Huskers Prepare for NCAA Championships

The Nebraska men's gymnastics team will travel to West Point, N.Y., this week to compete at the 2010 NCAA Championships. The championships, hosted by the U.S. Military Academy, will be held on April 15-17 at the Holleder Center.

The competition is set to begin on Thursday, April 15, with the 12-team national qualifier. The national qualifier consists of an afternoon qualifying session at Noon CST, and an evening qualifying session at 6 p.m. CST. The top three teams from each session will advance to the six-team finals on Friday, April 16, at 6 p.m. The top three all-around competitors not on one of the qualifying teams, plus the top three individuals on each event not already qualified on a team or as an all-around competitor, will also advance to the finals session. The individual event finals are scheduled to take place on Saturday, April 17, at 6 p.m.

The Huskers earned a No. 5 seed in Thursday's evening session and will take on Oklahoma, Michigan, California, Minnesota and Iowa. NU earns its sixth-consecutive berth into the NCAA Championships and hopes to earn a spot in the top-three teams of their session for the first time since 1999.

Qualifier Rotation Order
The Huskers will start on floor exercise in Thursday night's qualifying session and will follow Olympic order throughout the evening. OU will start on vault, Michigan is on parallel bars, California will begin on high bar, Minnesota will start on still rings, the individual qualifiers will begin on pommel horse and Iowa will have a bye their first event out.

Huskers Hope to Push into Top-Six
Although the Huskers have tough competition in their qualifier, they hope to earn high enough scores to make the top-three team finishers in their qualifying session. Nebraska has not made the NCAA team finals since 1999, where it placed third with a score of 229.525.

NU has an advantage in its qualifier, as it has met up with four of its five foes in multiple meets this season. The Huskers and the Sooners have gone head-to-head three times in the regular season and met once again at the MPSF Championships on April 3. Although Nebraska holds a 0-4 record against Oklahoma this season (41-28-1 all-time), the Huskers have seen OU's routines on multiple occassions and know what they must do to overcome the Sooners' tough sets.

Nebraska and Minnesota have competed against each other twice this season. The Gophers edged out NU on both occassions, but Nebraska closed the gap on Minnesota by only 2.15 points the second meeting. With more consistency, the Huskers could put up strong enough numbers to defeat Minnesota for a spot in the top-three finishers.

The Huskers have also met Iowa and Cal one time each this season. NU defeated the Hawkeyes by nearly five points, but fell to California in the MPSF Championship by more than 13 points.

The team must work on consistency and a high hitting percentage in order to crack the top-six nationally.

Individuals Hunt All-America Honors
Since Nebraska has not earned individual All-America honors since the 2007 season, the Husker gymnasts are hungry for NCAA All-America accolades. Nebraska returns four gymnasts to the NCAA 2010 Championships, including Tony Maras, Josh Dilworth, Kyle Shanahan, and Anthony Ingrelli, who each competed in the second round event qualifiers last season. Shanahan barely missed All-America honors last season with his 11th place finish in the all-around finals.

Former gymnasts T.J. Schmidt and Stephen Tetrault were the last two Huskers to garner All-America honors in 2007, as Schmidt earned a fifth-place finish on parallel bars with a score of 9.075 and Tetrault placed seventh in the all-around (52.05) and sixth on pommel horse (8.975).

Shanahan Named 2010 Nissen-Emery Award Finalist
Senior Kyle Shanahan was announced as one of eight finalists for the 2010 Nissen-Emery award, as announced by the Nissen-Emery award committee on Wednesday, March 24. Since 1966, the Nissen-Emery Award, which is college gymnastics' highest honor, has been presented annually to that year's outstanding senior collegiate gymnast. Shanahan becomes the 19th Nebraska gymnast to earn prestigious finalist honors. T.J. Schmidt was NU's most recent nominee in the 2009 season. The 2010 Nissen-Emery Award will be presented on Wednesday, April 14, at the NCAA kick-off banquet.

Shanahan joins a talented group of award finalists, including Jon Buese (Iowa), David Chan (Michigan), Aaron Fortunato (Minnesota), Derek Gygax (William & Mary), Nick Noone (Stanford), Luke Stannard (Illinois) and Andrew Stover (UIC).

Shanahan has been a steady competitor for NU since his freshman season. He has captured one floor exercise event title, five high bar titles and four all-around titles throughout his Husker career. He has also captured multiple top-three finishes each season on floor, horse, rings, parallel bars, high bar and in the all-around.

Despite fighting a knee injury throughout the 2009 season, Shanahan worked his way back into the lineup just in time for the 2009 NCAA Championships, where he became an all-around finalist. He captured an 11th-place finish overall.

Most recently, he became just the third Nebraska gymnast to make the Winter Cup finals, as he earned a score of 162.60 over two rounds for 23rd place in the all-around competition. Shanahan also earned 22nd on still rings and high bar.

Shanahan has also captured numerous Nebraska gymnastics awards since his freshman season, including the 2009 Nebraska Inspiration Award, the 2009 Most Valuable Athlete Award, the 2008 Nebraska Perseverance Award and the 2007 Nebraska Newcomer of the Year Award.

