Vering wins national crown
VERING from Page l6
nament. With no riding time points to
be awarded, the match headed to over
time, where no points were scored.
That led to the deciding coin flip,
which played a big role in Vering’s
win and Thompson knew it.
“The hard thing is losing on a coin
flip,” said Thompson, who upset
Oklahoma State’s No. 1 seed Mark
Munoz in the semifinals.
Vering’s photo will be the seventh
on Nebraska’s wrestling room wall
under the heading “NCAA
Champions.” Coach Tim Neumann
said Vering deserved the title.
“Each one of them had a unique
thing they had to overcome,”
Neumann said. “Vering hurt his knee
in the Ohio State (vs. Nick Preston in
the quarterfinals). I actually think
once he hurt it, he was actually focus
ing on the wrestling and not all the
exterior things.”
Nebraska brought five wrestlers
to the national tournament, and four
of them came home with All
American (top eight) honors.
At 157 pounds, Bryan Snyder, a
No. 3 seed, finished fifth. A seventh
seeded Todd Beckerman also finished
fifth at 133 pounds. Unseeded Paul
Gomez earned an eighth-place finish
at 125 pounds.
Snyder’s tournament started as
bleak as possible when Edinboro’s
unseeded Shaun Shapert, an eventual
All-American, shocked Snyder 5-4,
ending the nation’s No. 3 wrestler’s
19-match winning streak.
After the loss, Snyder was staring
down the barrel of five must-win vic
tories just to reach All-American sta
tus.
His performance wasn’t any bet
ter in his second match, a consolation
bracket wrestle-in. Snyder escaped by
the skin of his teeth when Indiana’s
Kevin Stanley was called for an illegal
hold in the second overtime. 'n,
Snyder didn’t look to regain old
form until his fourth-round match
with Iowa State’s Cole Sanderson, a
convincing 10-3 victory that secured
the sophomore’s second straight All
American season.
Snyder said it was “a long week.”
“It was a manhood check and a
character check,” said Snyder, who
talked to the media for the first time
all year. “I came here to win it. I had
no second, no third place in mind. I
came here to win.
“When I lost in the first round, I
was crushed. I knew if I didn’t suck it
up and wrestle, I would have hated
myself on Monday.”
Paul Gomez might have been the
feel-good story of the year for NU.
Gomez fought obstacle after obstacle
this year and came out on top with his
eighth-place trophy.
After sitting out the first semester
with academic problems, Gomez was
sidelined again two matches into his
half-gone season when he suffered a
severe ankle injury. Gomez wrestled
only 18 matches before going into
nationals, whereas others compete in
35 to 40.
Gomez’s fourth-round consola
tion match with Michael Kawamura
of Arizona State was for All
American honors. When the buzzer
sounded in Gomez’s 7-3 victory, the
senior collapsed onto the mat under
the weight of his personal achieve
ment.
“It just hit me,” said Gomez, who
upset three seeded wrestlers in the
tournament. “Everything I did in get
ting back here from being ineligible, it
just hit me at that point.
“The coaches told me I could do
it, but sometimes it seemed they
believed it more than I did.”
Snyder, a team captain, was boast
ing about Gomez’s performance after
ward.
“I’m so proud of Paul,” Snyder
said. “If one person had to be an All
American, it had to be him. To see
what he went through this year, I look
up to him so much as a person.”
At 133 pounds, junior Todd
Beckerman performed solidly,
advancing to the championship quar
terfinals, where he fell to runner-up
Cody Sanderson of Iowa State.
Beckerman came back from the
loss to decisively defeat Michigan
State’s No.3 seed Pat McNamara.
Beckerman scored eight points in the
fust period - a takedown, a two-point
near fall and a rare four-point near
fall, which is awarded after a three
point fall that leads to injury time for
the opponent.
With three seniors in the top eight
finishers at 133 pounds, Beckerman
looks to be a top contender for next
year’s title.
“It looks pretty good for next
year,” Beckerman said. “It just means
people are going to be gunning for me
more.”
After the tournament, which was
claimed by Iowa for the 20th time in
its history and the sixth straight year,
Neumann was boasting about his
team’s top 10 performance.
“All we needed was more bullets
in the gun,” he said.
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-SPORTS BRIEFS
Women’s basketball
Few teams dared trap the
Nebraska women’s basketball team
during the season. Boston College
did, and was rewarded for its efforts in
the first round of the NCAA
Tournament in Charlottesville, Va.
The fifth-seeded Eagles jumped
out to an early 18-6 lead and main
tained the cushion the rest of the way
in a 93-76 victory that ended the
Comhuskers’ season at 18-13.
NU trailed by 19 points twice in
the first half, but clawed within 52-38
at halftime. It got within 10 points a
few times, but never closer. BC com
mitted only 14 turnovers, the lowest
against Nebraska all season.
Guards Nicole Kubik and Brooke
Schwartz ended their careers by scor
ing in double figures with 18 and 16
respectively. Senior forward Charlie
Rogers added 13 points, finishing her
career with 1,001 points.
