NU Hits the Road to Open Season

<?xml:namespace prefix="st1" ns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags"?>Nebraska (0-0, 0-0) vs. 
Missouri State (0-0, 0-0)
Friday, Oct. 6 - 6:30 p.m. Central
Hammons Student Center Pool ? Springfield, Mo.
Series: NU leads 3-0
Last Meeting:  NU won, 74-26, last season in Lincoln
Media: Check Huskers.com for a full recap

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After opening competition with the fifth annual Intrasquad meet, the Nebraska swimming and diving team will compete in its earliest regular season meet in school history when it takes its show on the road this Friday night to face the Missouri State Bears at 6:30 p.m., in Springfield, Mo.

 

Formerly SouthwestMissouriState, the Bears and Huskers are familiar opponents in the pool, as they have squared off each of the last three years, with the Huskers winning each meet. Most recently, Nebraska defeated MissouriState in a double-dual at the Devaney Natatorium last November, 74-26. The Huskers lead the all-time series, 3-0.

 

Nebraska opens this regular season after a 7-2 dual record and a 36th-place finish at the NCAA Championships during the 2005-06 season. The Huskers return both of last year’s NCAA Championship qualifiers, seniors Lauren Bailey and Kate Wheeler. The duo, along with strong backup support, will again be one of the top freestyle distance squads in the Big 12 Conference.

 

Missouri State is coming off a 10-6 record and is the defending Missouri Valley Conference meet champions. They had 11 members named to the all-conference team and return 20 letterwinners from last year’s squad.

 

Following this Friday, the Huskers will get ready for possibly the busiest three-day stretch in school history, when they host Texas on Thursday, Oct. 12, the Big 12 Relays on Friday, Oct. 13 and Texas A&M on Saturday, Oct. 14. All events will take place at the Devaney Natatorium.

 

Review: Scarlet Defeats Cream, 61-51

The Husker swimming and diving team got an early taste of competition on the 2006-07 season as the Scarlet team avenged last year’s loss with a 61-51 victory over the Cream in the fifth annual Scarlet vs. Cream Intrasquad meet at the Devaney Natatorium last Friday evening.

 

The Scarlet used wins from five different individuals and also won the 200-yard medley and 200-yard freestyle relays to defeat the Cream, 56-51, in the 15-event meet. The Scarlet squad was then awarded an additional five “spirit points” to wrap up a week that included laser tag and game show competitions.

 

“I was very encouraged by the competitiveness that both teams came out with,” assistant coach Doug Humphrey said. “They have been training very hard and for them to put it all there for an intrasquad meet is hopefully a sign of good things to come this season.”

 

The Scarlet tried to pull away in the final five events when freshman Kaitlin Arntz won the 100-yard breaststroke, before teammates, junior Dani Millis and sophomore Courtney Jolly, won the one-meter diving competition. But with Cream wins by senior Bailey Ingles in the swimmer’s one-meter dive and senior Danielle Stansbury in the diver’s 50-yard freestyle, the final margin wasn’t decided until the Scarlet won the final event, the 200-yard freestyle relay with the team of junior Lynn Siemert, senior Michelle Criss, sophomore Jenny Toler and senior Kate Wheeler.

 

The Scarlet won four of the first seven events with individual wins coming from Siemert (50-yard freestyle), Criss (100-yard freestyle) and freshman Kelsey Ida (100-yard backstroke), while Cream team member, senior Lauren Bailey, won three events on the day (200-yard freestyle, 200-yard individual medley and 500-yard freestyle) to keep the two teams neck-and-neck. Freshman Mariah Hutchinson also won the 100-yard butterfly for the Cream.

 

Season Outlook: NU Aims Higher in 2006-07

Of all the forward movement that Coach Pablo Morales has made in the last six years with the Nebraska swimming and diving program, the step made last March may have been the most important.

 

At the 2006 NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships in Atlanta, Ga., Husker Lauren Bailey, competing in her junior season, swam to a ninth-place finish in the 1,650-yard freestyle. It put Nebraska’s name on the scoreboard for the first time since 2001, but it was an All-American performance that was worth much more than the nine points awarded. It gave Nebraska a foundation for the 2006-07 season, which opens this Friday at 6:30 p.m., at MissouriState.

