Nebraska to Host Falcons in Final Home Dual

The No. 11 Nebraska men’s gymnastics team graces the floor of the <?xml:namespace prefix="st1" ns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags"?>BobDevaneySportsCenter for the last time in 2006 today at 2 p.m. as it hosts the No. 18 Air Force Falcons to close out the regular season.  The meet also features the No. 10 Nebraska women’s team who will host No. 19 Arkansas in simultaneous action.<?xml:namespace prefix="o" ns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office"?>

 

This is the second of a probable three times that the two programs will meet this season, the first of which took place at the Falcon-hosted Rocky Mountain Open on Jan. 14, where Nebraska finished second (196.10) and Air Force finished fifth (170.05).  The Huskers and the Falcons are certain to match up once more yet this season at the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Championships hosted by Air Force in Colorado Springs, Colo., next Saturday, March 25.

 

As this is the final opportunity for Nebraska to improve in the national rankings, the Huskers are aiming for a season-high score against the Falcons to assure a spot at the 2006 NCAA Championships in Norman, Okla., in April.  That means that NU will need to generate a team score above its current high of 209.45, which it earned at the DevaneyCenter on Feb. 12 against Iowa.  Nebraska’s chances for doing just that are as solid as they have been all season, as its top two team scores of the year have both taken place in Lincoln.  NU’s ultimate goal is to regain a spot in the nation’s top 10 after falling from ninth to 11th in the GymInfo polls this past week.   

 

In addition to their team score, the Huskers are also concentrating on notching their first dual win of the season.  Nebraska, which is currently 1-7 in the MPSF, also hopes to strike another conference victory before taking on the MPSF Championships next weekend.

 

 

Huskers to Honor Seniors during March-In

As this Sunday’s competition is the final regular-season home meet for the Huskers, Nebraska will honor those Husker gymnasts who complete their eligibility following the 2006 season.  As opposed to previous seasons that saw a ceremony following competition, this season the senior gymnasts will be honored during the initial march-in.  Included in this group are Nebraska natives Tony Burtle, Nic Matthews and Derric Wood, in addition to Ray Hacker and Nick Moore.

 

A fifth-year senior, Burtle opted for a medical redshirt in 2005 in order to undergo shoulder surgery with the hopes of a stronger senior season in 2006.  The Grand Island native came to Nebraska in January of 2002 as part of the floor, vault and high bar rosters, three events Burtle still dominates to this day.  Over the last five seasons, Burtle has achieved tremendous success as a skilled acrobat and tumbler, including career-high scores of 9.05 on the floor, 9.525 on vault and 9.10 on the high bar.  Burtle has also been named to the Big 12 Commissioner’s Fall Honor Roll on two occasions in 2003 and 2005.  Burtle is the son of Dick and Darline Burtle of Grand Island.

 

A product of the Nebraska School of Gymnastics, Matthews has stuck with NU assistant coach Chuck Chmelka throughout his career and into the collegiate ranks.  Matthews came to Nebraska for the 2003 season and since then has competed at three consecutive NCAA Championships and advanced to the event finals at the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation event finals twice.  In his senior season, Matthews is competing in the floor exercise, still rings, vault and high bar for Nebraska.  Matthews is the son of John and Diana Matthews of Lincoln.

 

Also a product of NSG, Wood has had probably one of the most tumultuous gymnastics careers in Nebraska history.  After making a huge splash as a nationally ranked all-arounder in his freshman campaign, Wood spent the next two years overcoming illness and injury.  Now a senior, Wood has made a remarkable comeback that includes a team-high four event titles and team-high marks on the pommel horse (9.05) and high bar (9.45).  Wood was also named the MPSF Gymnast of the Week on Feb. 14.  He is the son of Dave and Lisa Wood of Lincoln.

 

Moore, a native of Indianapolis, Ind., has made perhaps his greatest strides during his senior season.  After competing in just a handful of meets in his freshman and sophomore seasons, Moore competed solely on the pommel horse in 2005.  This year, Moore has added the floor exercise and vault to his repertoire and with unmitigated success.  In fact, he holds a team-high mark of 9.45 on the vault and has earned the first event titles of his career in the event.  Moore also broke into the national vaulting ranks this season, where he is currently ranked 10th.  Moore is the son of Kevin and Melissa Moore of Indianapolis, Ind.

