re still one of tlie best teams in
the country. They just want to beat us
in the end.”