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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (March 10, 2000)
NU anticipates solid NCAA showing .at Arkansas meet TRACK from page 16 biggest and best bullet - shot-putter Carl Myerscough. He will be staying at home and practicing until a hearing is held in the United Kingdom to determine his eli gibility in international competition. Myerscough allegedly tested positive for a banned substance. His absence will cost the Huskqrs a probable first-place in the shot put Pepin said the national meet was n’t indicative of how good a team was. He said the teams that do the best are usually those that have most quality at the top rather than the most athletes. The NU women outscored Texas at conference, yet die Longhorns are the favorite at nationals. “It’s a lot different from confer ences,” Pepin said. “There you work for matchups. It takes a great individ ual to get to nationals.” The Husker women will have nine women competing. Six-time All American Dalhia Ingram lead the experienced group of women by fighting for points in both the long jump and triple jump. The senior was named the USTCA Midwest region athlete of the year. She is tied for the second-best mark in the country with a leap of 44 feet, 6 inches in the triple jump. There, Ingram will have the opportunity to rematch Louisiana State’s Keisha Spencer, who set a Bob Devaney Sports Center Track record by jump •• I have to run the preliminaries like they were the finals...” Chris Chandler sprinter ing 45-10 at the Frank Sevigne Invitational. The Huskers’ youngest woman competitor is freshman Emily Waibel, who is coming off a second-place fin ish at the conference meet where she ran a 8.28 in the 60-meter hurdles. Last week, Waibel competed in the National Indoor Track and Field Championships, where she bowed out after preliminaries. Despite the disappointing show ing, Waibel said, the experience will help her at the NCAAs. “I didn’t run like I wanted to, but it’ll make me less nervous for nation als,” Waibel said. The Huskers have two high jumpers in the field who have cleared 6 feet. Senior Carrie Braness and junior Jessica Thompson are ranked fifth and twelfth, respectively. NU also boasts the No. 3 women’s weight-thrower in the country. Junior Melissa Price has a personal-best throw of 66-2 Va. Friday Wic Handy Award J Winner James Solberg 1 Saturday I Former lead singer A for Santana and M Robert Cray: Curtis Salgado 136 N. 14 St. Get a FREE 8 oz. Blolage Detangling Solution with any Color or Perm Service when you come in by April 22. 2000. coo^omiywMb coupon. 474-4244 Call for an appointment. Grant Location * 5 Stocks South of UNL Campus 1JJ Iff 1 |4*C I • Plenty of Street Parking IICII1VIIWI ' ’SS.VXfS^tJSS^ 55.25 to I <5 75 I Students, under directsupervision of Bcensmd Instruction, peribrm itf Jervfcfj. Our website will tell you everything you need to know about watching the latest movies from any of our nine theatres. Well show you what to see, where to see it and how much it’s , gonna cost. R^lax, we promise there’s no exam once you log on. mnr.doagtheatres.com •DOUGLAS THEATRE CO — BASEBALL — Huskers look to improve over eight-game stretch ■NU hopes to rebound after a 1-2 conference start at Kansas State. By Dane Stickney7 Staff writer While most university students will be enjoying their spring breaks, the Nebraska baseball team will enter an important stretch of their schedule. The Comhuskers (7-5) need to win a large percentage of their eight games over the break against Kansas State, Arkansas and Oklahoma, NU Coach Dave Van Horn said. “We’re at a crossroads in our sea son right now,” Van Horn said. “We need to get some wins under our belts now to pick up momentum.” Last weekend, the Huskers lost two of three to Oklahoma State in their first Big 12 series. Texas and Baylor are sit ting atop the conference with 5-1 records. The Huskers, 1-2 in the confer ence, will look to climb back into the top of the Big 12 this weekend when they go to Manhattan, Kan., to face Kansas State for three games. KSU is 3-10 overall and 0-6 in the I Big 12, but Van Horn said the Wildcats will be fired up to face the Huskers. “They’re a real hungry team,” he said. “This will be their first home series, and their backs are against the wall.” Van Horn said this weekend’s series is important for Nebraska. “This is big for us,” he said. “We need to go on the road and sweep them.” Sophomore Shane Komine will pitch Friday, freshman Jaime Rodrigue will pitch Saturday and senior Chad Wiles will go Sunday. After the three-game stand against KSU, NU will travel to Fayetteville, Ark., to face Arkansas on Tuesday and Wednesday. The Huskers defeated Arkansas 13-2 on Feb. 22 in what Van Horn called Nebraska’s best game of the sea son. “That was the best we’ve played this season,” he said. “Everything came together, and we looked great. But they’re a lot better team than they showed against us the first time.” The Razorbacks are 11-6 and rid ing a six-game winning streak. On March 17, Nebraska will return to Lincoln for its first home series in Big 12 play against Oklahoma. The Sooners are currently 11-5 overall and 3-0 in the Big 12 after sweeping KSU last weekend. Van Horn said the OU series will be a big series because it is the Huskers’ first Big 12 home stand of the season. “OU’s always a strong team, and if we can get some big wins against them here at home, it’ll really give us some confidence,” he said. “But that’s a long ways down the