Huskers Win the West Regional

The fifth-ranked Nebraska men’s gymnastics will make its first NCAA Championship appearance since 1995 as the Huskers won the West Regional with a team score of 229.425 Saturday evening in Provo, Utah.

Nebraska will be joined by BYU, which finished second with a score of 228.475, and Stanford, which finished third with a 226.90, as the top three teams advanced to the NCAA Championships, April 22-24 in Lincoln. No. 7 Oklahoma (226.10) and two-time defending NCAA champion California (220.60) finished fourth and fifth, respectively. Ohio State (231.10), Michigan (231.05) and Penn State (229.55) advanced from the East Region, which was held at Illinois.

“It feels pretty good,” said Nebraska Coach Francis Allen, who will make his 18th trip to the NCAA championships. “This is where we want to be. It’s very exciting to get back into the swing of things and win this. We are in really good shape coming back home.”

Nebraska was led by its all-around contingent of Jason Hardabura (Oakville, Ontario), Derek Leiter (Lincoln, Neb.), Jim Koziol (Omaha, Neb.) and Martin Fournier (St. Hubert, Quebec), all of who placed in the top six in the all-around in helping the Huskers to its first regional title since 1994, the last season the Huskers won the NCAA title. 

Hardabura won his eighth all-around title of the season, scoring a 58.075 for his fourth score of 58 or better this season. Hardabura finished second on high bar (9.90), parallel bars (9.65) and still rings (9.70) to pace NU.

“The only reason why we are here was for the team," Hardabura said. “Winning the all-around was important for me, but I’m just a spoke in the wheel of six guys.”

Leiter, who won NU’s only individual event title with a 9.85 on vault, finished second in the all-around to Hardabura with a 57.60, his third straight meet with a 57.60 or better. Leiter also placed fifth on floor exercise with a 9.75. Koziol, who competed in the all-around for just the second time this season, finished fourth with a 56.45, while Fournier was fifth with a score of 54.90.

“This is where we need to be if we are going to contend at national,” Allen said. “Our all-arounders performed well and we got big routines from both Blake (Bukacek) and Grant (Clinton). We are excited about returning to Lincoln for NCAAs.”

Clinton and Bukacek tied for sixth on high bar with a 9.70, while Clinton finished seventh on rings (9.55) and Bukacek was 11th on vault with a 9.40.

The Huskers play host to the 1999 NCAA Championships at the Bob Devaney Sports Center, April 22-24. Advance tickets are available by calling the University of Nebraska Ticket Office at 1-800-8-BIG RED.