Porter leads NU's struggling team
POKTOfrompagelO
ter as NU finished dead last in the Big 12 by
15 strokes. The team’s highest tournament
finish was seventh.
Porter had an up-and-down year himself
- tagged by Romjue as a golfer capable of
making noise on a national level, he looked
as if he would live up to that claim by finish
ing second at the Missouri Bluffs
Invitational. He then stumbled toward the
end of the season finishing tied for 54th at
die Big 12 tournament
Because of his individual struggles and
team’s lackluster showings, the enjoyment
Porter had experienced throughout all his
successes wasn't there anymore.
"It is not nearly as fun as when we had a
chance to win,’’he said.
Last year's struggles have carried over to
this year. With 11 sophomores on the team
this year, NU is still trying to gain experience.
There’s no such luxury for Porter - he said he
needed to put more emphasis on his individ
ualgame.
“The future is now for Seth,” Coach Larry
Romjue said. “He has the capability to be a
little more selfish.”
Success has been hard to find for the
team this season, but Porter has had several
small victories. He has finished in the top 10
three times this year and leads the team in
scoring average.
Though Porter said the team’s youngsters
have worked hard, he said it had been diffi
cult to continue to push himself in the face of
team struggles.
“I can never practice enough,” he said.
Romjue said it was important for Porter
to set an example for the younger players
because of the position he was in.
With two years under his belt and his
experience at the NCAA Championship in
1998, Porter has become a leader.
“Seth is kind of like the unofficial captain
of the team,” Romjue said.
However, Porter said he didn't dunk he fit
into the mold of a leader because of the indi
vidualismofthegame. But he said he did talk
to die coaches and gave his input on various
issues.
These past two years won’t be the only
rough times for Porter, as he expects low
points in the future as he tries to make it pro
fessionally.
While he would like to play at the highest
level, Porter said realistically he would have
to hone his skills on a regional tour or anoth
er mini-tour.
“My ultimate goal is to play professional
ly,” he said, “but it isn’t like I will go out and
play with Tiger Woods right away.*
But he said he was far from where he
needed to be to compete at the top level.
"I still have to work on my short game
and become a lot more effective within 100
yards.*
Porter said he wasn’t giving himself a
deadline to make it to the PGA tour. If he did
n’t make it, Porter said he would be disap
pointed because he had “wasted a lot of time
playing golf*
Husker men's golf
in sixth at invite
FROM STAFF REPORTS
The Nebraska men's golf
team received strong contribu
tions from two golfers despite
windy conditions to finish in
sixth place after the first day of
the Colorado-Stevinson Ranch
Invite held in Stevinson, Calif.
Sophomore Jim Troy shot a
36-hole total of 148 and is tied for
fifth place. Junior Seth Porter
fired rounds of 73 and 78 to sit in
11th place, three strokes behind
Hoy
Pacific’s Jason Higton leads all
golfers with a three-under-par
score of 141 on die par-72 course.
NU is tied with Southwest
Missouri State with team scores
of 617. The Cornhuskers trail
fifth-place California by 12
strokes. Kansas and Tulsa lead
the 14-team invitational With a
two-round score of597.
Not all the Husker golfers
could match the performance
level of Troy and Porter.
Sophomore Ryan Cooley ended
the day with a total of 158 and
tied for 41st. Sophomore Rob
Arthur had a 160 and sophomore
Blake Humbles shot a 164 to sit in
47nd and 62nd respectively, to
round out the Huskers.
Sophomore Marty Smith,
who is competing as an individ
ual, shot a 172 and is in 72nd
place.
The 54-hole tournament will
conclude today with the final 18
holes beginning at 8 am.
I
Sides at odds over sport cut
SWMMIIW from page 10
violations committed by the
former men’s swimming team,
Byrne was sure of what would
happened if the program was
still alive at Nebraska.
Byrne said NU would have
faced reduced scholarships
and fewer recruiting visits on
the men’s side.
He said the steepest penal
ties could mean being barred
from post-season participa
tion in the championships.
Bryne said it was likely the
women’s team could face
these same penalties.
While the decision came
down to budgetary and disci
plinary concerns for Byrne,
the end of the men’s program
was personal to its current
members.
