2008 Woodie Awards
Men's and women's gym teams lose to Oklahoma
Issue date: 2/4/08 Section: Sports
The No.10 Nebraska men's gymnastics team posted its highest road score of the season yet still fell short against a loaded Sooners team on Friday in Norman, Okla.
The Cornhuskers, who scored 337.75 points compared with No. 6 Oklahoma's 355.50, were able to take some satisfaction out of the fact that they challenged the Sooners on OU's turf.
"We're doing better, considering Oklahoma pulled out all the stops on us," NU Coach Francis Allen said. "They're pretty frickin' awesome, but we held up pretty good. Overall, I was pretty pleased with what we did. I wasn't overly impressed, but I was pleased with the progress. We're on track. I'd like to see us get after them more, but we're doing better."
In their third attempt of the season against their conference rivals, the Huskers didn't score as competitively as they did in their previous outing, when NU lost 349.700-341.400. Even so, NU's top performer, T.J. Schmidt, said he thought things were looking up for his squad last weekend.
"We still had a few rough spots, but overall it was much better," Schmidt said. "Our hit percentage was quite a bit higher than it has been at any other meet this year. We still have a few problems in a couple events that we could fix up so we could challenge (Oklahoma) a little bit more."
Schmidt finished second on the parallel bars and tied for the pommel horse title with a 14.35 score, but the All-American still considers the latter event a weak one for the team. The vault event proved troublesome for the Huskers, and Schmidt said he thinks there is work to be done on the high bar as well. Allen, meanwhile, said he believes everything will fall in place with time.
"We still are jockeying people around and we still don't know our lineup very well," Allen said. "You have to figure out how they work together. You can't just throw out a lineup, because it may not be the best one. We're starting to find out who does a good job going first and who follows up well and who can be a clean-up guy.
"It takes a while to learn that and for (the gymnasts) to show us where they belong, too."
The Huskers will have time to sort out their lineup during the next two weeks, while Schmidt and NU senior Stephen Tétrault will compete in the Winter Cup in Las Vegas, Nevada beginning on Feb. 7. The three-day meet will give the All-American pair a chance to compete against nearly 300 of the best gymnasts in the country. Tétrault, who finished third in the all-around against Oklahoma, will compete in the all-around in Las Vegas as well. Schmidt said he looks forward to the opportunity to compete in pommel horse, parallel bars and rings.
"I always like the Winter Cup because it's a lot of fun," Schmidt said. "It's a little bit different feel than our other meets. It's all about the individual, so it's different. There is a lot tougher competition than I will see this season in college. It's another chance to go out and hit your routines and see what you need to improve on and get judged."
The rest of the Huskers will have to rely on the coaching staff to critique their routines during their two-week layoff. NU will travel to No. 2 Stanford for the second time this season for a dual on Feb.16. Nebraska struggled in California last time, but Allen said he wants to iron out the rough spots in time to give another ranked team a challenge.
Like his coach, Schmidt has a pretty good idea of how to do that.
"I think we should just hit routines and do whatever it takes to become consistent," he said. "We need to find routines and hit them, so when we go out to Stanford we can do better against them than we did last time."
-Tyler Bassinger
Women fall, too
Despite three individual event titles and scores of 49.0 or better on beam and vault, the No. 12 Nebraska women's gymnastics team fell 195.275-194.95 to No. 6 Oklahoma, Friday night.
NU sophomore Kathryn Howard said the loss is a wake-up call for how hard the team needs to work.
"It's a rivalry for us, and competitive," Howard said. "We want to be the best in the Big 12 (Conference)."
The Cornhuskers started the night on bars, where senior Emily Parsons, freshman Brittnee Habbib and sophomore Maria Scaffidi all scored 9.825 for runner-up honors.
Howard and Nebraska senior Desire' Sniatynski fell during their bars routines for the only mistakes of the night in any event.
NU Coach Dan Kendig said he was a little frustrated after the first rotation, but the team kept plugging along.
"I'm proud of them," he said, "we're expecting a lot from a small group."
Mistakes aside, Kendig said, Scaffidi, Habbib and Parsons all hit good routines.
Oklahoma's Kiara Redmond-Sturms won the bars title with a 9.85.
After bars, the Huskers had a stronger performance on vault with a team score of 49.075. Parsons won the event with a 9.925 and captured her fourth straight vault title of the season.
Scaffidi finished third with a 9.825 and Sniatynski finished fifth with a 9.80.
Kendig said the Huskers were well-prepared and confident on vault.
"They just need to go big and collectively work on landings," he said.
On floor, NU junior Tricia Woo scored a season-high 9.875 for third place.
Kendig said the floor performances were not as good as the team's capability, but Habbib's 9.7 score was encouraging.
Scaffidi finished the floor rotation sixth with a 9.825.
Howard and Sniatynski won the beam title with scores of 9.875. The individual title was Howard's first at Nebraska.
But Howard said she didn't even realize she won until a few hours after the meet.
"It was really exciting," she said, "because I thought I got second."
Nebraska took the top five individual places on beam and the Huskers scored a season-high 49.225 on the event.
Habbib scored a 9.85, tying her season-best score and finished third on beam. Woo was fourth and Parsons finished fifth.
"Beam is definitely a strong event for us," Howard said. "We're working really hard in the gym and it's nice to see the hard work paying off."
Kendig said NU's performance on beam was a great way to finish the match. He said he hopes the team takes that momentum into the next meet when it hosts undefeated and No. 5 Michigan on Thursday night at the Bob Devaney Sports Center. The Dollar Days night theme is "Think Pink," and the gymnasts will wear pink leotards for breast cancer awareness.