road. We’ve got some tough games ahead of us before we come home.” R.D. Spiehs, a sophomore relief pitcher, said the team isn’t looking past KSU. “We’re just concentrating on sweeping Kansas State,” he said. “We know beating Arkansas and Oklahoma will be tough, but we’re set on being ready for K-State.” Rob Childress, Nebraska’s pitch ing coach, said the pitching staff will have to be a big factor during the eight games over spring break. The staff’s depth and prior success should propel them through the com ing games, he said. “I think our pitchers will hold up,” he said. “We’ve got six or seven guys who can go out and give us three to four solid innings.” NU hopes for individual wins By David Diehl Staff uniter If there was any sus pense about how the Nebraska wrestling team will fare when they take the mat at the NCAA Championships next Thursday, Tim Neumann has already killed it. “We’re not going to win the national title,” Neumann admitted. “It became appar ent before Christmas that we weren’t going to win the national championship this year.” Teams like Iowa and Big 12 Conference foes Iowa State and Oklahoma State should be favorites to take home the trophy, Neumann said. Whereas the favorites qualified between eight and 10 wrestlers apiece, the Cornhuskers qualified six for the Championships, to be held in St. Louis, Mo., next Thursday through Saturday. The limited number of wrestlers makes the Cornhuskers’ chances slim. Paul Gomez at 125 pounds, Todd Beckerman at 133, Joe Henson at 149, Bryan Snyder at 157 and Brad Vering at 197 all earned automatic bids by placing third or higher in die Big 12 Conference Tournament. Charles McTorry finished fourth at 184 pounds but earned a wild-card berth to Nationals. Snyder and Vering are ranked second and third in their respective divisions and look to be NU’s best shots for individual titles. Vering probably will have to get through OSU’s Mark Munoz to win his national title. Vering is 3-6 against his rival in his career and three of those losses have come this year. “I’ve paid my dues,” Vering said. “I’ve worked hard and (beating Munoz) is going to happen sometime. But we both have to wrestie four other times before we’d meet, so a lot of things can happen.” Despite not taking an entirely loaded gun with •• We’re not going to win the national title.” Tim Neumann . wrestling coach him, Neumann said, he still has hope that individuals can be successful. If everyone gets on a roll, who knows what could hap pen. In 1996, Iowa State fin ished fourth in the confer ence, qualified only five wrestlers and finished in second place, Neumann said. Neumann said he felt very comfortable with the group that will be competing next week. Despite only hav ing six grapplers, he said having all six of them seeded eased any doubts in their performances. When NU brought nine or ten guys in the past, Neumann said, there were always a couple that he knew would go 0-2 and be out of the tourney, which isn’t so this year. “Every single guy we’re bringing I think can place,” Neumann said. “If we come back with six All Americans, that’s the most Nebraska’s ever had.” Henson comes into the national tournament after a strong showing at the Big 12 meet, where he upset Oklahoma’s Jared Frayer and put up a strong fight in the finals before losing to OSU’s Reggie Wright Henson said that primar ily the focus is on individuals for nationals. “I think you need to be focused on what you’re going to do,” Henson said, “and on how you’re wrestling right now. Having those other guys really does n’t matter because you have to focus on yourself.” Gymnastics faces back-to-back duals ■ NU celebrates 25 years of women’s gymnastics against Iowa. By Jason Merrihew Staff Writer While the majority of Nebraska students begin their downward spiral, that is spring break, the fifth-ranked NU women’s gymnastics team will try to remain focused on taking care of business. The Comhuskers will participate in two duels on back-to-back days at the Bob Devaney Sports Center on Sunday, March 12, and Monday March 13. Sunday, the Huskers will be involved in a border war with the Iowa Hawkeyes that will begin at 4 p.m. NU is as red hot as die color they wear. In the past two meets, the Comhuskers have broken the school record team score. The current record is now set at 196.80. “It’ll be real interesting,” NU junior Amy Ringo said. “I’ve never faced Iowa before.” The Hawkeyes come into Lincoln after posting a season-low 190.275 team score in the Corvette Cup in Columbia, Mo. “They’ve (the Huskers) been so good about getting themselves up for every meet regardless who our com petition is,” NU Coach Dan Kendig said. During the Iowa duel, the Huskers will be celebrating the 25th year of women’s gymnastics at the university. Monday’s duel against 101" ranked Brigham Young University will marie the last time seniors Nicole Wilkinson and Heather Brink set foot into the Bob Devaney Sports Center competing for the scarlet and cream. “Monday will be fun because it is Senior Night,” Ringo said. The Cornhuskers already have scored a victory against the Cougars this season when they faced each other last week in the Shanico Invitational. BYU placed third behind Oregon State and NU in the quadrangular. The previous victory over the Cougars and Senior Night should give Nebraska extra motivation to compete well against the fellow top-10 foe. “This should be a good practice for what is in store for us,” Kendig said. The duel against BYU wHl begin at 7 p.m. on Monday.