 

“It feels great to build on our success from last year’s NCAA Championships for the upcoming season,” Morales said. “For Lauren to step up, score and earn honorable-mention All-America honors is not only a tremendous individual accomplishment for her, but also a great benefit to both last year’s and this year’s teams. It’s certainly something we’re going to try to build on.”

 

Let the building begin on Oct. 12, when the Huskers host national power Texas at the Devaney Center Natatorium, just the second time Nebraska and Texas have ever met head-to-head. It will be a clash of traditional powers as the Longhorns have won the last seven Big 12 championships after Nebraska won the first three titles following the creation of the conference in 1996.

 

Morales has focused on improving and building his program to face Texas since he was named head coach in 2001.

 

“We don’t always get an opportunity to duel the Texas schools even though they’re in our conference, so the opportunity we have in October to duel a leader in the Big 12 Conference is outstanding,” Morales said. “It’s an opportunity to see where we are as a team and what direction we want to go in.

 

“The Texas schools (Texas and Texas A&M have women’s swimming and diving) have been the leaders in our conference ? and sometimes nationally ? in recent years, so it’s been our goal to narrow that gap. I think we’ve done that and now our athletes have an opportunity to race some amazing competition. To do it at home makes it even more special.”

 

If Nebraska can perform well in its home pool, good things may be in store for the Huskers. NU hosts four of its first five meets on the 2006-07 schedule, including three in consecutive days Oct. 12-14. And for the first time since 2002-03, the Big 12 Relays will be held in Lincoln on Oct. 13, followed by a duel with national power Texas A&M the next day. SEC opponent Arkansas will return last year’s trip by the Big Red with a dual meet at Nebraska on Oct. 28.

 

A stretch like that can be a tough hurdle for any team to overcome, so Morales is relying on another strong senior class to lead the way.

 

This year an eight-person class returns including Bailey and a second returning national championship qualifier, Kate Wheeler, who placed 21st in the 1,650-yard freestyle at the 2006 NCAA Championships despite her 34th-place qualifying time. The Issaquah, Wash., native also won 12 races during the regular season and had career-high third-place finishes in the 500- and 1,650-yard freestyle events at the Big 12 Championships.

 

Side by side, the duo has made one of the more powerful distance tandems in the Big 12 Conference, and possibly in the nation.

 

“We are incredibly excited to have Kate back for one more year,” Morales said. “She is coming off a great meet at the NCAA Championships after working extremely hard to get to that point. Her work ethic is unbelievable which not only affects herself but also her teammates.”

 

A large class of eight freshmen could benefit from Bailey and Wheeler’s experience in the future, including two high school All-Americans (Kaitlin Arntz and Colleen Criss). The Huskers will also welcome newcomer Dani Millis to the team, a diver who previously competed for the Nebraska gymnastics squad.

 

“This young group of athletes has a chance to do some great things at Nebraska,” Morales said. “They are accustomed to winning ways from high school and are focused to help us do that here also. We’re very excited to have them here.”

 

Millis and the other divers will have some big shoes to fill on the boards as 2005 NCAA qualifier Amie Buoy was lost to graduation, one of eight 2006 seniors that represented Morales’ first recruiting class.

 

More importantly, that group with Buoy helped Nebraska get to the point the program is at today, a spot much further ahead than four years ago when the Huskers struggled to a combined 3-10 record in the 2001-02 and 2002-03 seasons. Since then, Nebraska has made an incredible turnaround with a 23-5 mark in dual meets over the past three seasons and put the 2006-07 team in a position to show the swimming public that Nebraska is back in the national spotlight.

 

“Overall, our main objective is to get more individuals qualified for the NCAA Championships,” Morales said. “We’ve shown that if we can qualify our athletes and get them to improve at the national championships like Lauren and Kate, it can do big things for our program.

 

“Last year’s 36th-place finish was incredible and we want to get into the top 25 this year. Our recent success has made it possible for us to do that this season and we want to make more steps in that direction beginning this October.”