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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 22, 1999)
Sports Huskers falter at meet; UT claims Big 12 titles By Sam McKewon Senior editor MANHATTAN, Kan. - Track announcer turned into prophet midway through Saturday’s session of the Big 12 Indoor Track Championships at Ward Haylett Track. In giving the team scores for the Big 12 women, the public address announc er boomed that the defending national champions, Texas, had only 8 points, well behind Nebraska and just about every other team. “That,” he said, ‘"will change.” And it did, in about the time it took for the Longhorn women to run the 55 and 200 meters, which they dominated. Culminating with Erin Aldrich’s win in the high jump and their win in 4x400 relay, the UT women, who could win the national title again, finished with 150 points, while NTJ was second with 94.5. “Well, that’s why they’re defending national champions,” NU Coach Gary Pepin said, pointing out the track where Texas did all of its damage. “Both the women and the men have tremendous teams.” The Texas men also were victorious, riding a 1-2-3 finish in the 55-meter hurdles en route to scoring 113 points for the title. NU finished fourth with 73.5 points, behind Colorado and Baylor. NU’s men’s performance was marked by several disappointments. Vince Brown, who came in ranked sec ond in the 55-meters, re-aggravated a hamstring injury and limped across the finish line in the finals, finishing eighth. Brandon Solt failed to make the finals in the 55-meter hurdles as well. Then there was NU high-jumper Please see TRACK on 11 Lane Hickenbottom/DN JUNIOR SHANE LAVY finished second in the high jump competition behind Texas’s Mark Boswell. It was the first time this season Lavy had lost. Matt Miller/DN NU FRESHMAN MARTIN FOURNIER tries to stop from falling off the parallel bars. The Huskers not only won the dual, but also set a season-best team score. Matt Miller/DN AN NU GYMNAST, shown through a net, performs his horizontal bar routine in the track area of the Bob Bevaney Sports Center on Sunday. The Huskers outscored Iowa by more than V/z points on the high bar to clinch the dual against the fourth-ranked team in the country. Hardabura’s routine pushes NU past Iowa By John Gaskins Staff writer A slight verbal jab from Iowa gym nast Todd Strada wasn’t the only thing that got the Nebraska men’s gymnastics team pumped to duel with the Hawkeyes this weekend. But it certainly added some fuel to the flames of the border war. And the Huskers caught fire on Sunday. Catapulted by a season-best hori zontal bar routine in the dual’s final event, No. 8 Nebraska beat No. 4 Iowa 229-227.325 in front of a fired-up crowd of862 at the Bob Devaney Sports Center track arena. NU’s highest team score of the sea son boosted its record to 7-0 while Iowa fell to 11-1 in its first loss in dual action since 1997. “This is a huge win for us,” Allen said. “229’s a great score, plus we hit 80 percent of our routines, which is what I said we needed to win. “We’re off and running now. We’re right where we need to be.” Nebraska led Iowa the whole way, but the Hawkeyes were chipping away at a .625-lead going into the final rota tion. That’s when the Huskers sparked themselves and the crowd with a 38.775 team-high bar performance and fin ished off the Hawkeyes. The hottest Husker was sophomore Jason Hardabura, who won four of the six events and came from a .025 deficit before the high bar to edge Strada and Please see GYM on 11 Tech guard mils threes, stops Huskers ■ In spite of injuries, fractures and multiple braces, Texas Tech’s Rene Hanebutt still cuts the proverbial mustard against Huskers’ zone defense. By Jay Saunders Staff writer Rene Hanebutt looks like a walking M*A*S*H* unit. The Texas Tech senior guard has had two ankle surgeries and is still recovering from a stress fracture in her back. Because of her more than 10 injuries over the past four years, Hanebutt must wear braces Texas Tech 73 Nebraska68 on both ot her ankles and knees. None of it seems to attect her jump shot. On Sunday, Hanebutt led the No. 13 Red Raiders with a career-high 33 points in her team’s 75-62 win over the Nebraska women’s basketball team. “(Tech) Coach (Marsha) Sharp has given me the green light,” Hanebutt said. “If I can see the basket I will shoot it.” Hanebutt, who hit seven of her 11 3-point attempts, was responsible for 44 percent of Tech’s points. Her first two 3-pointers came in the first minute, fueling a Red Raider 14-0 run to start the game. The Huskers (17-10 overall and 6-8 in the Big 12 Conference), opened the game playing a 1-3-1 zone defense to try and stop center Angie Braziel. The defense shut down Braziel, but it left Hanebutt licking her chops. “I was pretty fired up because (the zone) means I have more opportunities to shoot,” Hanebutt said. “When teams run that, I am going to make them pay.” NU Coach Paul Sanderford told his team Hanebutt would be the key to stopping the Tech offense. But while Hanebutt couldn’t miss, the Huskers couldn’t find the bottom of the net. A crowd of 10,221 at the Bob Devaney Sports Center saw the Huskers shoot just 35 percent from the field. Scoring droughts haunted Nebraska in yet another conference game. The Huskers didn’t score for the first five minutes and six seconds of the game. Another scoreless streak of 4:18 later in the half contributed to a 32-23 halftime deficit. “Our offensive efficiency and execution are Please see TECH on 11