NU women fall just short at KU
By Mike Warren
Senioreditor
AMES, Iowa - The
Nebraska women’s gymnas
tics team missed winning the
Big 12 Conference champi
onship by inches and were
upset by No. 8 Iowa State on
Saturday night.
It was .025 points, the
smallest margin of victory in
a Big 12 championship meet,
that kept the fifth-ranked
Cornhuskers from winning
their seventh straight confer
ence championship.
Nebraska Coach Dan
Kendig believed the differ
ence could have come any
where during the meet.
“When it gets that close,
the difference in a judge not
bingoing two scores or the
difference in a step here or a
step there is huge,” he said.
Iowa State’s score of
196.775 tied the Big 12 con
ference record, topping NU’s
score of 196.750. It also gave
ISU its first conference title
since 1977, snapping
Nebraska’s reign on confer
ence domination.
“We knew they were a
good team. They’ve defi
nitely increased their skill
level, and Betsy (Hamm)
definitely added a lot to this
team,” Kendig said.
Hamm, a transfer from
Florida, paced the Cyclones,
winning the all-around with
a score of39.60, winning the
beam with a 9.925 and shar
ing the title on the uneven
bars (9.90).
Senior Heather Brink led
NU,1 breaking a Big 12
Championship record on the
vault with a 9.975 and win
ning the floor exercise as
well with a 9.95 perfor
mance.
Kendig won the Big 12
coach of the year honors but
would rather have the team
victory.
“It’s kind of bittersweet.
I’d trade that in, and I’m sure
Heather (Brink) would trade
in her award, and A. J. (Lamb)
would trade in her award for
a team score tonight.”
Freshman A.J. Lamb
won the Big 12 Newcomer of
the Year award.
The meet was close with
Nebraska leading after the
first rotation going into the
uneven bars competition, but
Nebraska faltered. For the
first time in seven meets, NU
failejl to score a 49 or better
on the uneven bars.
Lamb had the top bar slip
Mike Warren/DN
NEBRASKA JUNIOR Amy Ringo finishes her floor routine
at the Big 12 championship. Ringo’s floor exercise rou
tine earned her a score of 9.875.
through her fingertips and
landed on the floor scoring a
fall. Lamb finished the rou
tine with a 9.225. Brink also
had problems on the bars,
losing .30 for dragging her
foot during her routine and
finished with a 9.450.
Kendig was quick to say
he couldn’t put the blame
solely on the bars team, but
Brink was more direct.
“Had that one person hit
their bar routine, we would
have won, and I think that’s
going to be the key factor. I
don’t know what it was,
whether it was a lack of con
centration (on bars) or
whether it was just meant to
be this way, but I think it’ll
definitely push us harder to
work a little harder for
regionals and nationals.”
Nebraska will find out
today where they will be
headed for the regional tour
nament on April 1, and
Kendig looks forward to it.
“The score we scored
tonight would have won last
year. We’re down a little bit
tonight, but we’re definitely
not out.”
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Pepin sees
mixed results
at NCAA meet
NCAA from page 16
Pole-vaulter Eric Eshbach was the
only freshman to score points for the
Huskers. He bounced back from a dis
appointing effort at the Big 12
Conference meet by vaulting 18-0 A, a
mark good enough for fifth place.
Nebraska sprinter Chris Chandler
failed to reach the f nals in both the 60
and 200-meter dash. The junior fin
ished 14th in the 60-meter with a time of
6.74 seconds and finished ninth in the
200-meter with a time of 21.01 sec
onds.
“Chandler was a surprise,” Pepin
said. “He won his heat in the 200
meters easily, but slowed down at the
end. Getting to the finals is based on
time, not finish.”
Sprints coach Billy Maxwell said
Chandler may have run too much dur
ing the season. After Chandler won the
indoor conference championships in .
both the 60- and 200-meters, he trav
eled to Atlanta to compete in the U.S.
indoor championships.
ii was a ruae awakening tor
Chandler and the rest of the team,”
Maxwell said
Sophomore Shaun Kologinczak
also received All-American honors
after a 10th place finish in the high
jump.
Seven of the nine women who com
peted for NU garnered All-American
honors. Leading the way for the women
was Stella Klassen, who finished ttyrd
in the 400-meter dash and anchored the
women’s 4-by-400-meter relay team
consisting of Klassen, Cheryl Harmon,
Jelena Stanisavljevic and Lesley
Owusu to sixth.
In the 400-meters, Klassen set a
personal-best time in the preliminaries,
and in the finals she broke her personal
best time again with a mark of 52.61
seconds.
The Huskers had a big effort in the
women’s high jump from Jessica
Thompson and Carrie Braness.
Thompson, a junior, finished fourth
with a personal-best jump of 6-0 V2,
while Braness, a senior, reeled in eighth
place with a jump of 5-11 'A.
By placing 10th in the triple jump
with a leap of 41-11 1/2, senior Dalhia
Ingram was named an All-American
for the seventh time.
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