Nelson, Koziol lead NU despi
By John Gaskins
Staff writer
It is almost scary to imagine how
good the No. 5 Nebraska gymnastics
team would be this season if all of its
members were healthy. >
Instead, the Huskers must live with
the harsh reality that they are merely
good enough to contend for a ninth
national title this week at the Bob
Devaney Sports Center, instead of pos
sibly running away with it
Such is the reality Marshall Nelson
and Jim Koziol have had to live with
every day this season. The senior co
captains, All-Americans and media
guide cover boys have had little to do
with the team’s success on paper this
season due to nagging injuries. Nelson
who has been out all season, has had
nothing to do with it
Instead, sophomore Jason
Hardabura, the No. 1 gymnast in the
nation, junior Derek Leiter, the nation’s
fifth-best, and Martin Fournier, who’s
cracked the Top 20 as a freshman, have
carried the load.
Injuries have plagued the Huskers
as a team each of the last three seasons,
in which despite being “good enough
to win it all,” according to NU Coach
Francis Allen, all three seasons, they
failed to qualify for nationals.
This season has been especially
painful for Nelson, both physically and
mentally. He’ll have to watch his team
go for the crown from the bench.
In the two seasons before, he won
three NCAA event titles, including two
straight on die parallel bars. But despite
the individual accolades, the team’s
failure to qualify in each of his first
three years left an emptiness inside
him.
“My freshman year (1996), I got
hurt and had to have surgery on my
knee, as well, but I came back at the end
of the season,” Nelson said.
“We had regionals here (in
Lincoln) and we missed qualifying by
seven-tenths of a point,” Nelson said.
“Jason Christie and Ryan McEwen
were in tears. I couldn’t understand it I
hadn’t been a part of team gymnastics
that long.
“But when we missed nationals
again last year,” Nelson said, then
looked up and paused, eyes widening,
“I was the one that felt like crying. I
understood how much it meant to know
we were the best and didn’t make it It
was horrible.”
Three straight seasons of team dis
appointment left Nelson starved to get
back on the floor. It never happened.
On Nov. 10, he tore tiie Achilles’tendon
in his left foot, and he decided to take a
medical redshirt before the Huskers’
March 14 meet against Penn State.
“It was hard because (before the
injury) I was in the best shape I had
been in a long time. I was on track,”
Nelson said.
‘The fust month was the hardest I
had put so much work in this fall and
now I was at the bottom of the hill. My
mom stayed with me out here for a
month. I couldn’t drive. I couldn’t
walk. I couldn’t do anything. If she
wouldn’t have been there for me, I
don’t know what I would’ve done.”
But Nelson’s teammates said
despite his struggle, he still has had a
tremendous influence in die gym.
“He’s just a great guy, always keeps
a positive attitude,” Allen said. “He’s
still got that air about him when he
walks in the room. You always will
when you’re a national champion. All
the guys look up to him.”
“This guy deserves a lot of praise,”
Hardabura said earlier in the season.
‘To be able to come into the gym and
sit through four hours a day without
doing gymnastics just because you
know the guys need you there is incred
ible.”
It was evident that at Tuesday’s
Devaney Crater workouts for the event
that has eluded his team his first three
years that Nelson had a tough time just
watching.
“It will be a mixed bag of emotions
this weekend,” Nelson said. “I will be
supportive of die team 100 percent. It’s
the NCAAs. At home. This is what
your career is all about
“But of course it will be hard to
watch. I want to be out there with them.
What keeps me going is looking for
ward to next year. We’ll be awesome. I
Please see SENIORS on 11
Huskers hope to pull upset at Championships in Utah
NU Coach Kendig
says team must hit
routines to topple
favorite Bulldogs
By John Gaskins
Staff writer
Running around the gym and throwing pies in
each other’s faces is not exactly how you would
expect a team to prepare for a run at the national
championship.
But that’s exactly what the No. 7 Nebraska
women’s team was doing Monday, the day before
it took off for Salt Lake City to compete in their
10th NCAA Championships meet, their fourth in
five seasons.
The meet will take place Thursday, Friday and
Saturday nights at the Huntsman Center.
Thursday night will be qualifying night for the
Friday team championships and the Saturday
individual championships.
On Monday, while junior Laura Ohlendorf
was conducting an interview, she was also help
ing freshman Bree Dority to prepare to give
senior Jess Swift, who was celebrating her 22nd
birthday, a surprise pie-in-the-face. The prank is a
tradition the team has on birthdays.
And as Dority and Ohlendorf went after
Swift, the gym erupted in laughter. It was evident
that the team was not nervous at the time about
the big event.
“This group just doesn’t get worked up when
a big meet comes around,” Nebraska Coach Dan
Kendig said. “I’ve been saying it all year - we just
work on hitting our routines.”
“We have an acronym for our attitude -
K.I.S.S. - Keep It Simple, Stupid. We can’t worry
about things we don’t have any control over.”
Indeed, Nebraska has little control over the
scores of the 11 other teams competing for the
title. The 12 teams are divided into two six-team
groups, one of which will compete in the after
noon session and the other in the evening session.
The top three teams in each session will qual
ify for the Super Six, the team finals, Friday night
NU is in the evening session, which on paper
proves to be by far the tougher draw. Included in it
are defending national champion and favorite,
Georgia, along with the host tram, Utah.
The Utes lead the nation in attendance at over
10,000 per meet at the Huntsman Center and
Kendig expects a hostile atmosphere. But Kendig
likes having to climb such a wall.
“We definitely have the tougher draw,”
Kendig said. “You look at Georgia, who’s the
favorite, and Utah, which will be tough to beat at
home. But having that kind of competition will
only mean these girls will have to do better.”
Along with Georgia and Utah, Nebraska
must face No. 4 Michigan, the third-highest qual
ifying team. The Wolverines defeated the
Huskers two weeks ago in Lincoln for the Region
Matt Miller/DN
NITS AMY RINGO and the rest of the Husker squad hope to advance past the semifinals tonight in Salt Lake City. If the Huskers finish in the
top six, they will compete in the finals Saturday night.
3 crown, the first NU loss in the Devaney Center
in four years.
Although Kendig rides on the “team over
self” concept constantly, he couldn’t help but
admit the possibilities some of his individuals
have in winning their own national titles.
Senior Courtney Brown comes into the meet
having won titles in three of the four different
events this season. Senior Laurie McLaughlin has
set school records in both events she competes in.
And all-arounders Heather Brink and Misty
Oxford, both All-Americans, shared the Big 12
title and finished in the top six at regionals.
When asked if it was out of line to say if either
Brink or Oxford could become NU’s f rst individ
ual all-around national champion, Kendig confi
dently shook his head.
But he did so reluctantly because he wanted
to talk about the team’s chances.
“The hard part will be Thursday night,”
Kendig said. “If we can get past Thursday and
make it to the Super Six on Friday, anything can
happen. I don’t think we’re out of it”
If die Huskers do qualify, it will be die second
time in three seasons that they would have made it
to the Super Six. Brink, the only NU gymnast to
compete at nationals last season, was able to see
up close the top competition when she competed
as part of Georgia’s national championship team.
“I was right there with them and I wasn’t over
ly impressed with them,” Brink said. “I thought
we were every bit as good as they were, and I
think we are now, too.”