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ADAM PME, right, and his wife, Sasha Van Hambarg-Pfne, NU swimmers, ran a practice lap together.
* Story By Brian Christopherson
Photo By Josh Wolfe
A.
I
r
a
The only real difference this
year is that we can room
together on road trips That’s
pretty weird.”
Sasha Van Hamburg-Pme
Nebraska swimmer
Pines balance marriage and sport at Nebraska
Nebraska swimmer Adam Pine is a workaholic
in the pool, driving to make national champi
onship dreams and Olympic hopes become
reality
Then he goes home and forgets the sport he loves.
He goes home to his wife, Sasha, whom he married
July 31,1999. And they aren’t in any hurry to talk about
swimming at the dinner table.
Sasha swims for Nebraska, too.
“We very rarely talk about swimming at home,”
Pine says.
Sadia offers a carbon-copy answer.
“Definitely not, we try to leave the swimming stuff
at the pool,” she said.
It was a relationship that started nearly six years
ago in their homeland or
Australia and climaxed
with the wedding this
summer, after an
engagement late in
1996.1
Coaches say the
marriage has changed
nothing in the way either
swimmer goes about
practice.
Assistant coach
Keith Moore works with
Adam on an individual
basis every day and says
no major impacts have been felt at the practice facility
because of the marriage.
“Sasha trains with another coach, usually at a dif
ferent time,” Moore says. “Of course, after the wed
ding, we have to get used to calling her by her new
name now: Sasha Pine.”
Adam says he and Sasha, whose maiden name is
Van Hamburg, both have their own ways of training
and competing and try to respect that.
“We both know what the other one likes to do,”
Adam says. “The men are often split from the women
at competitions, anyway.”
Head Coach Cal Bentz wouldn’t expect much to
change in either person’s behavior.
“Both Adam and Sasha are very intelligent and
both focus on what they have to do,” Bentz said.
Both swimmers, who are now in their senior year,
: i
were a great recruiting steal for Bentz. It turned out to
be a two-for-one deal when both Adam and Sasha
signed with NU.
“We met at an Olympic training center and got
together,” Adam said. The two dated for several years
and then followed each other to Lincoln for college.
“It was a chance for both of us to come to school
and swim and be on scholarship while we get our edu
cation,” he said. “You can’t do that in Australia,
because swimming is all club teams over there. /
“And then we both went to Nebraska over other uni
versities because they have such a good men’s and
women’s program.”
At Nebraska, Adam has made a name for himself
quickly, ranking among the best in school history in the
butterfly and freestyle events.
Two second-place finishes at the NCAAs in the
butterfly event have him thinking about the national
tide going into this season.
“It’s been frustrating coming so close at the
NCAAs, ’cause obviously I’d Idee to win, but it is (me
of my main goals this season,” Adam said.
He is a newlywed with so much more on his mind
than most young married men. He’s facing the key year
of his swimming career as he shoots for the Olympics.
“This year is a difficult year for Adam because he
has his goals at the NCAAs, but he also has goals of
making the Australian Olympic team for the games
next summer,” Moore said.
“He has all these expectations and goals, but he
also has every opportunity and potential to make them
happen.”
The Olympics are extra special to a couple like the
Pines, considering the summer games will be held at
Sydney, Australia, next year.
“Definitely, it is important to qualify for the
Olympics,” Adam said. “It would be such a great feel
ing to swim in front of that home crowd.”
The Olympics might even bring a little swimming
talk to the Pine family table.
For now though, both Sasha and Adam are content
to stick to their routines, and nothing much will
change. It is business as usual for Mr. and Mrs. Pine in
their approach to swimming.
“The only real difference this year is that we can
room together on road trips,” Sasha said.
“That’s pretty weird.”
Tim Neumann leads his
wrestling with a fire rarely
seen in coaching
Pa* 17
It's a whole new game in
Lincoln as the Huskers
welcome newcomers.
Page 18
Upfrwt
Nicole Kubik and Brooke
Schwartz are key part of
the NU women’s basketball
team this season.