Big 12 Championships Feature Three Top-Eight Teams

The seventh-ranked Nebraska womens gymnastics team will play host to the Big 12 Championship on Saturday, March 23, at the Bob Devaney Sports Center. The meet will be taped by Fox Sports Net with play-by-play by Fred McLeod and analysis by former U.S. Olympian Dominique Dawes. The meet can be seen on Fox Sports Midwest (Ch. 37 in Lincoln) on Thursday, March 28 at Noon (CST), and again on Sunday, March, 31 at 2 p.m. (CST).

Even though only four teams are involved, the meet may prove to be one of the toughest conference matchups in the country as three Big 12 teams are ranked among the top eight in the nation. No. 6 Oklahoma leads the pack, while Nebraska sits seventh and Iowa State eighth. Missouri rounds out the competition at No. 32.

The stiff competition should bring out the best in the Huskers as they enter the meet on a four-meet win streak, which includes victories over five ranked opponents. In Nebraskas last two meets, the Huskers have posted two of the best floor scores in school history, including a school record 49.525 against Penn State on March 3. The Huskers also bettered the school record on the balance beam, posting a nation-leading 49.675 at the Masters Classic.

Nebraska has been led this season by a trio of all-arounders, all of whom are ranked in the top-25 in the nation. Sophomore Tami Harris leads the group with a 12th-place ranking (39.34 RQS), followed by sophomore Richelle Simpson at No. 16 (39.29 RQS) and junior A.J. Lamb at No. 24 (39.24 RQS). Lamb also sits 18th on floor (9.905 RQS), while junior Julie Houk sits 12th on bars (9.90 RQS). In addition, a home meet bodes well for the Huskers as they enter the championship with a 44 meet home winning streak, which includes all 43 home contests under Kendig.

Although Oklahoma has managed only a third-place finish at the conference meet in each of the past four years, the Sooners will look to change that trend on Saturday. Nebraska may not be as familiar with the Sooners as they are with its other conference opponents, but the Huskers hold a 19-5-1 all-time record versus OU and have not lost to the Sooners in more than three years.

Conversely, Nebraska is quite familiar with Iowa State, as the two teams have met twice this season with Nebraska winning both contests. Nebraska leads the all-time series with Iowa State 37-5, including five straight victories dating back to Jan. 19, 2001. In fact, ISU has defeated Nebraska only twice in Coach Dan Kendig's tenure, a 191.60-191.40 win in 1995 and a 196.775-196.75 victory for the 2000 Big 12 Championship. The Huskers hold a 24-3 series advantage over Missouri, including a victory on Jan. 27.

Scouting the Opponents
No. 6 Oklahoma
The Sooners, guided by second-year head coach Steve Nunno, enter the meet with the highest ranking of any team. The Sooners have been ranked no lower than seventh this season and climbed as high as No. 3 in the polls, the highest ranking in school history. OU heads to Lincoln on a six-meet win streak, which includes victories over Big 12 rivals Iowa State and Missouri. Oklahoma is 12-2 on the season and 2-0 in Big 12 action, with its only losses coming at the hands of Arizona and Georgia. The Sooners boast one of the strongest floor lineups in the nation with a 49.41 RQS, a mark that ranks second in the nation behind Alabamas 49.485 and just ahead of Georgias 49.40.

Senior Mariana Goncalves has been the Sooners top performer this season and is a legitimate threat to win her first conference all-around title. She sits atop the conference all-around rankings with a 39.515 RQS, which ranks fourth in the nation, and ranks second in the Big 12 on both vault (9.92 RQS) and bars (9.92 RQS). Meanwhile sophomore Kasie Tamayo is coming off a career performance against Texas Womans University in the Sooners last home meet of the season. Tamayo became the first Big 12 gymnast to record a perfect 10.0 on the balance beam en route to a career high and school-record score of 39.675 in the all-around. Tamayo is ranked ninth in the nation in the all-around (39.445) and is ranked in the top five in the conference on every event, including beam where she sits first with a 9.895 RQS.

No. 8 Iowa State
The 2002 Iowa State team, guided by second-year coach K.J. Kindler, is 9-6 on the season and 2-3 in the Big 12. The Cyclones two conference wins both came against Missouri, while ISU has dropped two contests to Nebraska, and came up short against Oklahoma, 196.875-197.00, in Norman on March 3. Iowa State has finished among the top two teams in the conference championship in each of the past four years, including a first-place finish in 2000.

