Tennis team beats OCU
■ Despite win, NU’s top
two players, Noetzel and
Ijomah, lose their matches.
By Brandon Schulte
Staff writer
It took three opponents this week
end, but the Nebraska women’s tennis
team finally found a worthy adver
sary.
The Comhuskers swept their last
five foes by a 54-0 margin going into
their match against Oklahoma City,
ranked No. 3 in the NAIA, at {he
Woods Tennis Center, Sunday.
NU’s top two players, No. 1
Sandra Noetzel and No. 2 Ndali
Ijomah, both dropped their singles
matches, but Nebraska won its other
four singles matches and two of three
doubles matches to defeat Oklahoma
City 6-3. The loss was Noetzel’s first
of die season.
Husker freshman Maria
Fernandez, said the close nature of
Sunday’s matches would serve NU
well later this season. Fernandez
defeated OCU’s Melisa Lemus 6-4,6
1 in her singles match and combined
with Kararina Balan to win their dou
bles match 8-6 after trailing 5-3.
“We were nervous, but we knew
we could do it,” Fernandez said.
“(This match) gives us more confi
dence knowing that we can be down
and still win. It will just make us bet
ter.”
While Nebraska was pushed to
the limit on Sunday, it barely needed
to try on Friday and Saturday. The
now 10-1 Huskers blasted past both
Oklahoma Christian on Friday and
Northern Iowa on Saturday by 9-0
margins. In both meets, not one
Husker was taken to three sets in a
singles match.
Ijomah was the big winner for
Nebraska. She defeated Amie
Crowley of UNI 6-0, 6-1 and per
formed even better against Oklahoma
Christian’s Gabriela Lancman. She
didn’t drop a game and won 6-0,6-0.
NU Coach Scott Jacobsen was
impressed by both his team and the
results posted by Ijomah this week
end.
“Our team has improved a lot so
far this season,” Jacobsen said.
“Ndali (Ijomah) is playing at levels
that I have never seen from her
before.”
Women’s relay team
smashes meet record
From Staff Reports
In one of the most prestigious
indoor track meets in the nation, the
women’s 4-by-400 meter relay team
broke a meet record in a victory at the
USA Indoor Track and Field
Championships Saturday in Atlanta.
The relay team, comprised of
Stella Klassen, Lesley Owusu, Cheryl
Harmon and Jelena Stanisavljevic,
with a time of3:35.49, broke the marie
set four years ago by Louisiana State.
Chris Chandler, the only collegian
in the finals, won the 200-meter dash
with a time of 20.84 seconds.
Chandler holds the fastest NCAA
time in the country.
In the high jump, Carrie Braness
and Jessica Thompson finished 7th
and 1-2* place respectively by making
the height of 5 feet* 9 V* inches.
Braness placed higher because she
attempted more jumps at the same
height.
Husker shot-putter Leann
Boerema finished 10* with a throw of
50-11.
Next for those Huskers who have
automatically qualified is the NCAA
Indoor Track ’and Field
Championships March 10-11 in
Fayetteville, Ark.
Provisional qualifiers for the
national meet find out their fate
Monday at 6 p.m. when the NCAA
announces the championship’s com
petitors.
Women’s gymnastics
falls to Oregon State
From Staff Reports
For the second consecutive meet,
the fifth-ranked Nebraska women’s
gymnastics team broke the school
team-score record, posting a 196.80
score at the Shanico Inn-vitational.
Unfortunately for the
Cornhuskers, the home team, 24th
- ranked Oregon State, scored a 196.975
to take the team crown.
The Huskers’ new school record,
which had been previously set at the
Masters Classic last Sunday, placed
NU second, in front of Brigham Young
University. The 10th-ranked Cougars
scored a 194.975 to place third ahead
of Seattle Pacific, which tallied a
188.875 score.
Nebraska was led once again by
senior All-American Heather Brink.
The Lincoln native posted a 39.55
score on her way to her sixth all-around
title of the season.
