SportsMonday
BY SAMUEL MCKEWON
The Nebraska baseball team played
comeback kid twice in its weekend series
with Texas Tech. In the process, NU pulled
off a feat that no team had in 11 years.
With 8-7 and 10-8 come-from-behind
victories on Saturday and Sunday, cou
pled with a Shane Komine-led 3-2 win on
Friday. NU became the first team to sweep
Tech in a three-game series at home since
1990. With the sweep, the No. 12
Comhuskers moved to 9-3, and may make
a return trip to the top 10 on Monday.
On Sunday, things looked bleak for
Nebraska until a five-run eighth inning
erased a 7-4 deficit.
After the Huskers loaded the bases
with one out. shortstop Brendan Evmann
singled to right field to score one run and
load the bases again, which set up Matt
Hopper to knock in two runs with a single
of his own. Willie Jones got an RBI with a
sacrifice fly to right field; Jeff Blevins
scored with another single to right.
MJ got an insurance run in the ninth
to pad the lead to 10-7. Tech rallied in the
bottom half of the last inning, scoring one
and putting runners at second and third
with one out.
But Thom Ott closed out the win by
coaxing the next two Tech hitters into a fly
hall out and a groundout, and the sweep
was secure.
It nearly never got off the ground. On
Friday. Komine, who moved to 3-1 for the
season, battled Tech threats (the Red
Raiders stranded 10 runners on base)
while he struck out ten batters. Komine
ended the game on a strikeout with two
runners on in the bottom of the ninth.
Matt Hopper, who extended his hit
ting streak to 12 games this season, pro
vided much of the punch with a two-run
double in the first inning.
Said Nebraska Coach Dave Van Horn
on that performance: “Our guv s came out
of the gate strong, swinging that bat right
“This was a big win for us
to come in here and take
the first two games of the
series. ”
Dave Van Horn
NU baseball coach
away. Tech played great defense today and
held us after the first inning, making some
good plays in the field. Tech is a hard place
to play, and we were able to win here."
Saturday, first baseman Dan Johnson
broke out of what had been an eariy-sea
son slump. After watchingTech intention
ally walk Hopper to get to him in the sev
enth. Johnson hit a 2-1 pitch for a three
run homer, helping erase a 4-2 deficit in
another five-run inning. Nebraska
extended its lead to 8-4, then barely held
offTech in the ninth as Ott got the save.
“Thom Ott came in and did a great job
in a tough situation,” Van Horn said. “TTiis
was a big win for us to come in here and
take the first two games of the series.”
The Huskers will leave for Southern
Utah today to play a doubleheader there
on Tuesday. NU’s home opener is Friday
against Kansas State.
Husker fresh
man Tami Harris
competes in the
vault on Sunday
afternoon dur
ing a dual with
Florida at the
BobDevaney
Sports Center.
The Buskers
defeated the No.
10-ranked
Gators with a
score of
197325.
Scott McGurg/ON
Women's gym
ties school record
■Coach Dan Kendig's sixth
ranked troops takes care of a
determined Florida squad.
BY JASON MERRIHEW_
A top-10 gymnastics team
brought its “A” game to the
Devaney Center and still got sent
home with a “L”
The sixth-ranked Nebraska
womens gymnastic team proved
Sunday why its among the
nation's finest in beating 10th
ranked Florida 197.325 to 196.625.
The 196.625 score wras
Florida’s highest of the season for
the Gators, while the 197.325
score ties the Huskers’ school and
season record.
The 1,262 spectators, who wit
nessed NUs 34lh-straight home
regular season victory at the
Devaney Center, saw two teams
hitting on all cylinders.
“They (UF) are a good team."
Nebraska Coach Dan Kendig said.
“Both teams came out happy with
what has occurred today.”
The re-emergence of redshirt
sophomore Bree Dority
O’Callaghan cheered Nebraska
even more.
The Kearney native, who had
been struggling with a knee injury,
scored a career-high 9.95 on the
uneven bars, tying her with team
mate sophomore Julie Houk for
the event title.
Dority O'Callaghan also tied
fellow Husker Jess Wertz, Florida's
Lindsey Miner and Kara
Waterhouse with a 9.90 first-place
score on the floor exercise.