"We have our hands full and it's going to take a lot to make it a success story," Kendig said. "But if the crowd embraces us, it will make things that much better."
-Jordan Demmel
The Cornhuskers, who scored 337.75 points compared with No. 6 Oklahoma's 355.50, were able to take some satisfaction out of the fact that they challenged the Sooners on OU's turf.
"We're doing better, considering Oklahoma pulled out all the stops on us," NU Coach Francis Allen said. "They're pretty frickin' awesome, but we held up pretty good. Overall, I was pretty pleased with what we did. I wasn't overly impressed, but I was pleased with the progress. We're on track. I'd like to see us get after them more, but we're doing better."
In their third attempt of the season against their conference rivals, the Huskers didn't score as competitively as they did in their previous outing, when NU lost 349.700-341.400. Even so, NU's top performer, T.J. Schmidt, said he thought things were looking up for his squad last weekend.
"We still had a few rough spots, but overall it was much better," Schmidt said. "Our hit percentage was quite a bit higher than it has been at any other meet this year. We still have a few problems in a couple events that we could fix up so we could challenge (Oklahoma) a little bit more."
Schmidt finished second on the parallel bars and tied for the pommel horse title with a 14.35 score, but the All-American still considers the latter event a weak one for the team. The vault event proved troublesome for the Huskers, and Schmidt said he thinks there is work to be done on the high bar as well. Allen, meanwhile, said he believes everything will fall in place with time.
"We still are jockeying people around and we still don't know our lineup very well," Allen said. "You have to figure out how they work together. You can't just throw out a lineup, because it may not be the best one. We're starting to find out who does a good job going first and who follows up well and who can be a clean-up guy.
"It takes a while to learn that and for (the gymnasts) to show us where they belong, too."
The Huskers will have time to sort out their lineup during the next two weeks, while Schmidt and NU senior Stephen Tétrault will compete in the Winter Cup in Las Vegas, Nevada beginning on Feb. 7. The three-day meet will give the All-American pair a chance to compete against nearly 300 of the best gymnasts in the country. Tétrault, who finished third in the all-around against Oklahoma, will compete in the all-around in Las Vegas as well. Schmidt said he looks forward to the opportunity to compete in pommel horse, parallel bars and rings.
"I always like the Winter Cup because it's a lot of fun," Schmidt said. "It's a little bit different feel than our other meets. It's all about the individual, so it's different. There is a lot tougher competition than I will see this season in college. It's another chance to go out and hit your routines and see what you need to improve on and get judged."
The rest of the Huskers will have to rely on the coaching staff to critique their routines during their two-week layoff. NU will travel to No. 2 Stanford for the second time this season for a dual on Feb.16. Nebraska struggled in California last time, but Allen said he wants to iron out the rough spots in time to give another ranked team a challenge.
Like his coach, Schmidt has a pretty good idea of how to do that.
"I think we should just hit routines and do whatever it takes to become consistent," he said. "We need to find routines and hit them, so when we go out to Stanford we can do better against them than we did last time."
-Tyler Bassinger
Women fall, too
Despite three individual event titles and scores of 49.0 or better on beam and vault, the No. 12 Nebraska women's gymnastics team fell 195.275-194.95 to No. 6 Oklahoma, Friday night.
NU sophomore Kathryn Howard said the loss is a wake-up call for how hard the team needs to work.
"It's a rivalry for us, and competitive," Howard said. "We want to be the best in the Big 12 (Conference)."
The Cornhuskers started the night on bars, where senior Emily Parsons, freshman Brittnee Habbib and sophomore Maria Scaffidi all scored 9.825 for runner-up honors.
Howard and Nebraska senior Desire' Sniatynski fell during their bars routines for the only mistakes of the night in any event.
NU Coach Dan Kendig said he was a little frustrated after the first rotation, but the team kept plugging along.
"I'm proud of them," he said, "we're expecting a lot from a small group."
Mistakes aside, Kendig said, Scaffidi, Habbib and Parsons all hit good routines.
Oklahoma's Kiara Redmond-Sturms won the bars title with a 9.85.
After bars, the Huskers had a stronger performance on vault with a team score of 49.075. Parsons won the event with a 9.925 and captured her fourth straight vault title of the season.
Scaffidi finished third with a 9.825 and Sniatynski finished fifth with a 9.80.
Kendig said the Huskers were well-prepared and confident on vault.
"They just need to go big and collectively work on landings," he said.
On floor, NU junior Tricia Woo scored a season-high 9.875 for third place.
Kendig said the floor performances were not as good as the team's capability, but Habbib's 9.7 score was encouraging.
Scaffidi finished the floor rotation sixth with a 9.825.
Howard and Sniatynski won the beam title with scores of 9.875. The individual title was Howard's first at Nebraska.
But Howard said she didn't even realize she won until a few hours after the meet.
"It was really exciting," she said, "because I thought I got second."
Nebraska took the top five individual places on beam and the Huskers scored a season-high 49.225 on the event.
Habbib scored a 9.85, tying her season-best score and finished third on beam. Woo was fourth and Parsons finished fifth.
"Beam is definitely a strong event for us," Howard said. "We're working really hard in the gym and it's nice to see the hard work paying off."
Kendig said NU's performance on beam was a great way to finish the match. He said he hopes the team takes that momentum into the next meet when it hosts undefeated and No. 5 Michigan on Thursday night at the Bob Devaney Sports Center. The Dollar Days night theme is "Think Pink," and the gymnasts will wear pink leotards for breast cancer awareness.
"We have our hands full and it's going to take a lot to make it a success story," Kendig said. "But if the crowd embraces us, it will make things that much better."
-Jordan Demmel
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