Nebraska Welcomes Air Force, Oklahoma

This Friday, March 12 at 7 p.m., the Nebraska men’s gymnastics team welcomes No. 16 Air Force and No. 2 Oklahoma to the indoor track facilities at the Devaney Sports Center in Lincoln for NU’s final home meet of the season.  The meet has been moved onto the indoor track due to scheduling conflicts with the high school boy’s state basketball tournament, which is also being held at the Devaney Center.

This is Nebraska’s final regular season meet before heading off to the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Championships in Stanford Calif. next weekend and then on to nationals in April.

After falling to Minnesota last weekend, the Huskers look forward to a strong competition against Air Force and Oklahoma.  The return of junior all-arounder Mace Patterson, who has been nursing a bruised heel, will no doubt be of great importance to Nebraska’s success against these two highly talented teams.  Despite being taken out of the all-around rotation for the Minnesota dual, Patterson remained one of the top-ten ranked all-arounders in the nation, falling from third to sixth (53.667).

As always, NU will be led by senior Josh Rasile who has virtually dominated both the still rings and vault competitions in every meet this season, gaining seven total event titles between the two events.  Currently, Rasile is ranked fifth (9.583) and fourth (9.442) this week respectively in these two events, respectively, and has consistently remained at these positions for virtually the entire 2004 season.  At the NCAA’s in April, the Huskers will rely on Rasile as their foremost national champion hopeful in both events.

As a team, Nebraska is working toward improving their high bar, pommel, and parallel bar routines.  These three events have proved to be a constant detriment in their overall team score and a poor showing in any one could cost the Huskers the win.

Scouting Air Force

16th-ranked Air Force enters this weekend’s meet with a 1-8 record for the 2004 season.  The Falcons met up with Nebraska at the beginning of this season when they hosted the Rocky Mountain Open and since then they have faced opponents such as second-ranked Oklahoma and third-ranked California.

Senior Jeffrey Andersen and sophomore Gregory Stine lead the Falcons in the all-around with season high scores of 53.35 and 53.475, respectively.  Andersen, a co-captain out of Marietta, Ga. had tremendous success during 2003, landing USGA All-American honors in the rings, all-around, vault, and parallel bars and a 13th place finish in the all-around at the NCAA Championships. 

Stine, Air Force’s leading individual event winner had perhaps his best meet of the season last weekend against Illinois-Chicago where he earned three event titles on  the rings (9.65), parallel bars (8.825), and high bar (8.90) in addition to taking top honors in the all-around with a score of 53.475.

Scouting Oklahoma

The defending national champion Sooners have returned in search of a second consecutive national title in 2004, and have recently elevated themselves to the No. 2 spot in the national ranks.

Last week, the Sooners were honored Inside Gymnastics Magazine as their Team-of-the-Week.  Normally, the publication choses just one gymnast for this honor, but for the first time in history, they instead gave the award to the entire Oklahoma team.  This award comes following a record-breaking performance against then top-ranked Illinois, where the Sooners bested their own NCAA scoring record with a score of 225.20 and a meet win.

Currently, Oklahoma boasts a winning streak of 50 straight victories and a major portion of this success in 2004 can be attributed to senior co-captain, Heath Mueller. Mueller, Oklahoma’s top all-rounder is currently ranked seventh, just one spot behind Nebraska all-arounder Mace Patterson in the national polls.

Nebraska Falls To Minnesota

Minneapolis, Minn. ? After a meet-long struggle for the top spot, the University of Nebraska men’s gymnastics team fell to Minnesota, 211.45-212.725, March 6 at the Sports Pavillion in Minneapolis, Minn.

Although the Huskers changed leads with Minnesota several times throughout the course of the competition, they were able to get out in front of the Gophers, 177.325-177.30, heading into the final event of the afternoon. However, Nebraska was not able to piece together a sturdy enough parallel bars routine to hold on for the win.

