Sports
Huskers ready for battle vs. Wildcats
Kubik, Schwartz hold key for win
against Kentucky, says Sanderford
By Jay Saunders
Staff writer
On Selection Sunday. Nebraska Women's
Basketball Coach Paul Sanderford was wor
ried his team would not make it to the NCAA
tournament.
As the selections were being announced.
Sanderford saw his team in the field of 64. That
doesn't mean his worries are over, though.
The coach said he now is trying to get the
Cornhuskers prepared for first-round oppo
nent Kentucky. The game against the Wildcats
will be Saturday at 8:15 p.m. at UCLA's Pauley
Pavilion in Los Angeles.
“I'm excited that we are playing in the Big
Dance,” Sanderford said. “If you have to go on
the road, it's a nice place to go.”
NU would not be in the tournament if not
for a late-season run that carried the team into
the semifinals of the Big 12 Tournament.
Junior guard Nicole Kubik has been the
Huskers' guiding force all season, and she said
the team did not spend all of its energy just get
ting to the tourney.
“Every team has to step it up another level,”
Kubik said. “This team has another level to go
up to. Everyone is hyped about going to
California and showing the nation we can win.”
Kentucky has not been to the tournament
since their coach, Bernadette Mattox, took
over four seasons ago.
The Huskers, on the other hand, played two
tournament games last season, and went to the
tournament in 1995.
Sanderford said he hopes experience will
help his team, but that factor can be deceiving.
“Those people are so excited about being
there sometimes they forget to play,”
Sanderford said. “But everyone in the field is
pretty doggone good”
These first-round combatants are no
stranger to the opposition’s style of play.
Sanderford said he was showing films of a
Kentucky game and the players found several
of their plays familiar.
Sanderford compared Kentucky to Big 12
foe Kansas because of the team’s quickness
Everyone is hyped
about going to California
and showing the nation
we can winC
Nicole Kubik
NU guard
and athleticism. The Wildcats also have a 6
foot-2 player at the small forward, which
Sanderford said will help junior Brooke
Schwartz.
“If Kentucky has an advantage,”
Sanderford said, “it’s their ability to shoot the
basketball. But they will have a quickness dis
advantage with Brooke.”
If the Huskers can get past UK, they have a
possible second-round matchup with UCLA, a
team Nebraska lost to 85-67 on a neutral court
Nov. 27.
The Bruins would have the home court if
both teams advance, but Sanderford warns of
anyone looking past the first round.
“We can play with UCLA, but first we have
to get by Kentucky,” he said. “With the excite
ment of the Big Dance, you have to have your |
work done.”
Sanderford has years of tournament experi
ence to back up his words. This is the coach’s
14th trip to the NCAA tournament, and his sec
ond straight with Nebraska.
With the team's struggles earlier this sea- |
son, Sanderford said this tourney may be the
sweetest.
“I'm not sure if this one isn't more gratify
ing than any of them,” Sanderford said. “It’s
because we've had our backs against the wall.”
DN File Photo
BROOKE SCHWARTZ and the Huskers will bat
tle Kentucky in the first round of the
Women’s NCAA Tournament on Friday in Los
Angeles.
Huskers buff up over winter
By David Wilson
Staff writer
It may be surprising to see a seem
ingly reserved 5-foot-9 cornerback
yellmg at his fellow defensive backs
when they lag behind while running.
But it was that kind of leadership,
along with lifting in groups by posi
tion, that helped the Nebraska football
team gain more lean muscle mass
than it ever had in a six-week period.
The Comhuskers, who averaged
194 pounds of muscle per person
when winter conditioning began Jan.
20, gained an average of 12 pounds of
lean muscle per person when tested
Wednesday. Nebraska also dropped
its body fat from 14.2 percent to 9.6
percent.
“We came into the winter pro
gram a little bit off the mark in terms
of body composition,” said Boyd
Epley, Nebraska's director of athletic
performance. “Our goal was to build
lean body mass with greater empha
sis.
“That happens in the weight
room. Coach (Frank) Solich stressed
to the players that we needed to really
do a good job in the weight room to
get that turned around. That’s exactly
what the players did. It’s really phe
nomenal for a six-week period.”
1999 Top Scores
10-Yard Dash 40-Yard Dash
Tyler Rauenzahn IB 1.52 Eric Crouch QB 4.47
Matt Davison WR 1.53 Tyler Rauenzahn IB 4.48
Ben Cornelsen WR 1.54 Dwayne McClary WR 4.48
Erwin Swiney DB 4.52
10-Yard Dash Points
Dominic Raiola OL 754 40-Yard Dash Points
Damien Bauman TE 733 Tyler Rauenzahn IB 775
Kyle Vanden Bosch RU 713 Eric Crouch QB 775
Josh Kohl LB 713 Dwayne McClary WR 744
Kyle Vanden Bosch RU 744
Pro Agility Carlos Polk LB 744
Paul Kosch WR 3.75 Dharran Diedrick IB 723
Clint Finley DB 3.77
Kelby Krueger DB 3.86 Vertical Jump
Jeff Hemje DB 3.86 Sean Applegate WR 38.5”
Josh Anderson DB 37.5”
Pro Agility Points Correll Buckhaiter IB 37”
Jon Clanton DL 983
Chris Kelsay RU 970 Vertical Jump
Kyle Vanden Bosch RU 850 Correll Buckhaiter IB 688
Clint Finley DB 850 Sean Applegate WR 688
_ . , , Damien Bauman TE 663
Performance Index Jay Runty QB 646
Kyle Vanden Bosch RU 2939
Chris Kelsay RU 2921
Damien Bauman TE 2887
The Huskers hadn't worked in
position-by-position groups at the
same time every day in previous win
ter conditioning periods.
The change, Epley said, allowed
the players to keep track of each other
more than if they were lifting individ
ually.
Jon Frank/DN
“They had camaraderie within
their position,” Epley said. “Team
unity is a very important factor. They
pushed each other. You don’t want to
be late because the rest of the guys m
Please see HUSKERS on 8
DeAnda, Munson to
see tournament play
ByLisaVonnahme
Staff writer
For the past five years, Jose
DeAnda and Scott Munson have ded
icated their lives to Nebraska
wrestling.
They’ve competed with injuries,
and they’ve felt frustrated while hav
ing to share a starting spot with anoth
er NU grappler.
They’ve had big moments, too -
like during Munson's sophomore sea
son when he pinned Iowa State’s Matt
Mulvihill and led the Cornhuskers to
a 20-18 upset over the Cyclones.
They've watched their teammates
compete at the NCAA tournament.
They’ve seen those teammates
become national champions and All
Americans.
But this year’s NCAAs will be dif
ferent for DeAnda and Munson.
The senior duo won’t be watching
the tournament from the stands.
Instead, for the first time in their
careers, 1 lth-ranked DeAnda and
12t!l-ranked Munson will be wrestling
in it.
This time, DeAnda and Munson
will have a shot at becoming an All
American, or maybe even a national
«
I've always wanted
to wrap up my
wrestling career...
at nationals
Scott Munson
NU wrestler
champion, in their final competition
of their careers - the NCAA
Championships, March 18-20 at State
College, Pa.
“I’ve always wanted to wrap up
my wrestling career, which I’ve had
for the last 18 years, at nationals,” said
Munson, NU’s 197-pounder. “I want
to go out doing the best I can do until
the last moment of my eligibility.”
Like Munson, DeAnda’s hope is
to finish in the top eight of his weight
class, which would earn him the status
of an All American wrestler.
And even though the seniors will
be competing in front of a sold-out
crowd of 13,700 at Penn State’s Bryce
Please see WRESTLERS on 8