Nebraska Set for Scrap with Sooners

The No. 12 <?xml:namespace prefix="st1" ns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags"?>Nebraska men’s gymnastics team returns home this afternoon for the second of three home duals this season as it plays host to the defending national champion Oklahoma Sooners at 2 p.m.  The meet is also the start of conference dual competition for the Huskers, who have not faced a Mountain Pacific Sports Federation opponent head-to-head yet this year.<?xml:namespace prefix="o" ns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office"?>

 

Nebraska, which holds a season dual record of 0-2, has a major task ahead of them in attempting to dethrone an undefeated Sooner squad.  After winning the national team title in 2005, Oklahoma has continued to improve this season and has already notched dual wins over Ohio State, Michigan, Iowa and Cal.  However, the Sooners will be missing an irreplaceable member of their all-around team this Sunday, as sophomore Jonathan Horton takes his leave to compete at the American Cup.

 

But perhaps most important for the Huskers this weekend will be improving their team score.  After marking a solid score of 209.45 on Feb. 12 against Iowa, Nebraska fell off by nearly seven points the following Saturday in Minnesota, managing just a 202.90.  On Sunday, the Huskers will rely heavily on a solid core of seniors who have easily slipped into the leadership role this season.  Senior Tony Burtle leads NU on the floor exercise with an average score of 8.59 and adds depth on vault and high bar with average scores of 8.87 and 8.07, respectively.  Senior Nick Moore has also made his move into the spotlight this season by leading Nebraska’s vaulting lineup with a career-high score of 9.40 and his first-ever event title against Minnesota on Feb. 18.  Moore has also been consistent on the floor exercise where he averages a score of 8.12.  Senior Ray Hacker tops the Husker ringmen with a season average of 8.37 and a high score of 8.85, while senior Nic Matthews has performed well across the board, allowing Nebraska to consistently count his scores on floor exercise, still rings, vault and high bar.

 

But perhaps Nebraska’s fastest emerging senior is Derric Wood, whose work on the floor exercise, parallel bars and high bar have landed him on the podium multiple times this season.  Wood averages a score of 8.31 on high bar this season and owns a career-high of 9.45, which earned him one of two event titles on the apparatus this season.  Wood’s success has not gone unnoticed as he laid claim to MPSF Gymnast of the Week honors following his performance against Iowa on Feb. 12.  The award was the second of his career.      

 

While the NU team has had the week off to concentrate on training, the Sooners competed at the Aquafina Pacific Coast Collegiate Classic in Oakland, Calif. where they finished first of seven teams with a score of 217.30.

 

This is the second time Nebraska and Oklahoma will meet up this season after competing at the Rocky Mountain Open, where Oklahoma finished on top, 208.85-196.10.

 

Sunday’s competition is also a double dual with the Nebraska women who take on IowaState also at 2 p.m.  Live Stats for both meets will be available beginning at 1:45 p.m. on Sunday on Huskers.com.

      

 

Scouting the Sooners: Beating the Undefeated

With six national titles under their belt and an undefeated season in the works, is No. 7 on the way?  For the defending national champion Oklahoma Sooners, the possibility definitely has merit.

 

Head Coach Mark Williams has put together a remarkable group of local and national talent that has undoubtedly made OU the team to beat.  Whether or not that can be done is a source of some debate, as the Sooners have already toppled such top contenders as Ohio State, Cal, Iowa and Michigan.

 

Leading Oklahoma in this effort is sophomore Jonathan Horton.  In just his second season of collegiate competition, Horton is on his way to the history books as a two-time member of the U.S. National Team, an NCAA vaulting champion and a staple in OU’s campaign for back-to-back titles.  However, this weekend Horton will not be a factor as he will instead be competing at the American Cup in Philadelphia.

 

Without Horton, the Sooners still have plenty of ammunition, including NCAA All-Americans Jamie Henderson, James Myers and Taquiy Abdullah-Simmons.  Abdullah-Simmons holds the Oklahoma record on parallel bars with a score of 9.60 and is currently ranked ninth nationally in that event in addition to being ranked fifth in still rings.

