Road no easier for swim squad ■ While men face top teams in Dallas, women battle Southern Methodist. By Brian Christopherson Staff writer The Nebraska men’s swimming and diving team continues a grinding sched ule this weekend in the two-day Dallas Morning News Classic, which features five ranked teams. The highly regarded tournament features top-ranked conference brethren Texas, eighth-ranked Minnesota, No. 15 Texas A&M and 22nd-ranked Florida State. The Husker men are riding into the meet as No. 17 and have gone 1-4 in dual meets pending results from last night’s meet against Southern Methodist. “It’s a meet that features some top competition, and we know a little about the Texas schools,” Nebraska Head Coach Cal Bentz said. “It’s a long sea son, but we need to continue to improve.” Main figures will be Adam Pine in the 50-yard butterfly and Anthony ” It’s a meet that features some top competition ...” Cal Bentz NU head coach Rogis in the 100-yard freestyle. Both of the Australian natives have been consistently strong throughout the season. , NU also should be helped in the points category by the emergence of diver Erik Cook, who will be a factor in only his second meet after an injury this season. The women won’t let the men steal all the fun. They square off with the ninth-ranked Mustangs of SMU on Saturday. Shandra Johnson has been the con sistent force on the women’s side. Johnson and the Huskers will face a dif ficult task in improving their 1-5 dual record against the Mustangs. SMU brings back a solid team from last year’s, which finished third at the NCAA Championships. ^MDS Harris Together, We're Making Lives Better 621 Rose Street, Lincoln vww.mdsharris.com/rcrt/recruit.htm * _i Heather Glenboski/DN STEFFON BRADFORD and the Huskers head to Lawrence, Kan., for a Big 12 matchup with the Kansas Jayhawks on Saturday. Huskers battle No. 8 Kansas KU from page 16 game with a lot of confidence.” Chenowith is coming off a 22 point, 17-rebound performance in an 87-79 win over in-state rival Kansas State. The preseason All-American has been struggling as of late offensively but is backed up on the front line by five other Jayhawks who measure 6-foot-9 or taller. The game will be another physical matchup that the Huskers will try to exploit down low with the 6-foot-11 Ffriend and Steffon Bradford against Chenowith and the rest of the KU post players. “I feel like we got to take it to him and get him into foul trouble early,” said ” I feel like we got to take it to (Chenowith) and get him into foul trouble early.” Steffon Bradford NU forward Bradford, who scored quickly against Iowa State with eight of NU’s first 10 points. “I am going to try and exploit everything I can and score. You can’t be soft. If you are, you are in for a long sea son. Fffiend said the difference of play in the conference has to do with other factors than just the players themselves. “The Big 12 refs are just allowing us to play,” Ffriend said. “That con tributes to the physical play of the league. That is why the conference is so strong - because the refs allow you to play.” But Bradford disagreed with his ffontcourt mate. “It is all mental,” Bradford said. NU: Stopping IStr s Frese key IOWA rrom page 16 ence on Fox Sports as well. “This will be our toughest chal lenge so far,” NU senior guard Kubik said. “We expect a big crowd when wei play them, but we like that It’s energy! for all of the players out there. “We’re also excited because we have a good rivalry going with them.” The two teams have split their last four games in the past two seasons, each winning at home both times. In their last meeting, the Huskers upset the No. 15 Cyclones in a 68-67 win in front of 13,135 at the Devaney Center, the Big 12’s largest crowd ever. But it was in Ames where Sanderford said Nebraska learned a lot about what has made ISU the power it has been the last three years: Stacy Frese. The junior All-American guard hit *• If we play the best we can play, it will be a knee-knocker.” ' i x ^ r-j —t y ( an NCAA record eight-of-eight 3 pointers and scored 29 points in a 79 58 Cyclone win. “It was really frustrating,” Kubik said. “The tough part about her is she has unlimited range. Just when you felt like you were guarding her, she’d step back and keep knocking them down. “When they hit 3s, the crowd gets into it. We’ve got to limit their attempts &nd keep the crowd out of it as much as possible.” Tlie Huskers should be at least somewhat prepared for the difficult circumstances surrounding them. Nebraska proved it could beat a ranked team on die road by upsetting No. 21 Kansas 81-69 Tuesday night and avoiding an 0-2 Big 12 start. But to roll with ISU, which blew out then-No. 6 Texas Tech 62-37 on Jan. 2, the Huskers will have to make far fewer mistakes than they did at KU, Sanderford said. “If we play the best we can play, it will be a knee-knocker,” Sanderford said. “If we have a sub-par perfor mance, we could get blown out.”