Four Prep Standouts to Join Nebraska Golf Program

Lincoln -- Nebraska men’s golf Coach Bill Spangler has signed four golfers to National Letters-of-Intent to join the Husker program, beginning with the 2004-05 season. The class includes Nebraska’s top junior player in 2003, high school standouts from Colorado and South Dakota and one of the top young players in Canada.

Chris Bruening has been one of the top junior players in Nebraska for the past several years at Norfolk High School. He was recently named the 2003 Nebraska Junior Amateur Golfer of the Year by the Nebraska Golf Association. This summer, Bruening captured the Nebraska Optimist Junior Classic and finished in a tie for second at the Nebraska Independent Insurance Youth Classic. He reached the semifinals in the Nebraska Match Play Championship, losing to eventual champion and former Husker Ryan Nietfeldt, and finished 12th in the Nebraska Amateur Championship. Bruening won the Class A state championship as a sophomore in 2002 and helped Norfolk to a second-place team finish in 2003.

Tyler Bishop is coming off a dominant high school season this fall at Skyline High School in Longmont, Colo. Bishop won five high school tournaments this fall and is the third-ranked junior in the state of Colorado. Bishop was also the Colorado Junior State Match Play runner-up in 2003, losing in the finals to Tom Glissmeyer, who qualified for the 2003 U.S. Open.

Geoff Mead will join the Husker program from Rapid City (S.D.) Stevens High School. Mead captured the Class "AA" South Dakota state championship last spring and was the runner-up at the 2003 American Junior Golf Association’s Colorado Junior Roundup this summer in Pueblo, Colo. Mead is regarded as one of the top 60 junior players in the country.

Brooks Blackmer is the final member of Nebraska’s fall signees and comes to the Husker program from Magrath, Alberta, Canada. Blackmer captured the Alberta high school championship for Magrath High School. He was also the Alberta Junior Champion and a member of Alberta’s victorious National Junior America’s Cup team and was the first alternate on the Canadian World Junior Team.

Spangler is in his third season as Nebraska’s head coach and said this class will give the program its best depth of talent in recent years.

"I think all four can come in right away and have a chance to play and contribute to our program," Spangler said. "The depth they will add to our team will make everyone better through competition for positions in our lineup."

The addition of four freshmen for the 2004-05 season will add to a Husker program that already has a strong nucleus of young players. During the fall season, Nebraska’s lineup included a pair of seniors, along with sophomore Judd Cornell, redshirt freshman Drew Reynolds and true freshman Brady Schnell.

---Huskers---