Record-breaking jumpers soar for NU
■The Husker track team is in high spir
its as it enters its home meet.
BY DIRK CHATELAIN
Kyle Odvody remembers the day the
record fell.
The NU high jumper's monumental
leap of 7-feet-1V4 inches last spring in
Plattsmouth was the highest in Nebraska
high school history.
“Everything just felt perfect that day,”
Odvody said. “I told my friends I was going
for it They couldn’t believe I did it ”
They shouldn’t have been surprised.
Odvody cleared the seven foot marie severa
times last season. That-consistency is wha
made the Wahoo High School graduate one
of the top jumpers in Nebraska - he wor
gold at the state meet with a jump of 7 feei
even - and in the nation.
With fellow newcomer Na'Tassia Vice
who has already set a provisional mark foi
the NCAAs, both the men’s and women’!
Nebraska track teams have a high jump tan
dem that hopes to be so aring to new height!
for the next four years.
NU Coach Gary Pepin looks for the
jumpers to continue their early success as
his team hosts its first meet on die Devanej
Center’s new indoor track.
[ “They’re both good competitors,” said
Pepin. “They have the potential to be good
high jumpers at the collegiate level.”
i Vice, who won the first two meets of the
season, hasn’t found a problem with the
transition to Division I competition. Her
season high jump of 5-feet-9% inches
places her sixth in the nation. The native of
; Mesquite, Texas, whose personal best is 5
feet-lOVi inches, isn’t satisfied, though.
"I hope to keep improving,” Vice said. “It
was only my second meet. Jumping well at
die Big 12’s is what’s important”
Pepin echoed those thoughts, saying it’s
still early in the game.
“What really counts is where you are
when the season’s over,” said Pepin.
In order to be where the duo wants to be
at the end of the year, some technique
changes are needed, Pepin said. Seeing pos
itive results may take time.
“They’re trying to make technical
changes and jump high at the same time,”
Pepin said. “The two don’t go together very
well, but they’re working hard.”
Odvody, Vice and the rest of the Huskers
will face Colorado, Kansas State and Abilene
Christian starting at 3 p.m. Saturday. Pepin
expects for a challenge at the quadrangular.
“Our kids are really looking forward to
being at home on the new facility,” said
Pepin. “And I think it'll be a fun team meet”
OU next
NU victim
BY DOUGLAS SHEPPERD III
The Nebraska women's gym
nastics team seemingly has
nowhere to go but down as they
host No. 10 Oklahoma Saturday
at the Devaney Sports Center.
Last weekend No. 5 NU
reached new heights, scoring
197.025 points, a new school
record and the second-best team
score in the country this season.
But, scarily for future oppo
nents, the Huskers believe there’s
still room for improvement.
“We have a really young team
with a lot of talent,” said fresh
man Alecia Ingram. “If we keep
performing like we have, we can
break the record we have just
set”
Ingram has led the team in
the early going, bursting out of
the gate this season to win the
all-around title in four of NU's
first five events.
me Husker tresnmen suc
cess hasn’t stopped with Ingram.
Gina Bruce stepped in for an
injured Bree Dority O’Callaghan
and finished second in the all
around against Missouri, behind
only Ingram. Bruce said the con
fidence she gained at Missouri
would help her the rest of the
season.
Amidst NU’s freshmen excel
lence, last year’s freshman sensa
tion A.J. Lamb is busy trying to
get bade to full strength.
The All-American competed
for the first time all season
against Missouri, returning from
a back injury that had sidelined
her for NU’s early-season sched
ule. Lamb gave NU a boost
against Mizzou by placing sec
ond on the balance beam.
“It feels great to be able to
compete again,” Lamb said. Tin
glad that I can contribute to the
team. Hopefully we can hit 24 out
of 24 routines again and score
high as a team. I blow we can do
it again.”
NU’s home crowd certainly
won't hurt the possibility of
another school record.
Coach Dan Kendig is very
happy to be competing in
Lincoln after three away meets.
“This is our house, and we
will be ready to compete in front
of a home crowd. The bigger the
Please see GYM on 9
Women
to battle
Cyclones
BY JEFF SHELDON
Nebraska women’s basketball
Coach Paul Sanderford called his
team’s Jan. 13 loss at Iowa State
"embarrassing" and “deflating."
Senior center Casey Leonhardt
used the word "disappointing."
The 89-46 loss was the worst in
school history.
Hard to find a bright spot in
the notion of a rematch with the
Cyclones only three weeks later.
Then again, they say it only
takes a spark to get a fire going.
The Huskers may have found the
flicker they needed when they
ended a five-game skid by win
ning 73-62 on the road at Kansas,
on Wednesday night
“Our game Wednesday night
was a big boost for us,” Leonhardt
said. “We came out with lots of
energy, and we need to cany that
same effort over into the week
end.”
However, tney will nave to
heatup in a hurry in order to run
with No. 7 Iowa State (17-2,7-1 Big
12) on Sunday at 2:05 p.m.
