Hardabura wins all-around national title
High bar routine wins the crown
By John Gaskins
Staff writer
Jason Hardabura wanted this moment. At home. In the final rou
tine. To be the best.
At approximately 9:45 Thursday night., the sophomore Nebraska
gymnast was exactly where he dreamed he wanted to be when he left
his home country of Canada three years ago - on a gym floor experi
encing just what it felt like to have just won a national championship.
The feeling hit him just as his feet hit the Bob Devaney Sports
Center floor in a clutch high bar routine that gave him the winning
58.050 all-around score.
It hit him even harder when he jumped on the awards podium and
was crowned NU’s ninth NCAA all-around champion.
“I came here almost quitting gymnastics,” Hardabura said.
“Needless to say, I’m glad I didn’t. I’m finally enjoying gymnastics.”
For 30-year Nebraska Coach Francis Allen’s first foreign athlete
ever, the night was the icing on the cake of one of the most dominating
«
I got it with
Jason...He’s in thai
stud category
Francis Allen
NU coach
seasons in ini^aa gymnastics
history.
“I don’t even know how many
all-around champions I’ve had,”
Allen said. “But let me tell you,
when you get one, they’re a gem.
“He’s a keeper. That’s quite a
feather in his cap, winning the all
around as a sophomore.”
Hardabura joins Jim Hartung
as the only Nebraska gymnasts to
have won the all-around title in
their sophomore season. Hartung
experienced the feeling of winning the crown at the Devaney in 1980
and 1981 and is arguably Allen’s best gymnast ever.
That may change in the coming years.
“When you have an all-around champion, you got it,” Allen said.
“And I got it with Jason. I’m not sure how he compares with guys like
Jim Hartung and (1994 all-around champion) Dennis Harrison and all
those studs. But he’s in that stud category.
“This means he’ll have to get better next year and the year after that.
That’s what we expect of him.”
Going into the night, Hardabura was the No. 1-ranked gymnast in
the nation and had won four straight all-around meet titles, including
West Region crown two weeks ago.
But Hardabura faced threats to his supremacy all night from three
of the top all-arounders in the East Region in Ohio State’s Doug Stibel,
Michigan’s Justin Toman and Iowa’s Todd Strada.
Stibel led Hardabura by .05 points after the opening rotation
despite Hardabura’s career-best and team season-high 9.8 floor exer
cise routine and extended the lead to a full tenth of a point after two.
But Hardabura took charge of the lead after landing his second
career high in three events with a 9.825 on the still rings in the third
rotation. He led Stibel by a mere .225 points halfway through the meet.
The two grinded through the fourth rotation, with Hardabura using
his worst score of the evening on the vault (9.5) to stay .125 points
ahead of Stibel.
But Stibel took himself out of contention when he took a nose dive
on the still rings in the second-to-last event. But the fall didn’t leave
Hardabura, who had pulled off his second-best parallel bars routine of
the season (9.65), in the clear.
Toman, who finished second, pulled himself to within . 15 points
before the last event, with Strada on both of their heels, .225 points
behind Hardabura.
Please see CHAMP on 14
MatTMiller/DN
NCAA ALL-AROUND CHAMPION JASON HARDABURA works his way around the pommel horse at the Devaney Center on
Thursday night. Hardabura scored 58.05 to win the all-around title and help the Huskers into the team finals tonight
against Michigan and Ohio State.
Huskers qualify for finals
■ Nebraska holds on for third place as
Penn State’s injuries seals the Nittany
Lion’s late in the competition.
By Darren Ivy
Senior staff writer
After his Nebraska men’s gymnastics team quali
fied for the finals of the NCAA Championships on
Thursday night, Coach Francis Allen was able to joke
about how close the team race was going into the final
rotation.
To be exact, just two-tenths of a point separated the
second through fourth-place teams, with only three
teams advancing to the finals.
NU wasn’t one of them. But a 38.525 on the hori
zontal bar allowed the fifth-ranked Cornhuskers to
overtake fourth-ranked Penn State and join Michigan
and Ohio State in the finals tonight at 7.
“We make it dramatic on purpose,” Allen joked. “I
may have to sleep in tomorrow. I don’t know if I am
going to make it.”
In all seriousness, Allen Said he knew the Nittany
Lions were “breathing down his team’s neck.” Penn
State led NU 191.05 to 191.00 going into the last rota
tion.
But Allen wasn’t worried because the Huskers are
the top-ranked team in the nation on horizontal bar. And
Penn State had already lost three of its top gymnasts to
injuries in the meet.
“I had no doubts,” Allen said. “Even if they would
have hit, I think we would have won. They gave up.”
Penn State Coach Randy Jepson said he had a lot of
backups in his lineup because of injuries. In warm-ups,
Ted Johnson broke his ankle. Then Danny Beigel rein
jured his biceps and on the second to last event,
Dominic Brindle tore his anterior cruciate ligament.
“We knew we had to hit,” Jepson said. “We just
Please see FINALS on 14
NU outduels Utah to
get into Super Six
By Brandon Schulte
Staffwriter
It was a stiff obstacle that the
Nebraska women’s gymnastics team
had to overcome Thursday night
The Comhuskers had to battle a
hometown crowd and beat a team that
was ranked ahead them in order to
advance to Friday’s Super She, the finals
of the NCAA Championships.
Battle they did, and the obstacle
they overcame.
Spurred by all-around competitors
Heather Brink, Misty Oxford, and Bree
Dority, all of which scored above
39. T75, the No. 7 NU gymnastics team
advanced to die Super Six Finals at the
inuaa womens uymnastics
Championships at the Huntsman
Center in Salt Lake City.
Nebraska, with a score of 196.225,
finished third in the evening session
behind Georgia and Michigan. The
three teams will join Alabama, UCLA
and Arizona State, which qualified in
the afternoon session. The hometown
team, Utah, finished fourth, and out of
the competition.
It is die second time in school histo
ry that the team has qualified for the
Super Six and Nebraska and Michigan,
have become the first two schools in
history to have their teams qualify for
both the women’s and men’s finals.
Please see SUPER on 14