The NU gymnasts earned just one individual event title in the competition, which came from senior Josh Rasile with a 9.525 on the still rings. This is Rasile’s seventh title this season and his fourth on the rings.

Nebraska sophomore Nic Matthews earned three personal bests against the Gophers en route to his one of his best performances of the season. Matthews scored an 8.4 during the Husker’s opening pommel horse routine, which improved his previous best of 8.2 from earlier this season against Ohio State. On the floor, Matthews put together several strong tumbling sequences for a score of 9.1; the highest of any NU gymnast at the competition and a second-place finish in that event. This shatters his previous best of 8.95, which he earned at the beginning of the 2003 season at the MPSF team competition. He also tied his career high on the horizontal bar with a score of 8.7. Finally, Matthews combined for his best all-around score of his career with a 51.2 and a third-place overall finish.

“Matthews did a real good job for us this weekend,” head coach Francis Allen said. “If we just could have had everybody at the same level that he was today we would have won. We just really need to be on the same page.”

Junior Mace Patterson, usually Nebraska’s top all-arounder, was removed from the event for this competition due to a bruised heel, which Allen felt needed the week to rest.

“We took Mace out of all-around because of his heel and it was really more of resting thing than anything,” Allen said. “The thing to remember is that it really didn’t hurt us that much to compete in some of the events without him. We just couldn’t rally.”

As a team, Nebraska sported their best event score for the dual with an impressive vault routine (36.875). Junior Tony Burtle led this effort with a 9.35 and a tie for the second-place position, followed closely by Rasile who finished third (9.325). Sophomore Derric Wood boasted a seasonal-high score of 9.15 just behind his career best of 9.2, which he earned against the Gophers in 2003.

Husker History

vs Air Force

Nebraska did not first meet up with Air Force until 2000 and since that time has won all  five dual..  The last time the Huskers faced the Falcons was in 2003 where they put up a score of 213.575 to Air Force’s 201.4 for the win.  During this meet, Nebraska earned their season-high vault score of 37.375.

vs Oklahoma

The last time the Huskers beat the Sooners was in 1999, 227.075-224.175.  This was also the last time that Nebraska finished the season with a winning record.

Earlier this season, the Huskers traveled to OU for  the Oklahoma Quadrangle, an event where the Sooners topped Nebraska, 221.475-213.875.  Senior Josh Rasile earned NU’s sole event title on the rings with a score of 9.60.

Air Force, Oklahoma Meet Held At Devaney Indoor Track

Due to scheduling conflicts with the Nebraska high school boy’s state basketball tournament this weekend at the Devaney Sports Center, the NU men’s gymnastics meet will be held at the Devaney indoor track.  All regular media and public operations will follow usual procedures with the only difference being the location of the meet itself.

The indoor track can best be accessed through the north entrance of the Devaney Center.  If there are any further questions, please contact Kelli Kremlacek at the Sports Information Office at (402)-472-2263.

Career Bests Abundant Throughout NU Roster

The 2004 season has been one marked by both personal and team accomplishment for the Huskers.  Every currently competing Nebraska gymnast has set at least one and as many as six career marks this season, and several have improved those scores multiple times.  Collectively, NU currently sports 31 career-high scores for 2004.

Most recently, Nebraska sophomore Nic Matthews and freshman Jason Wassung broke into the personal bests column against Minnesota, Matthews with three (floor exercise, pommel horse, and all around); Wassung with one on the floor.

As a team, the Huskers saw their best team score in four years earlier this season as they upset Ohio State, 214.925-213.475.

Did You Know

Every member of Nebraska’s current coaching staff competed as an NU gymnast sometime throughout the programs history. 

Head coach Francis Allen and assistant coach Jim Howard co-captained the 1965 squad and later went on to coach all of Nebraska’s current national championship teams.  The first three of these came in 1979, 1980, and 1981, three of the four years that Nebraska’s other assistant coach, Chuck Chmelka competed for the Huskers.