 

 

Husker History:  Two Great Traditions

 The historical lineage between Nebraska and Oklahoma, two of the nation’s greatest traditions in men’s gymnastics, is as rich as the programs themselves.  The rivalry started in 1966 with a triangular between the Huskers, Sooners and Air Force that resulted in a Falcon victory, one of just two the Academy has over NU in school history.

 

Over the last 30 years, Nebraska and Oklahoma have remained staples in collegiate competition, reaching a 29-28-1 all-time series record that shifted in favor of the Sooners just last season with a 219.35-216.10 OU win on Feb. 20, 2005 in Lincoln.

 

But the bond between Nebraska and Oklahoma reaches far beyond the columns of wins and losses.  These two respected institutions also share a number of other intrigues.  To begin with, NU and OU face each other more than any other team on either’s schedule.  This season alone, the two programs will compete four times, two of which will be back-to-back duals.

 

The Huskers and Sooners also share recruiting space. In fact, head coaches Francis Allen and Mark Williams often set their sights on the same prospects.  Many of those prospects are drawn from the HoustonNorthGymnasticsSchool in Houston, Texas, where this year alone Williams recruited freshman Chris Brooks, while Allen signed freshman Jacob Ives.  Allen and Williams also focus on the CypressAcademy in Texas, which has yielded current Sooner Jonathan Horton and former Husker Adam Tietze.

 

Another reason for the similar interests is that Allen actually coached Williams.  In fact, Williams spent his collegiate career with the Huskers, where he was a part of the Nebraska national championship teams in 1979 and 1980 along with NU assistant coach Jim Hartung, in addition to being crowned a high bar All-American in 1978.

 

 

Late Bloomers

Several of Nebraska’s seniors have come on strong in their last season with the Huskers.  Notably, Derric Wood, Nick Moore and Ray Hacker have even made the move into new events that they had not competed on in 2005.  After struggling on the event in the past two seasons, Wood has swiftly moved up the high bar roster this year and currently holds a team-high score of 9.45 in addition to two titles in the event.  Wood has also drastically improved his parallel bars routine, going from a season-average score of 8.339 in 2005 to one of 8.545 thus far in 2006.

 

For his part, Moore has also made the move into uncharted territory with a step into the highly competitive NU vaulting lineup.  After not performing a single vault in competition for nearly two years, Moore moved into the event this season and has posted a career-high mark of 9.40 for his first-ever event title against Minnesota on Feb. 18.  In addition, the score is the highest for Nebraska in vaulting this season and moved Moore into the No. 12 spot in the national vaulting ranks this week.

 

Due in part to the NCAA scoring changes; Hacker has quickly become a top ringman for the Huskers.  His current season-average of 8.37 is the highest on the team, in addition to the fact that he holds a team-high mark of 8.85 on the event, which he earned in NU’s last home dual on Feb. 12 against Iowa.

 

 

The Horton Factor

How big a deal is it that sophomore Jonathan Horton will not compete in Sunday’s meet?  According to Oklahoma’s season statistics...pretty big.

 

Of the five Oklahoma meets Horton has competed in this season, he has accounted for 18.86 percent of OU’s scores, or 202 of a total 1,071 points.  That leaves just 79 points a piece for each of the remaining 11 members of the Oklahoma roster to make up this season.

 

On the whole, the Sooners have counted Horton’s scores all but twice all season when he competed and the Texas native has given the Sooners event-high scores a total of11 times in 2006.

 

Even though Horton will undoubtedly be missed this Sunday, the remaining gymnasts that make up the Sooner roster still have the potential for big scores.  Against Air Force, OU still managed a team score of 210.15 despite Horton’s absence.  Two weeks later when the Sooners took on Iowa, Horton competed in just three events and Oklahoma still finished with a 212.00.

