No. 6 Nebraska Finishes Second at Rocky Mountain Open

The sixth ranked Nebraska men's gymnastics team finished second at the Rocky Mountain Open at the Air Force Academy. No. 17 Brigham Young won the seven-team competition with a score of 226.00, beating Nebraska's 224.18. No. 4 Oklahoma (222.58), No. 10 New Mexico (221.60) and the Olympic Training Center (210.20) rounded out the top five.

The Huskers, who won the Rocky Mountain Open title in 1997, were paced by the effort of sophomore all-arounder Derek Leiter, who finished first with a 57.48, topping runner-up Fabricio Olsson of BYU, who scored a 56.90. Leiter's score was 0.10 off of his personal best set last season against Iowa. The sophomore from Lincoln scored 9.55 or higher on five of the six events, including career bests of 9.83 on the horizontal bar and 9.70 on vault.

Senior captain Bill Mulholland finished fifth in the all-around with a 55.50, scoring a 9.30 or higher on four of the six events.

The Huskers were hurt by the absence of freshman Jason Hardabura, who injured his hip in warm-ups. The freshman from Oakville, Ontario, was only able to compete on rings, scoring a 9.40.

While Hardabura was limited, junior Jim Koziol made a successful return to competition. Koziol, Nebraska's top all-arounder in 1996, missed last season because of shoulder surgery. In his 1998 debut, Koziol scored a team-best 9.55 on rings en route to an all-around score of 55.10.

Leiter and Koziol won individual titles during the second day of competition. Leiter, who also won the all-around title with a score of 57.48, took first place on the vault with a career-best score of 9.875, bettering his previous high of 9.70. He finished second on pommel horse (9.70) and parallel bars (9.50). Koziol finished first on the still rings with a score of 9.70.