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NU looks to succeed without suspended coaches
BY TOBY BURGER
Maybe “All Americans and
Underclassmen” should be the
title for the Nebraska swimming
and diving team’s coming season.
The Husker men’s and
women's teams are looking to
those key elements to lead them to
victory this season.
“ With so many All Americans
and so many young kids it is a
great opportunity for both of
them,” interim swimming and
diving Coach Paul Nelsen said. “It
gives a chance for the experienced
ones to be leaders and the
younger ones to step up.”
Leadership may be more
important than usual this year
NU is without longtime NU Coach
Cal Bentz as well as three assis
tants, suspended while the
Athletic Department investigates
possible violations. Nelsen, the
only NU assistant not suspended,
is the interim coach.
For the men’s swim team,
graduated are Olympians Adam
Pine, Carlos Asarta, Valery
Kalmikovs and Michael Windisch
from a team that managed a run
ner-up finish in the Big 12. Also
gone is All-American diver Erik
Cook.
But even with those losses the
Huskers have more established
swimmers to anchor the team,
ranked 18th in preseason polls.
Senior All-American Peter Fry
and junior All-Americans
Anthony Rogis, Carlos Oliva and
Javier Botello will lead NU in 2000.
Botello is returning from the
Olympics where he competed for
Spain. Fry and junior JonHahnare
the team’s co-captains.
While All Americans and sen
iors are expected to produce, so
are a handful of underclassmen.
ErikWilken, a sophomore, is
one of the proven underclassmen
as he obtained All-American hon
ors last year. Talented freshmen
looking to make an immediate
mark include Brent Menghini,
Aaron McLachlan and Dustin
McKnight
Nelsen aims to have his diving
team "mentally ready every day.”
That readiness starts with div
ing captain Bert Locklin. He will
lead a squad that lost only COok.
Senior Charlie Law, junior
Pedram Nabegh and sophomores
Michael Joublanc, Lucas Brown
and Cory Yeager all return, and
freshman Dan Ballarin expects to
contribute.
The biggest loss for the
women’s swimming team is the
one it didn’t see coming.
Senior swimming co-captain
Shandra Johnson will sit out the
year with a medical redshirt year
as she recovers from back surgery.
The five-time All American and
Big 12 Champion plans to return
next season.
Fellow senior and co-captain
Beth Karaica will head a core of
returning letter winners and All
Americans, ranked 21st in the
coaches' preseason poll.
TWo of those All Americans are
sophomores Lindsey Highstrom
and Elvira Fischer. Fischer is
returning to the Husker team after
competing for Australia at the
Sydney Olympics.
Similar to the men’s team, the
women will be seeking contribu
tions from some new team mem
bers. Nelsen said he is counting on
contributions from freshjnen
Jackie Lobdell and Rebecca Wolfe.
Junior diving captain Tami
Bemth will lead the diving squad
for the Huskers. Along with
Bernth, fellow senior Elizabeth
Moss and three freshmen, Molly
Christensen, Jerilyn Drummond,
and Kristin Stratton, round out the
squad.
Nelsen said his three assistant
coaches are key to the entire
swimming and diving team.
Jefferson Bro, Dough Humphrey
and Jon Haggerty have been a piv
otal part in helping Nelsen in his
first year as interim head coach, he
said.
“They have really made my
job easier,” Nelsen said. “I really
couldn’t have done it without
them.”
Nelsen and his assistants need
to be ready with the competition
both squads will face this season,
he said.
The men will face defending
national champion Texas in addi
tion to some of the top teams in
the nation including Iowa State,
SMU, UNLV and Virginia.
The women also will face stiff
competition throughout the sea
son. They will face women’s two
time defending national champi
on Georgia. Also, Iowa State,
Michigan and SMU will test the
women.
Belcher returns
BELCHER from page 9
two guys play defense and three
guys don't,” Collier said. “Cookie is
a very good defensive player and
his commitment to defense
excites me.”
Fellow guard Cary Cochran,
who is the only Husker on this
year's team to play a full season
with Belcher, knows firsthand of
the impact he can make on a
game. Cochran said Belcher is
underrated and that he was lost to
an extent without Belcher last
year.
“He will shut down a whole
side of the floor because the other
team won’t even throw it near him
because of his ability to pick off a
pass,” Cochran said.
Not only does Belcher have a
knack for getting steals, but he is
one of the best at doing so. If
Belcher can reach his season-high
total of 102 steals, set back in his
junior year, and get three more, for
105, he will tie Eric Murdock for
the career NCAA mark at376.
It is a goal Belcher admits he
would like to have and is confi
dent that, if he plays his game, he
can reach.
Collier’s defensive philosophy,
which emphasizes team defense
instead of individual pressure,
might help Belcher set the record,
the guard said
Belcher, who has averaged
just 10.5 points per game in his
career, thinks the differences
between Nee’s and Collier's offen
sive systems will allow him to
blossom on that side of the ball, as
well.
“We never really ran plays for
me, and we just played and tried
to get it inside," said Belcher of
Nee’s offensive strategy of having
one go-to guy. “We would always
run a play half-ass, and if it broke
down, we would just get the ball to
that player. Collier doesn't care
who scores, as long as the ball gets
in the basket”
Neither does Belcher. He just
wants to win.
“If you know your role and
play it you should be successful,”
he said
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Trio of seniors lead wrestlers
BY VINCE KUPPIG
The Nebraska wrestling team
may have a new coach, but it
returns three All Americans,
including a national champion,
who led the Cornhuskers to an
eighth-place finish nationally last
year.
Coach Mark Manning comes
to Nebraska from Northern Iowa,
where he coached the team to an
1 lth-place finish in the 1999-2000
season.Manning replaces Tim
Neumann, who posted a 199-76-6
record in 15 seasons as Nebraska’s
coach.