 

 

Revamping the Rankings

The recent upheaval in the national rankings, mostly on the individual side, is a direct result of a switch that occurred on Feb. 20.  Prior to that date, the rankings had been based on the average of all scores for a team or individual.  Now until March 6, the rankings will switch to being based on the top three-score average.

 

On March 13, the system will change once again 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.

 

The Huskers are ranked No. 12 as a team under the new system, while individually junior Jason Wassung holds Nebraska’s highest event ranking as the nation’s No. 9 all-arounder.

 

 

Double Dual

Nebraska’s meet against the Sooners this weekend will take place simultaneously with the Husker women’s team who play host to IowaState.  This is the first of two double duals the men’s and women’s teams host in 2006, the second of which will be on March 19, as the men take on Air Force and the women take on Arkansas.  The dual on March 19 will be senior day for both teams.

 

The Nebraska women’s team is 2-2-1 in dual competition this season following wins over Missouri and Oklahoma.  The Huskers also finished second of six at the Super Six Challenge and won their 12th consecutive Masters Classic title at the DevaneyCenter last weekend.

 

 

Tickets Available for NCAA Championships
Norman, Okla. ? Tickets for the 2006 NCAA Men’s Gymnastics Championships (April 6-8), hosted by the University of Oklahoma inside the Lloyd Noble Center, are now available for sale to the public through the OU Athletics Ticket Office and Soonersports.com. Fans can purchase tickets for a single session or a package that includes all four sessions of the championship.  Tickets are $25 for adults and $20 for youth.

The NCAA Championships   kick off on Thursday, April 6, with two qualifying sessions. The first session will begin at 1 p.m. (CST) and session two will start at 7 p.m (CST). The team finals will be held on Friday, April 7, at 7 p.m. (CST) and Saturday’s event finals will get underway at 7 p.m. (CST) as well.
 

Fans interested in purchasing tickets can call the OU Athletics Ticket Office at (405) 325-2424 or (800) 456-4668 or visit www.Soonersports.com.

For more information about the Nebraska men’s gymnastics team throughout the 2006 season including meet previews, results, statistics and individual athlete accomplishments, please visit Huskers.com.

 

 

Nebraska Recognizes 1984 Olympic Greats
In true Olympic spirit, the Nebraska athletic department honored the three Husker members of the 1984 Olympic gold-medal winning men’s gymnastics team during the NU men’s basketball game on Wednesday, Feb. 22 at the BobDevaneySportsCenter.  The ceremony recognized Jim Hartung, Scott Johnson and Jim Mikus for their accomplishments in recently being inducted into the United States Olympic Hall of Fame along with the 1984 U.S. Gold Medal Olympic team. 

 

The three former Huskers joined just 182 other Olympians enshrined in the Hall of Fame, while the 1984 team was just the seventh team in history to be inducted in its entirety.  The team was accompanied in the 2006 induction class by such notable names as 1980 U.S. hockey coach HerbBrooks, women’s gymnast Shannon Miller and figure skating champion Kristi Yamaguchi.  The Hall of Fame induction ceremony was held at the HarrisTheater in Chicago, Ill., on Dec. 8, 2005.

 

While at Nebraska, Hartung, Johnson and Mikus lifted the Huskers to three national team championships (1981, 1982 and 1983) under the direction of head coach Francis Allen, and combined for 10 event titles, with Hartung also being named the 1982 Nissen Award winner.  Hartung and Johnson were selected to compete in two Olympics, Hartung in 1980 and 1984, and Johnson in 1984 and 1988.

 

The trio makes up just a third of the nine former Nebraska men’s gymnasts to achieve Olympic greatness, including Phil Cahoy (1980), Larry Gerard (1980), Wes Suter (1988), Kevin Davis (1988), Tom Schlesinger (1988) and Trent Dimas (1992).  Allen was also selected as the Olympic coach in 1980 and 1992.

 

The other members of the 1984 Olympic team inducted along with Hartung, Johnson and Mikus include gymnastics greats Bart Conner, Tim Daggett, Mitch Gaylord and Peter Vidmar.