Sports
Thursday, October 28,1999__ : _Page 9
Booker
steps out
of brother’s
shadow
By Darren Ivy
Senior staff writer
If you lined up Dion and Michael Booker side
by side and put them in Nebraska uniforms and
pads, it would be almost impossible to tell them
apart.
At 6-foot-1, 205 pounds, Dion is an inch
shorter than his older brother, who was drafted by
the Atlanta Falcons in the first round of the 1997
NFL Draft, but he has the same chiseled body and
long arms. He also has the same kind of speed and
physical abilities.
However, prior to this season the same last
name was about the only connection fans could
see between the two brothers.
Dion hadn’t shown many signs on the football
field that he could play like his brother.
But this season, Dion has a new outlook on
football, which has helped him feel more com
fortable as a back-up free safety. His improved
play has earned him respect.
“He’s come a long way,” said starting rover
Mike Brown. “He’s finally comfortable in what
the free safety does in this defense. You can really
tell that he’s taken his game to a new level.
“In practice and games, you can see him play
ing with excitement and ready to take his game to
that level where he is going to be a starter.”
Dion hasn’t always played with that kind of
enthusiasm. In fact, there were times last year
when he contemplated transferring.
The Outsider
Dion was highly recruited out of Oceanside,
Calif., from El Camino High School, but once he
was at NU, he almost completely disappeared.
After redshirting his freshman season, Dion
Please see BOOKER on 11
KU coach aware
of challenges
Huskers pose
By Brandon Schulte
Staff writer
Going into last week’s game against inter
state rival Missouri, few people, if any, gave
the Kansas football team a chance.
So, Kansas brought back more than 200
former players, including former All
American running back Gayle Sayers, to
inspire the team. The coaching staff asked
Sayers to give the team a pep talk before the
game.
The talk may have worked, as the Jayhawks
responded to Sayers’ motivation and, in per
haps its most complete game of the year,
defeated the Tigers in a 21 -0 romp.
A second-straight win for KU against
eighth-ranked Nebraska, though, seems
improbable at best. The Jayhawks are a 30
point underdog and haven’t defeated the
Comhuskers since Lyndon Johnson was in the
White House. Kansas also faces a Nebraska
team looking to make amends after its first
loss of the season last week at Texas.
Coach Terry Allen is well aware of the
obstacle that confronts his team this weekend
when the teams meet on Saturday at 6:08 p.m.
in Lawrence, Kan.
“We face a team that the University of
Kansas hasn’t beaten in 30 years,” Allen said.
“I think the kids understand what they’re fac
ing in the task with Nebraska.
Please see KANSAS on 10
Sharon Kolbet/DN
Michelle Brooks, left, Jeanette Zimmer and Jaime Pauli work together to lead the women’s cross country squad. Pauli, who is the team
captain, said this year’s group was one of the best in terms of its determination and camaraderie.
NU finds strength in numbers
■ NU’s women’s cross country
team faces its biggest challenge
yet, the Big 12 championship,
this Saturday.
By Jason Merrihew
Staff writer
With talent and great depth, the Nebraska
women’s cross country team has coasted
through competition, spending the last four
weeks ranked in the top 25.
However, the Comhuskers must take that
momentum and run up a hill known as the Big
12 championship.
The Huskers are eager to face the toughest
conference in the nation this Saturday head
on. Including NU, the Big 12 boasts six of the
top 25 teams in the nation.
Colorado’s fourth-placed-spot is the high
est in the Big 12. Kansas State is ranked 7,
Baylor is ranked 15, Texas is ranked 16 and
Missouri is 24. Nebraska rounds out the
ranked conference teams at 25.
The ranking is a novelty item for the run
ners and coaches at Nebraska.
“It feels really nice to be recognized by the
polls, but on the course is where it matters,”
NU runner Jeannette Zimmer said. “It gives
you a good idea where you stand nationally.”
Nebraska’s ranking is due in part to the
solid individual performances from Jaime
Pauli, Michelle Brooks and Zimmer.
Pauli, a senior from Milbank, S.D., was
voted by her teammates as the team captain
before the start of the season.
“It’s a big honor,” Pauli said. “It tells you
that they trust you.”
Pauli’s leadership skill is just as important
on the field as it is off.
“Jaime lifts the team spirit,” Brooks said.
“She also pushes me in my training.”
Usually overshadowed by Brooks’ strong
outings, Pauli has quietly had an excellent
season for the Big Red.
Pauli has been the second Husker runner
to cross the finish line in three races this sea
son.
Her best showing came when NU needed
it the most. NU went to the National
Invitational without its star runner, Brooks.
Pauli responded with a career best 5,000
meter time at 17 minutes and 54 seconds to
place ninth.
Brooks, a senior and native of Preston,
England, has led Nebraska in every race she
has run this season.
This is the first and last year as a Husker
for Brooks. Brooks graduated from Lancaster
University in Europe and is using her last year
of eligibility at NU.
Brooks ’ up-front running has sparked suc
cess for the team.
Pauli was happy about obtaining Brooks’
services.
“It’s awesome to have her on the team
because we have someone in front,” Pauli
said.
Brooks’ resume consists of many individ
ual awards from the other side of the pond, but
she admits that the competition in the States is
more challenging.
“The races are faster, and there is more
depth,” Brooks said.
Please see HUSKERS on 10
Decrease in game population continues
By David Diehl
Staff writer
This Saturday, outdoorsmen clad in blaze
orange vests and caps will meander through
field after open field in search of hunting the
almighty pheasant.
Pheasant season officially opens one half
hour before sunrise Saturday morning and runs
until a half hour after sunrise Jan. 31,2000.
But the bad news is hunters may encounter
some trouble finding pheasants this season, as
they have in seasons past.
Populations for pheasants and most other
upland game are down, according to Scott
Taylor, Upland Game program manager for the
Nebraska Game and Parks Commission.
Taylor says there are not nearly as many
birds today as there were 20 to 30 years ago, and
that pheasant numbers have stood below aver
age for the last decade.
Taylor provides the human population
expansion as reason for the long-term decrease.
“Basically, the driving force behind the
pheasant decline has been loss of habitat,”
Taylor said.
“As crop production has become more
intense, we’ve lost habitat.”
As for the recent populations being below
normal, blame that on Mother Nature, Taylor
said.
“We’ve had wetter-than-average springs
than what is conducive to breeding,” Taylor
said, and that has hurt the pheasant and other
upland populations.
Freshman veterinary science major Ross
Nantkes is an avid outdoorsman and has heard
about the low numbers of pheasants from farm
ers in the Seward area, where he does most of
his hunting.
“(Farmers) all said that they hadn’t seen that
many birds during harvest,” he said.
Nantkes said that even though the likelihood
of taking as many birds this Saturday isn’t as
high as it’s been in the past, there’s still some
thing to be said for just being in the outdoors.
“It’s more to be out there,” Nantkes said,
u
...the driving force behind
the pheasant decline has
been loss of habitat”
Scott Taylor
upland game program manager for the
Nebraska Game and Parks Commission
“and not trapped in a dorm room.”
The G&P is currently working to increase
pheasant populations.
Working with legislation such as the Farm
Bill, and, according to Taylor, “making it as
wildlife friendly as possible,” is one way the
commission is trying to increase the number of
birds. It is also working with the private sector,
getting assistance from farmers and land own
ers who help with technical assistance and pro
viding and creating habitat.