NU Tumblers prepare to take on Iowa after moving up in rankings

The Huskers are ready to improve their score this weekend after tumbling two spots in the rankings to No. 11.

NU will travel to Iowa this Saturday to face off against the No. 12 Iowa Hawkeyes and the No. 6 Minnesota Golden Gophers in its Big Ten Conference opener.

"We feel like the Big Ten meet is going to be a close competition," said NU coach Chuck Chmelka, "We really just have to go out and prove that we're the better team."

Even though this will be the first time the Huskers go up against Big Ten teams, there are bigger things about playing in Iowa that is on their mind.

"We haven't really talked about the fact that it's Big Ten," said Chmelka, "but we have mentioned that they should get used to this gym for the championships."

This weekend's meet is being held in the Carver-Hawkeye Arena, which is also the spot that is hosting the Big Ten championships that the Huskers will be back for later in the year.

Last year for this meet, the Gophers, Hawkeyes and Huskers were ranked No. 7, No. 8 and No. 9 consecutively and the Huskers fell to both teams. This year the rankings are further apart, but the pressure is still on.

"Right now, they have higher scores," said Chmelka, "but I feel like we're the better team."

NU has had two weeks off to practice and perfect new and old routines. Sophomore all-around Eric Schryver used the time off to be smart about his training after coming back from surgery last summer.

"The two weeks off was huge for my body and my mind," said Schryver, "It was less of a beat down on my body."

Schryver had surgery in early June to fix a tear in the labrum of his shoulder. The Dallas native only spent a week at home after his surgery before returning to Nebraska for the remainder of the summer for his physical therapy and rehabilitation.

Schryver's rehab and training have paid off; this week he was ranked No. 7 nationally for his scores on pommel horse (14.200).

"It's an honor, especially to see the guys I'm ranked up there with," said Schryver, "It's humbling, but at the same time I have to be careful not to let it get to my head."

The Huskers are still early in their season, and Schryver wants to keep improving his scores and continue to be nationally ranked by the end of the year as well. Schryver is back on three of the six events: pommel horse, high bar and parallel bars.

"He's doing really good," said Chmelka, "He's not back on rings yet, but that's okay because the points he gives the team without rings is enough."

The Huskers approach their season in three tiers. During the first, which included the last three meets, NU's goal was to not have anybody get hurt and to get in shape.

"We're entering the middle tier," said Chmelka, "Now we're working on perfecting things, taking each meet at a time and reevaluating each guy. We're always trying to fix and improve things and get more points and these next three meets it should show.

The final tier is reserved to focus mainly on perfecting each sequence, and then the Huskers head to the Big Ten Conference championships and NCAA's.

"Right now we can back off and concentrate on sequences," said Chmelka, "We do good gymnastics, but we want our deductions to get lower so our execution score will be higher, helping our team put us where we should be in the 342 range."

The Huskers meet will be televised on the Big Ten Network, Saturday at 7 p.m.

"We think we're ready to have a good overall competition," said Chmelka, "We're not going to be perfect, but we won't have any weak events, and I know the guys can pop out a good score."

michelleOdonnell@dailynebraskan.com