The swimmers must now
either give up the sport or
transfer to one of a dwindling
number of schools that offer
swimming. The predicament
left many team members visi
bly angry - one swimmer in
attendance wore a homemade
t-shirt that read, “I’ve been
downsized by Bill Byrne.”
The swimmers said the
athletic director had ear
marked the sport for possible
elimination long ago without
caring about their individual
fates.
"(Byrne’s) out to make
himself - his budget - look
good, and it's at the expense of
myself and the other swim
mers," freshman Barrett
Brandon said. "To him,
Nebraska athletics are a busi
ness - (the cuts) help him to
give more money to sports he
likes. It's just too bad for our
student-athletes.”
Byrne and Perlman met
with the men’s and women’s
swimming teams privately in
the Devaney Center before the
meeting. The private
encounter, which was often
heated according to Brandon,
lasted about 90 minutes.
The swimmers wanted to
This whole process has been very disturbing to
us. It has been poorly handled by the
administration and basically turned into a
horrible experience for all of the swimmers.”
Barrett Brandon
NU freshman swimmer
know why they weren’t noti
fied until this weekend that
the program was being axed,
Brandon said.
Many swimmers will have
trouble transferring because
of the lateness of the decision,
and for some schools, the
transfer deadline is Friday,
Brandon said.
“This whole process has
been very disturbing to us,”
said the freshman swimmer,
who may transfer to Texas
A&M. “It has been poorly han
dled by the administration
and basically turned into a
horrible experience for all of
the swimmers.”
Despite probable NCAA
sanctions of its own, the
women’s swimming program
seems safe.
Byrne said the women’s
program couldn’t be cut
because of Title IX concerns.
The Athletic Department is
already lagging in the propor
tionality aspect of the legisla
tion designed to provide equal
athletic opportunities to
women - while 47 percent of
the school’s students are
women, only 37 percent of its
scholarship athletes are
female.
To avoid a lawsuit from the
United States Office of Civil
Rights, Byrne said the school
must show a commitment to
offer increased opportunities
for female athletes. This
means adding women’s sports,
not cutting them.
While the women’s team is
alive, both sides seemed to
agree it’s future prospects
aren’t rosy. Byrne said he
expected some of the women
I
swimmers to transfer, while
Brandon expected most of the
top Husker women to leave.
In addition, the Devaney
Center pool, which will still be
home to the women’s team, is
a quickly aging facility, Byrne
said. Plans to build a new pool
“are in the very distant future,”
he said.
The women’s team is also
without a coach for the time
being. Byrne said the Athletic
Department would conduct a
search for a new coach. He
said former volunteer assis
tant and Interim Coach Paul
Nelsen, who was given the
coaching job in September
after the Bentz and his top
assistants were suspended,
will be invited to apply but
wouldn’t be guaranteed the
job.
Although some parents
and swimmers are planning a
last-ditch effort to raise
money to save the team,
Perlman said that wasn’t likely.
”Bill and I will meet with
them and listen to proposals
that they might have, but we
can’t minimize the problem,”
he said. ”(The donation)
would have to be a substantial
contribution and one that
would be sustainable over
time.... It would require an
endowment of about $10 mil
lion.”
The situation left the men’s
swimming team still searching
for answers, Brandon said,
from Byrne or anyone else.
“I came here because this
was such a strong program,
and that was last year,” die he
said. ”1 really have no idea
what happened.”
Sprinter rakes in gold medals
FROM STAFF REPORTS
Nebraska sprinter Chris
Chandler added one more
award to go with the three gold
medals he won last week.
The senior All-American
was named the Big 12
Conference track athlete of the
week after he earned three event
titles as he helped NU win the
Jim dick Shootout on Saturday.
Chandler won the 100- and
200-meter dashes and was part
of the winning 4x100-meter
relay team during the quadran
gular in lUcson, Ariz.
The Starke, Fla. native’s time
in the 200,20.83, was an NCAA
provisional qualifying mark.
The relay’s time was 39.62, the
second fastest in school history
and also a provisional qualifying
mark. Chandler won the 100
meter dash in a time of 10.35
seconds.
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