Manning said the team has
been accepting of the new coach
ing staff, which has made the
change relatively easy.
“They’ve responded right
away. From day one, they’ve done
a good job of picking up how we
do things,” Manning said.
Since taking over, Manning
has noticed the commitment the
wrestlers have to Nebraska.
“Their attitude and commit
ment has been as much as I could
ask,” he said.
Manning is relying on senior
Brad Vering to lead the Huskers.
“He’s a role model and a
leader,” Manning said. “He exem
plifies what we want out of him,
not only as a wrestler, but also as a
student athlete and a person.”
Last year, Vering became the
seventh national champion in
Nebraska’s wrestling history.
Vering enters the 2000-2001 sea
son atop Amateur Wrestling News’
preseason rankings.
Vering is looking to become
Nebraska's first two-time national
champion. He’s confident about
repeating.
“There’s nobody else in my
weight class that is a national
champion,” Vering said. “I feel like
I’m on a plateau above them.If I
get better, I don’t think anybody in
the country can keep up,”
Manning said senior Todd
Beckerman would likely join
Vering as a team co-captain.
Beckerman enters the season
as the second-ranked 133
pounder in the nation.
Beckerman finished fifth while
earning his first All-American
honor with a 31-10 record last
year.
Beckerman has set high stan
dards to live up to that ranking:
“My main thing this year is to
dominate all my opponents.”
The Huskers’ other returning
All American is junior Bryan
Snyder. Snyder posted a 43-3
record last season and finished
fifth at 157 pounds.
Snyder entered the NCAA
Championships as the No. 1 seed
but lost in the first round Without
a chance to finish first, Snyder
fought back to finish fifth.
With that first round loss lin-'
gering in the back of Snyder’s
head, he is determined to go all
the way and bring home a nation
al championship to Nebraska.
“I think (the loss) was a bless
ing in disguise,” Snyder said. “It
made me take a character check.
I’ve already been through the
wrestlebacks. I’m not going to be
there again.’’
Manning is relying on the trio
to lead the rest of the team.
"Those guys have been there,
and they've had a lot of success,”
Manning said. "I think the other
guys are going to (look up to
diem).”
While the Huskers have noth
ing to worry about at those three
weights, Manning said there are
some other spots where they
aren’t so strong.
One of those spots is at 184
pounds, where ninth-ranked sen
ior Charles McTorry finished 21
10 last year. McTorry, a previous
NCAA qualifier, probably won’t
wrestle until mid-December
because of shoulder and neck
injuries.
Manning will have some help
finding wrestlers to fill NU’s
remaining holes. New Husker
assistant Terry Brands joins
Manning's staff from the wrestling
powerhouse of Iowa, where he
was a two-time national champi
on.
The other assistant is Steve
Hamilton, a familiar face to
Manning. Hamilton worked on
Mannings staff at Northern Iowa
after winning All-American hon
ors four years in a row at UNL
Snyder said the staff passes its
understanding and appreciation
of wrestling on to the team.
“The coaches bring a lot of
motivation. They bring out the
best in us,” Snyder said. “Each
coach has their own little specialty
to get us going.”
The staff will have its hands
full with the Big 12 conference.
Four Big 12teams enter the season
as four of the country's top seven
teams.
Huskers must mature quickly
WOMEN from page 9
ing scorer (9.8 points per game) and rebounder (6.2
rpg), said the loss of offensive production could be
compensated.
“We have a lot of threats on offense,” Leonhardt
said. “I don’t think it will be a problem.”
While the Huskers lost a number of experienced
players, the team also will welcome back two key
contributors who were forced to sit out last season
with serious knee injuries - senior forward Monique
Whitfield and sophomore forward Stephanie Jones.
Whitfield, a former junior college All American,
is expected to supply NTJ with instant offense after
sitting out all of last season. Jones, a former Nike high
school All American at Omaha Benson, scored 5.6
points and four rebounds per game last season
before being injured in the Huskers’ seventh game.
While the Huskers lack a go-to player like Kubik,
a second team All American last season, NU can
boast one of the deepest teams in the conference.
The coach prefers to look at the cup as being half
full.
“Our strength is numbers,” Sanderford said. “We
have the ability to wear people down with our pres
sure and hopefully wear them down with our run
ning game.”
But who will lead the running game is still up in
the air, Sanderford said.
Two freshmen, Shannon Howell and K.C.
Cowgill, are vying for playing time at the point with
sophomore Isha Kelley (1.2 ppg) and senior Amanda
Went (5.8 ppg).
“You’re going to see all four of those kids at one
time or another at the point," Sanderford said.
He won’t have much time to let the youngsters
grow with what Sanderford called a “gruesome” non
conference schedule. Of the Huskers’ 13 non-con
ference games, five are against teams in last season’s
NCAA Tournament.
“We could be 6-5 at Christmas and be a good
basketball team,” Sanderford said.
Sanderford, however, said he wouldn’t use the
non-conference schedule as a measuring stick for u
how good his team is. Rather, it will show the
Huskers how far they have to go.
NU has gone to postseason play in each of
Sanderford’s three seasons. Time will tell if the 2000
Huskers will follow suit, he said.
“I’m not sure this is an NCAA Tournament team,
but I hope it is,” Sanderford said.
Likely because of the team's inexperience, NU is
picked to finish seventh in the Big 12, a ranking
Sanderford said he understands but doesn’t agree
with.
Nebraska’s final spot in the standings will hinge
on whether the five freshmen and six sophomores
on the roster can produce despite their inexperi
ence.
"Everything centers around us,” said Margaret
Richards, one of the newcomers. "We'll have to step
up a whole lot”
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