Freshman Tami Harris turned
in a solid performance on Sunday,
capturing a share of the all
around title with UF’s Hillary
Thompson with a 39.450 score.
Thompson put on a champi
onship-worthy performance on
the balance beam, with a Florida
and Devaney Center record 9.975
in the event
Nebraska freshman Alecia
Ingram, despite being hampered
by a calf injury, helped Nebraska
to victory in the three events she
could compete in.
Ingram tallied a 9.90 on the
v ault to catapult her to victory on
the apparatus. Ingram also placed
second to Thompson on the beam
with a 9.925.
Please see WOMEN on 10
Snyder, Powell win
Big 12 wrestling titles
BY DAVID DIEHL
STILLWATER. Okla. — The
Big 12 Wrestling
Championships on Saturday
gave Nebraska a good glimpse at
the talent of one veteran star
and one star in the making.
Junior Bryan Snyder, the
Cornhuskers’ second-ranked
157-pounder, captured his
third-consecutive Big 12
Conference title, and freshman
Jason Powell, No. 6 at 125
pounds, was crowned confer
ence champ in his first try at the
championships.
Snyder is only the second
NU wrestler ever to win three
consecutive conference cham
pionships, the first being heavy
weight Tolly Thompson (1995
97). No Nebraska wrestler has
ever won four conference tides.
Powell became just the fifth
Husker to win a conference
championship in his freshman
season.
Snyder and Powell were two
of six Cornhuskers who quali
fied for the NCAA champi
onships - along with Todd
Beckerman (2nd at 133), Tony
Denke (3rd at 165) and Ati
Conner (3rd at 174).
Brad Vering also qualified
with a runner-up finish. He
dropped the championship
match 5-3 to archrival Mark
Munoz of Oklahoma, who beat
Vering for the seventh time in 11
tries.
Overall, NU placed fourth,
while host Oklahoma State ran
away with the team dde.
Wrestling just an hour from
his hometown of Midwest City,
Okla., Powell gave his home
state audience quite a perform
ance, dominating both his
matches. Seeded third, Powell
easily handled Oklahoma's top
seeded Matt Ridings 5-1,
notwithstanding three possible
takedowns in the third period
that went uncalled and would
have heavily strengthened
Powell's lead.
Husker Wrestling NCAA Qualifiers
Name
Jason Powell
Todd Beckerman
Bryan Snyder
Tony Denke
Ati Conner
Brad Vering
Class Wt Class
Fr. 125 lbs.
Sr. 133 lbs.
Jr. 157 lbs.
Jr. 165 lbs.
Sr. 174 lbs.
Jr. 197 lbs.
ferry Morgan/DN
“I expected to dominate,”
said Powell, who earlier in the
year suffered problems with his
heart rate during matches and
exhausted easily. He has since
taken medication to counter the
effect.
“Ever since I got on that
medication, I’ve felt great," he
said.
Snyder, the top seed at 157
pounds, posted a 9-5 decision
against Iowa State’s Cole
Sanderson to claim his tide and
keep his record against
Sanderson perfect at 6-0.
Nebraska Coach Mark
Manning said Snyder really
wrestled well considering the
number of times he had faced
Sanderson.
“That’s tough mentally to
focus in on when you’re
wrestling a guy you’ve wrestled
10 or 12 times because he knows
what to focus in on,” Manning
said.
While Snyder was expected
to earn his third straight NCAA
bid, Denke’s victory w'as a little
more out of the blue.
Denke, seeded fourth at 165
pounds, suffered a semifinal
loss to eventual champion Joe
Heskett of Iow^State that put
him in the third-place match
with Oklahoma State’s Chris
Pendelton. Pendelton forfeited
the match due to a left knee
injury that OSU doctors said
could have ranged from a sec
ond-degree sprain to a torn
anterior cruciate ligament.
Denke said he was upset he
Please see CHAMPS on 10
Huskers scare
ISU in finale
BY JOSHUA CAMENZIND
AMES, Iowa - Not many teams come into
Iowa State's Hilton Coliseum and get a win.
Now, take into account that Nebraska was
trying to upset the No. 8 Cyclones on Saturday
when ISU’s second-straight Big 12 regular sea
son title was on the line. The Huskers were with
out starting center and second-leading scorer
Kimani Ffriend, who went down with a knee
injury during Friday’s practice in Ames.