 

Hacker came to Nebraska from Fairfax, Va., in 2003 and since that time has competed differently each season, from gracing just the pommel horse and rings rosters to the all-around on a few occasions.  Now a senior, Hacker competes on the pommel horse, rings and high bar, but has mostly found his niche as a ringman.  He holds a team- and career-high mark of 8.95 on the event.  Hacker is the son of Dan and Mary Hacker of Fairfax, Va.  

 

 

Huskers Fall to 11th

After earning its highest team ranking of the season in ninth last week, Nebraska fell to 11th overall in the GymInfo poll due mostly to the reassessment of the polling system that took place on March 13.

 

The Huskers are now ranked based on a three-score average that discards the team’s highest score and counts a maximum of two home scores.  Although the new system dropped NU back a few spots, this weekend’s meet with Air Force could easily help the Husker regain status as they have consistently posted their highest scores at home this season.

 

Despite the reduced team standing, several Huskers improved in the individual rankings this week. Sophomore Stephen T?trault moved from 12th to 10th on the pommel horse and from 14th to 11th in the all-around. 

 

Meanwhile, after making his collegiate debut on the GymInfo rankings last week, freshman T.J. Schmidt made the leap from 19th to 14th on the parallel bars.  Schmidt’s climbing status is due to the fact that the Blair, Neb., native has posted increasingly strong scores on the parallel bars including a career-high of 9.10 against Oklahoma and Stanford on March 11 for second-place in the event.

  

 

Scouting the Falcons:  Simons Struggles Getting Falcons to Soar

The Air Force Falcons began the 2006 season under new head coach Kipp Simons after the retirement of long-time coach Lou Burkel.

 

A former Olympian and assistant coach at Cal, Simons’ first head coaching experience has been a challenging one.  The Falcons have yet to win a dual match, averaging a team score of just 177 and own a season-high of 183.9.

 

Air Force’s top competitor is senior Brian Moore, who is just one of two all-arounders for the Falcons.  Moore has mounted a season-high all-around score of 45.10 and has seen his highest event scores on the vault (8.45) and parallel bars (8.30).

 

Overall, the vault is Air Force’s most successful event with all six competitors averaging score in the mid eights.  As a team, the Falcons are ranked 17th in vault with a three-score average of 33.717.

 

 

Husker History vs. Air Force: 30 Years of Husker Dominance

Nebraska leads the over 30 year dual history with the Falcons, 11-2 including a win to end the season in 2005, 215.45-195.35.

 

In fact, 2006 marks the third consecutive season that the Huskers capped the regular-season by playing host to Air Force at the DevaneyCenter and each time NU has won.  Not only that, but the Huskers have consistently posted some of their best scores against the Falcons at the end of the season including a season-high score of 218.525 against Air Force in 2004.

 

This weekend’s dual is the second meeting between Nebraska and Air Force as the two programs met at the Falcon-hostedRockyMountain Open to kick off the season on Jan. 14.  Nebraska finished second (196.10) at the competition, while Air Force finished fifth with a score of 170.05.

 

 

Last Time Out

The ninth-ranked Nebraska men’s gymnastics team finished third (201.10) behind No. 1 Oklahoma (217.80) and No. 2 Stanford (216.9) in a triangular meet at the Lloyd Noble Center in Norman, Okla., on Saturday, March 11.  With the loss, the Huskers fell to 6-8 overall on the season.

 

Nebraska began the meet on the still rings for the first time this season where it was led by senior
Ray Hacker’s score of 8.60 to a team score of 33.60.

 

The Huskers perked up the pommel horse, with three gymnasts setting season-high scores, beginning with senior Derric Wood’s team best score of 9.05 for second place, followed by sophomore Stephen T?trault with a mark of 8.90 for third and Hacker’s score of 8.10.

 

However, NU was plagued by missteps in the floor exercise as only senior Nic Matthews (8.25) and T?trault (8.05) managed scores above 8.0.  Junior Jason Wassung, usually a staple in the event as an all-around, did not compete on the floor in Oklahoma.  Wassung would also not compete in the vault for Nebraska.