In addition to his gymnastics honors, Shanahan celebrates success in the classroom. As a finance major, Shanahan is a two-time Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Academic All-Conference honoree in 2008 and 2009 and has been named to the Big 12 Commissioner's Honor Roll four times. In 2009, Shanahan earned prestigious College Gymnastics All-America Scholar-Athlete accolades for his performance in the classroom. He earned a spot on the 2009 College of Business Dean's List and was chosen to represent UNL at the Oxford University study abroad program in 2008 for his GPA of 3.0 and higher and his athletic and leadership accomplishments.

Often described as the "Heisman Trophy" of gymnastics, the Nissen-Emery Award is inscribed with the following motto:  "The true champion seeks excellence physically, mentally, socially, and morally." The winner of the prestigious award will be announced during the 2010 NCAA Championship banquet. Nebraska has three previous Nissen-Emery award winners, including NU Assistant Coach Jim Hartung (1982), Wes Suter (1986) and Tom Schlesinger (1988).

MPSF Championship: Huskers Take Fourth at MPSF Championship
Norman, Okla. - Despite a strong rally to break the top-three team standings, Nebraska took fourth place at the 2010 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Championship at the Howard McCasland Field House on Saturday, April 3,  with a team score of 341.650. Oklahoma captured the conference crown for the fifth time in six years with a score of 354.550. Eighth-ranked Cal earned a second-place finish (354.450), while Stanford took third (347.150) and Air Force placed fifth (329.500).

"We started off great and the middle of the meet was great, but we struggled on the last three events," Nebraska Coach Chuck Chmelka said. "It's disappointing because we did so well to start the meet. We just need to do better on floor and pommel horse. We need to hit and do the best we can. Rings was weird tonight too, but we can get that fixed. We have ten days to get everything corrected for nationals. We really just need to fix two events [pommel horse and floor exercise]. I'm really happy with how we did on three events tonight, but we just have to get better heading into nationals."

Nebraska got an early taste of the tough conference judging, as it posted a team score of 61.75 on vault in the first rotation, which was NU's second lowest vault score of the 2010 season. Cory Baumgarten, Bear Danley and Tony Maras each posted solid scores of 15.45 on the apparatus. Danley earned a career-high on the event, blasting his previous career high of 15.25. Hofer also counted top-four for the Huskers with a score of 15.40. After one rotation, NU took an early lead with a team mark of 61.75, while the Sooners were in second (57.80), Cal was in third (57.60), Stanford took fourth (56.45) and Air Force was in fifth (54.55).

Seniors Shanahan and Brule led the Huskers into the second rotation, helping NU to a score of 56.65 on parallel bars. Brule, who took first on parallel bars at NU's last home meet against Minnesota and Iowa, earned a score of 14.30. Shanahan led the way for the Huskers with a score of 14.55, his third highest score of the 2010 season. Hofer and Danley also helped the Huskers with scores of 14.20 and 13.60, respectively. After two rotations, OU overtook the lead with a score of 121.80, while NU moved down to second (118.40), Cal remained in third (115.95), Stanford was in fourth (113.40) and Air Force stayed in fifth (105.25).

NU moved to high bar in the third rotation, earning a score of 57.40 on the apparatus. Shanahan, who has placed first on high bar twice this season, posted a solid mark of 14.45 on the event. Danley (14.35) and Brule (14.30) each posted their second-highest scores of the season, while Rusler wowed his hometown crowd with a routine that earned him a score of 14.30. The Huskers headed to floor in the fourth rotation with a combined score of 175.80 on three events. NU only held a score of 169.05 after three rotations at the 2009 MPSF Championship.

Nebraska pulled together a solid score of 57.50 on floor exercise in the fourth rotation. Brule continued to post high marks for the Huskers, as he notched a career-high floor score of 14.90. Hofer and Shanahan also helped NU out with scores of 14.80 and 14.30, respectively, while Danley counted top-four with a score of 13.50. After four rotations, Cal overtook the lead with a score of 236.40, while OU moved down to second (235.80), NU was in third (233.30), Stanford was in fourth (224.60) and Air Force was in fifth (223.20).

The Huskers had a tough go on pommel horse in the fifth rotation, putting together an unusually low score of 52.20. NU suffered several falls early in the lineup, however Shanahan stepped up in the final spot of the rotation with a score of 14.00. Hofer earned a score of 13.25, while David Jacobs (12.65) and Danley (12.30) also counted top-four for the Huskers. OU regained the lead after five rotations (297.65), while Cal took second (294.90). A tight race for the third place spot ensued, as Nebraska was just slightly ahead of Stanford, 285.50-284.55. Air Force remained in third place with a mark of 276.45.

With a close competition for the top-three spots, the Huskers rallied to finish strong on still rings in the sixth and final rotation. Seniors Shanahan and Maras posted scores of 14.40 and 14.25, respectively, while Baumgarten (13.95) and Anthony Ingrelli (13.55) also counted top-four for Nebraska. Despite NU's still rings score of 56.15, Stanford's vault score of 62.60 was too much for the Huskers and NU placed fourth in the competition. The Huskers had no individual finishers on any events.

The 2010 MPSF Championship marked the end of a conference era for six Husker gymnasts, as seniors Kyle Shanahan, Tony Maras, Josh Rusler and Daniel Brule have competed at every conference championship since the 2007 season. Senior all-arounder John Robinson has also competed in three previous conference championships, but recently suffered a season-ending hand injury and was unable to compete this weekend. Stefan Wallof, who competed at the championship for the first time this season, will wrap up his career following the 2010 NCAA Championships.