It was Senior Day, and Iowa State hadn’t
been beaten on this floor for 35-straight games.
NU had all the cards stacked against it and,
predictably, went down, 86-73, to the 25-4
Cyclones.
But nobody expected the Huskers to put up
this much of a fight.
“YVe gave ourselves a chance to win, but we
couldn’t come up with the stops,” said senior
guard Cookie Belcher, who led NU in scoring
with 25 points.
This game was much closer than the final
score would indicate - with 3:25 left in the sec
ond half, after a Belcher jumper, Nebraska was
only down three points.
NU had jumped out of the gates early on ISU
and built leads of 20-10 and 30-20 in the first
half.
The Huskers would go into the locker room
up 38-34 as a capacity crowd of 14,092 grew
increasingly nervous that the Cyclones’ home
winning streak was in jeopardy.
But ISU didn’t panic then, and it didn’t as the
game wound down, either.
“I didn’t see any panic,” said Kevin
Augustine, who added 16 points off the bench
for NU. "They are a veteran ball club, and those
guys are very confident, which they should be.”
Maybe there was no sense of urgency
because ISU had Jamaal Tinsley. Tinsley calmly
drove down after Belcher’s bucket brought NU
to within three and hit a 3-pointer to give Iowa
State a 75-69 lead.
On NU’s next possession, Belcher was called
for a shot-clock violation, and Tinsley wrapped
up the wan and, most likely league MVP honors,
with four straight points to put ISU up 79-69
with 1:30 left.
Tinsley, in front of about a dozen family and
friends who drove to Ames from New York to see
him play his final home game, ended the game
with a career-high 29 points - 23 of which came
after halftime.
Please see MENS on 11
David Clasen/DN
Iowa State celebrates after winning the Big 12 regular season title on Saturday at Hilton Coliseum.The
Cyclones had to beat Nebraska in order to be the sole regular season champion.
Ffriend's NU career up in air
■ $■ MCL sprain may mean no Big
12 Tournament for senior center Kimani
Ffriend.
BY BRIAN CHRISTOPHERSON
In his rvvo-year Nebraska career, sen
ior center Kimani Ffriend has high
jumped chairs, tight-roped press rows,
fallen into fan’s laps and run into a few
cameras. Somehow, he had survived
every collision with nary a scratch.
But sometimes, as Ffriend found out
last Friday, it’s those fluke plays that can
take you out of the lineup, or even end
your college career.
It was only two minutes into last
Friday’s practice at the Hilton Coliseum
in Ames, Iowa when junior guard Kevin
Augustine accidentally fell into the knee
of Ffriend.
"I heard a popping sound, and I knew
something w^as wrong," said Ffriend as he
stood outside the Nebraska locker room
on crutches after watching the 86-73 loss
to Iowa State from the bench on Saturday.
"It really is unfortunate.”
Very unfortunate for Nebraska. Upon
examination, Nebraska basketball trainer
Mike Gooding said the injury turned out
to be a sprain of the medial collateral lig
ament (MCL) in Ffriend’s right knee.
On Saturday. Ffrtend suspected the
injury would take at least three weeks to
heal, removing him from this week’s Big
12 tournament in Kansas City. NU takes
on Kansas State in the first round on
Thursday.
On Sunday afternoon, Ffriend said he
was more “optimistic,” not wanting to
specify that he could return for the tour
nament, but not ruling out a return,
either. Gooding said it would be day-to
day on Ffriend's prognosis, stating it was,
never said that Ffriend’s season was oVej[J
“I need to put in a lot of work,” Ffriend
said of his rehabilitation. “But things are
better then I initially thought.”
Whether Ffriend is able to make a
miraculous recovery or not, his team
mates said they needed to go into the Big
12 tournament with a confident attitude.
“Everyone feels for Kimani a great
deal,” Augustine said, "but at the same
time, we got to expect to play without
him. If we have that type of thought
process, everyone will be ready to play
that much more.”
Nebraska senior guard Cookie
Belcher said NU landed some much
needed confidence with its performance
against ISU, a game which they led at
Please see FFRIEND on 11