ISU has had no trouble stay
ing warm this season. The
Cyclones are coming off a 73-63
win on Wednesday night at
Missouri and have won two
straight after dropping their first
conference game last week at
Baylor. As a team, Iowa State is
shooting just under 50 percent
from the field in Big 12 games.
One of the reasons for the
Cyclones' success is their
inside/outside balance with
sharp-shooting guards Megan
Taylor and Lindsey Wilson, as well
as All-Big 12 center Angie Welle.
Wilson, a sophomore, dropped in
25 points Wednesday night
against Missouri, while the 6
foot-4 Welle is averaging nearly 20
points and 11 rebounds a game in
conference play.
naiuiiuuiuiieui uium; uw igs
where you decide what your poi
son is going to be," Sanderford
said. “If you double down on
Welle, you leave shooters open. If
you let Welle play one-on-one,
she’s shooting 67 or 68 percent
from the field."
In order to pull off the ijpset
on Sunday, Sanderford knows
that his young team will need to
get off to a quick start In their pre
vious meeting, ISU held a 52-18
advantage at half-time.
“I think it’s really important
that we don’t get down early,
either by stopping them from
scoring every trip down the floor
or by us scoring,” he said.
Among the players
Sanderford mentioned who need
to step up against the Cyclones
were Paige Sutton, who scored 11
points and pulled down eight
rebounds against Kansas, and
freshman K.C. Cowgill, who has
averaged 10 points a game but has
missed Nebraska’s last 12 games
with a stress reactioirln her left
foot A deadly three-point threat,
Cowgill played four minutes
against Kansas, but she still was in
some pain and only attempted
one shot
Amanda Cleveland has battled through aplastic anemia, a rare blood disorder that made her gravely ill, to return to th<
Amanda’s story
Miraculous victory over disease
puts UNL player back on the court
story by John gasklns
It was no way to ring in the New Year.
Just after Jan. 1,1998, Sidney Cleveland left
work to pick up his 18-year-old daughter,
Amanda, at their suburban Dallas home.'
Like he did three days a week, Sidney was to
take Amahda to the Kaiser Medical Clinic in
Dallas to get treatment for her aplastic anemia -
a rare blood disorder that took her off the bas
ketball court and kept her home at all times,
with barely enough energy to make it from her
bed to die bathroom.
This time, she didn't make it
“I was heading to the bathroom, I was really
dizzy, and I started seeing dots and stars,”
Amanda Cleveland said.
“I made it to the bathroom and just sat there
and said, ‘Lord, I’m not going to make it to my
room to change (clothes).' I got up and took
three or four steps out of the bathroom, and I
just collapsed”
Minutes later, Sidney Cleveland found his
daughter passed out on the floor.
It had been just a month since Sidney
Cleveland saw Amanda running up and down
the floor for the Nebraska women’s basketball
team as a freshman with a bright future.
(Nebraska women's basketball team.
Now he was begging for his daughter’s life.
“I thought that really was the end,”
Cleveland said. “That was probably the scariest
time of the whole ordeal.”
Ordeal is far too weak of a word to describe
what Amanda Cleveland has gone through in
the last three years.
She was strapped to tubes and IVsinan iso
lation ward for weeks where her own parents
, couldn’t touch her. She had pumps strapped to
her body with a catheter that regulated blood to
her heart. She waited months to go outdoors;
she had to wear a mask once she did.
Her body literally broke down from the
medication, and she started to write her own
will.
Least importantly, but still painful, she lost
the conditioning and skills that made her such a
threat on the court
And somehow, through tears, undying love
and support from family, teammates and
friends, and an extreme courage to not only sur
vive, but to bring humor and warmth to every
one around her, Cleveland finds herself running
Please see CLEVELAND on 9
I
Game against Colorado
could make or break NU
BY BRIAN CHRISTOPHERSON
Nebraska senior center
Kimani Ffriend wants to make
sure that everyone within earshot
knows exactly how important
Saturday’s home game against
Colorado is to NU’s season.
“This is a very, very - let me
stress this - very important game,”
Ffriend said after Thursday's prac
tice. “To protect the home court
and win this one against Colorado
puts us in a position to do some
things.”
Nebraska has a bounce in its
step right now, fresh off a 63-61
road victory over Kansas State that
raised Nebraska’s record to 10-10,
3-4 in the Big 12.
Colorado is ih the opposite
position, coming off a homejoss
to Iowa State on Wednesday that
dropped the Buffaloes' record to
13-8,3-5.
CU's mediocre conference
record makes no matter to
Nebraska.
“Every night you come out,
you got to be ready to play,”
Nebraska senior forward Steffon
Bradford said. “We got to look at
every team as a Kansas or a big
rivalry."
ON File Photo
Kimani Ffriend says that a win against
Colorado is essential for the Huskers'
postseason hopes.
Colorado does possess some
weapons, led by junior forward
D.J. Harrison and senior forward
Jamahl Mosley, who are averaging
17.1 and 13.0 points per game,
respectively.
“They’re athletic, with good
Please see BUFFS on 9