For the first time since the Super
Six at the beginning of the season,
Brink, the second-ranked vaulter in the
nation, was unable to bring home the
event title. Brink tied for second with
Oregon State’s Katrina Severin with a
9.95 score. Lara Degenhardt of OSU
won the event with a 9.975.
Brink found herself in a three-way
tie for first place with two Beavers on
the floor exercise, scoring a 9.95 on the
event.
Freshman Julie Houk was the only
other Husker to claim an event title.
Houk scored a 9.925 on the uneven
bars to edge out teammate A.J. Lamb,
who placed second in the event with a
9.90.
Senior Nicole Wilkinson put forth
a solid performance for Nebraska at
the quadrangular. Wilkinson scored a
9.875 on the beams, placing her sec
ond on the apparatus. On the uneven
bars, Wilkinson came in sixth with a
9.825.
In all-around competition, Lamb
placed fourth with a 39.225 score,
while junior Amy Ringo placed sixth
with a 39.025 showing.
Nebraska will next be in action this
weekend when it hosts Iowa on
Sunday, March 12 at the Bob Devaney
Sports Center. The dual is scheduled to
begin at 4 p.m.
Letter’s career high not enough to win
By John Gaskins
Staff uriter
Career highs should leave a gym
nast feeling like he or she is on top of
the world.
But in the case of Nebraska gym
nast Derek Leiter, a career-high 57.80
in the all-around Saturday left him
looking up at Penn State’s Jose
Palacios.
Going into the meet, Leiter was
ranked No. 1 nationally in the all
around and the vault. Leiter contin
ued his banner senior season. He
posted a career high 57.80 in the all
around but finished runner-up to
Palacios’ 57.925.
Still, NU’s co-captain won the
vault with a 9.75 while helping the
Huskers to their second-best team
score of the season. PSU beat NU
231.05-223.70 to hand the Huskers
(5-4 and 2-4 in dual meets) their
fourth consecutive head-to-head loss.
Despite the Nittany Lions’ domi
nance, NU Coach Francis Allen saw
plenty of bright spots. Without
^ Tonight, we looked like a team that
wants to qualify for nationals.
NCAA champions Marshall Nelson
and Jason Hardabura - both out for
the rest of the season with injuries -
the Huskers posted a score above 223.
The score was more than a five
point improvement from both of their
meets last weekend in losses to then
No. 4 Iowa and No. 7 Oklahoma. NU
also recovered from its disasters on
the horizontal bar last week by scor
ing a team season high 37.70.
“Tonight, we looked like a team
that wants to qualify for nationals,”
Allen said after the dual. “I was really
happy. We hit 76 percent of our rou
tines. We struggled on parallel bars,
or we would have scored 225 or 226.”
The dramatically higher score
was just what NU needed to stay in
contention for qualifying for the
NCAA Championships as a team.
Francis Allen
NU coach
Only the nation’s top 12 teams will
compete in Iowa City on March 30
April 1. NU is currently ranked No.
10.
Leiter was the only Husker to
score in the top three in any of the
events. Along with the vault title, the
All-American took third place on the
pommel horse (9.675) and still rings
(9.60).
Another bright spot for NU was
senior Blake Bukacek who was bare
ly able to land routines less than a
month ago because of a tom left ante
rior cruciate ligament. He suffered
the injury last November.
The Lincoln native struck a sea
son-high 9.5 on the horizontal bar,
the same event in which he finished
runner-up at last yc r’s NCAA
Championships.
Play by play, you just can’t beat dailyneb.com
REGISTER WITH MYBYTES. COM
GET A FREE SONIC ABYSS MULTIMEDIA CD
AND AUTOMATICALLY BE ENTERED INTO OUR
Score Big, Score Often Sweepstakes.
YOU COULD WIN AN INSTANT PRIZE! j
Plus, you’ll have a chance at $100, 000 *
TOWARDS YOUR COLLEGE EDUCATION.
mybytes^om 2
AND SCORE BIG!