Women’s swimming
Helene Muller and Shandra
Johnson both placed at the NCAA
Championships this weekend, with
Muller taking third in the 200-meter
freestyle and fifth in the 100-meter
freestyle. Johnson finished 11th and
13th in the 400- and 200-meter
freestyles, respectively.
Muller finished with a time of one
minute, 57.88 seconds in the finals,
just behind winner Mantza Correa of
Georgia, who won in 1:57.33. Muller
is now a 14-time All-American.
Johnson is an eight-time All
American.
Overall, the Husker women fin
ished 20th in the meet. Georgia was
crowned national champion.
Men’s Gymnastics
Husker Derek Leiter finished first
in the all-around at the Mountain
Pacific Sports Federation in Colorado
Springs, Colo., on Saturday night. As
a team, NU finished third behind
Oklahoma and California with a sea
son-high score of228.225, nearly four
points better than the previous best.
Leiter finished with a score of
58.3 overall.
Men’s Tennis
Nebraska was not disheartened by
its 7-0 loss to Texas on March 13, as
NU Coach Kerry McDermott praised
his doubles effort. Nebraska pounded
Southwest Missouri State 7-0 on
Sunday, as the Huskers improved to 6
6 overall.
Women’s Tennis
It might be the best season in his
tory for the Huskers, as NU moved to
No. 47 in the national rankings, its
highest ever. Nebraska moved to 12-1
with a 9-0 victory over Montana State
on Wednesday after upsetting
Colorado 7-2 last weekend.
Men’s Golf
The Huskers finished 15 th at the
Louisiana Classic Golf Tournament in
Lafayette, La. NU shot a score of 931.
Seth Porter led Nebraska with a score
of 222. Arizona won the team title,
and Wildcat golfer Ricky Barnes won
the individual title with a score of 213.
Football
The Nebraska football team
begins practice Monday for spring
football, which will culminate with
the April 15 Red/White Spring Game.
The Daily Nebraskan will begin cov
erage Tuesday with the five pressing
questions the Huskers face this
spring.
NU splits with OU in twin
bill; wins overall series
By Matthew Hansen
Staff writer
In the first game of Sunday’s dou
bleheader, the Nebraska baseball team
made visiting Oklahoma look like it
didn’t deserve to set foot on Buck
Beltzer Field.
But in the finale, the Sooners
helped to remind the Huskers and the
758 in attendance of the oldest of
sports cliches: Take it one game at a
time.
The two games couldn’t have been
more different. But a 12-0 rout fol
lowed by a 4-3 nail-biter resulted in
something similar for each team - one
win.
The loss in the second game of the
doubleheader, which broke NU’s six
game winning streak and prevented a
three-game sweep of the Sooners, left
' NU Coach Dave Van Horn with under
standably mixed emotions. ;
“We had a good weekend, and I’m
real proud of how we played,” he said.
“But I’m disappointed we let that last
one slip away. Hopefully, we’ll learn
something from this.”
In the first game, it appeared that
the only thing the Huskers (14-7 over
all, 5-4 Big 12) needed to learn were
directions to Rosenblatt Stadium for
the College World Series.
The Huskers jumped out to an
early 3-0 lead in the bottom of the first,
the big blast coming off the bat of first
baseman Dan Johnson, who hit a two
run home run.
Nine more Huskers would cross
the plate, as Johnson added another
two-run shot. In the seventh, Brandt
Vlieger hit a three-run home run,
which ended the game because of the
10-run rule.
None of those runs were needed,
though, because Jamie Rodrigue, a
freshman pitcher, was busy shutting
down OU (14-10,4-2). Rodrigue (4-1)
scattered five hits and walked no one
in a complete seven-inning game
shutout.
The shutout was Rodrigue’s sec
^ I’m disappointed
we let that last one
slip away.
Hopefully we ’ll
learn something
from this.”
Dave Van Horn
NU baseball coach
ond straight, making him only the fifth
pitcher in Husker history to accom
plish that feat. He has allowed only two
earned runs in 20 innings against Big
12 opponents.
In the second game, the Sooners
continued to be handcuffed by
Nebraska pitching, this time by sopho
more R.D. Spiehs.
After six innings, OU hadn't
scored, but Sooner liurler Austin Mix
wasn’t letting the Husker offense
repeat its first-game performance.
NU pushed one run across in both
the second and third innings, but Mix
settled down and held the Huskers
scoreless for the next five innings.
And, in the seventh, Oklahoma finally
broke out with one swing from Jeff
Bajenaru.
The right-fielder hit a three-run
home run, then took the mound for the
Sooners and closed the door on NU.
Nebraska scored one run in the eighth
to tie the score at three, but OU took
the lead for good with one run in then
half of the ninth.
Van Horn said the Husker bats suf
fered from bad luck and inconsistent
umpiring in the loss. He claimed the
Nebraska offense, which had scored in
double figures in each of the five pre
vious games, wasn’t untracked.
“Their pitchers did a good job of
shutting us down, and the luck swung a
little their way in the eighth, but we
still are swinging the bats pretty good,”
he said. “It doesn’t worry me.”