 

Unfortunately, problems would persist for Nebraska on the high bar, as three of NU’s six-man lineup suffered falls.  But as has become the norm this season, Nebraska’s Wood stepped up to cap off the rotation with a typically solid performance for a score of 8.85.  Senior Tony Burtle also mounted a near-flawless routine, however receiving only a 7.75 for his efforts. 

Nebraska took its frustration with a couple of rough rotations and used it as fuel for the vault beginning with a strong score of 8.90 from freshman Jacob Ives.  Senior Nic Matthews followed and stuck his vault for a season-high score of 9.25 to tie for second in the event with Stanford’s Dylan Carney.  Senior Nick Moore also continued the pace he has set in the event over the last few weeks with a strong score of 9.05.

 

The Huskers ended the evening on the parallel bars where freshman T.J. Schmidt notched a career and team-high score of 9.10 for second on the event.  Wood followed to finish the meet for Nebraska with a score of 8.85.

 

 

All Alone in the All-Around

Sophomore Stephen T?trault will compete as Nebraska’s lone all-arounder for the second consecutive week this Sunday as junior Jason Wassung will withdraw from two events.

 

Against Oklahoma and Stanford on March 11, Wassung was taken out of the floor exercise and vault lineups, two events that require hard landings, to prevent further aggravation to an injury.  This Sunday against Air Force, fans are likely to see a similar makeup as the Lincoln native is once again unlikely to compete on the floor or vault.

 

One main reason for this decision is so Wassung can regain full strength before the oncoming postseason, which begins on March 25 with the MPSF Championships.  As the nation’s No. 8 all-arounder, Wassung stands to gain national honors in the postseason.  Pushing competition before that time could hinder those chances by furthering the injury.

 

As a team, Nebraska has a large hole to fill in both events as Wassung’s scores have consistently counted for the Huskers throughout the season.  On the floor, freshman T.J. Schmidt is the most likely candidate for the open spot.  Although the floor is not Schmidt’s strongest event, he has been making improvements across the board this season and could easily carry that success over to yet another event.

 

On the vault NU has chosen to simply not replace Wassung, but to compete a five-man lineup.  What this means is that Nebraska can miss only a single routine or it will have to count a low score in the four-score total.  However, as usual the vault has been a bright spot in the NU offense and thus should not suffer greatly because of the loss.

 

 

Revamping the Rankings

As of March 13, the GymInfo national rankings system changed once again on to a modified three-score average.  This means that of the four highest scores, counting no more than two home meets, the highest will be dropped and the three remaining will be calculated to figure the new median score.

 

For Nebraska, this means that its home score of 208.65 against Oklahoma on March 5 is combined with its scores of 204.15 against Minnesota on Feb. 18 and 201.10 against Oklahoma and Stanford on March 11 figure into its average of 204.217.  However, the Huskers have only used one home score and so they will likely utilize the team score from this Sunday’s meet with Air Force in their final median team score.

 

Individually junior Jason Wassung, senior Nick Moore and sophomore Stephen T?trault hold Nebraska’s highest individual rankings with Wassung eighth in the all-around, Moore tied for 10th in vault and T?trault 10th in pommel horse.

 

 

Conference Clash

Since its inception in 1994, the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation has posted a competitive presence against the well-established Big Ten.  In fact, in the last 11 years, MPSF teams have taken seven NCAA team titles and six runner-up finishes despite owning half as many programs as the Big Ten. 

 

However, over the last seven seasons, only Oklahoma has finished No. 1 or No. 2 in the nation.  Otherwise, the Big Ten’s PennState and OhioState have made national names for themselves as the teams to beat.

 

But with the release of the March 13 GymInfo poll, it is obvious that maybe 2006 is a different year for the MPSF.  With Oklahoma holding steady at No. 1, Stanford chasing at No. 2, Cal at No. 5 and Nebraska making occasional appearances into the top-10, it would seem that perhaps the tables have turned.  Already three of the top five teams in the nation are MPSF programs, including the top two squads.

 

Additionally, individual MPSF gymnasts hold top seeds in four of the seven events, while another three are runners-up.  Oklahoma boasts the most top spots with sophomore Jonathan Horton on still rings and all-around, followed by Cal’s Tim McNeill on the pommel horse and Stanford’s Dylan Carney on the high bar.