At the 2001 championship in Norman, Okla., a Cyclone gymnast finished first or second on every event led by the dynamic duo of Shelly Kringen and Sissy Huey, who finished 1-2 in the all-around. Kringen tied for first on vault, while Huey won the floor exercise and finished second on the uneven bars, marking the first year the Tallahassee, Fla., native did not win a share of the title. Huey, the school record holder on bars (9.95), is currently ranked fifth in the nation in the all-around (39.49 RQS), which includes a fourth-place ranking on bars (9.93 RQS), sixth-place ranking on floor (9.935 RQS) and a 13th-place ranking on beam (9.885 RQS). Meanwhile Kringen, the 2001 North Central vault champion, is the first Cyclone gymnast to record a 10.0 on vault and is undefeated on the event this season. She is also the school record holder in the all-around (39.625) and is ranked fourth nationally on vault (9.93 RQS) and 12th on floor (9.92 RQS).

No. 32 Missouri
Coached by Rob Drass, Missouri has posted some of the best scores in school history in 2002, which includes a school record 195.575 in a loss to Iowa State on March 18. Drass, a former assistant coach for the Huskers from 1994 to 1999, has led the Tigers to a 7-8 record (0-3 in the Big 12) on the season. The Tigers score of 194.75 was the third highest total all-time, while its bars (49.075) and floor (49.05) scores were the second-highest marks in school history.

The Tigers have been led this season by freshman Alisha Robinson. Robinson, who is ranked 18th nationally in the all-around (39.285 RQS), has almost single-handedly rewritten the Tigers record books. In her first collegiate meet against Bowling Green, she posted the highest score by a freshman on all four events, including vault where she tied the school record with a 9.925. Her all-around total of 39.575 gave her the all-around title and was also the highest all-around score in school history.

The Tigers also return a pair of juniors who qualified for the regional championships in 2001. Leah Gremaud and Alina Hamm have had a significant impact on the Tiger program. Gremaud owns four of the Tigers top 10 beam scores, while Hamm posted five of the top 11 all-around scores in school history.

League-High Seven Huskers Earn Academic Honors
Seven Huskers gymnasts were honored by the Big 12 conference for their work in the classroom. Nebraska led all schools with seven gymnasts named to the Academic All-Big 12 team, including six on the first team. Sophomores Gina Bruce (Community Health Education), Tami Harris (General Studies) and Libby Landgraf (General Studies) joined juniors Jen French (Exercise Science), A.J. Lamb (Business Administration) and Jess Wertz (Biological Sciences) on the first team, while senior Laura Goss, a political science major, earned second-team honors. For the fifth consecutive year, Nebraska led the conference in academic All-Big 12 selections, while its six first team selections is the most since 1999.

Conference Domination
In the five-year history of the Big 12 Conference, Nebraska has been crowned Big 12 Champions four times, including last season when the Huskers set a Big 12 record with a school-record score of 197.65. In addition, the Huskers uneven bars score of 49.725 was also a conference and school record. With the meet at the Huskers home arena, Nebraska may hold a slight advantage as the only team to upset the Huskers in a conference championship was Iowa State, who won the 2000 title in the familiar confines of Hilton Coliseum.

Not only have the Huskers been dominant as a team, but they have also won their share of individual honors. A Nebraska gymnast has won the all-around title in three of the four conference meets in which a Husker has competed in all four events. The only time Nebraska failed to win the all-around was in 2000, when Nebraska could only muster a fourth-place finish.

The Huskers have also been dominant on the uneven bars, as a Husker gymnast has stood atop the podium every year except 1999, when two Huskers finished tied for third.

RQS - Is That a Food Additive?
The national rankings are now based on a teams RQS, or Regional Qualifying Score. Qualification for regional competition is based on a teams six best regular-season meet scores, three of which must be away. The high score is eliminated and the remaining five scores are averaged.

In order to participate in the NCAA Championships, April 18-20, a team must first qualify for one of six regional competitions. Each regional features six teams, which qualified on the basis of its RQS. The top 18 teams based on RQS are seeded into the six regionals (three per region), with the remaining three regional slots filled by non-seeded teams.

The top two teams from each regional will receive an automatic berth to the national championships.

Huskers Home Streak Hits 44
With its victory over Iowa State on March 10, Nebraska extended its regular-season home meet winning streak to 44, including all 43 under coach Dan Kendig. In that stretch Nebraska has defeated 64 opponents, many ranked in the top 20 in the nation. The Huskers have not lost a regular-season home meet since the 1993 Masters Classic.

The only times Nebraska has not taken first at home under Kendig were the 1995 Midwest Regional, when Nebraska finished second to NCAA champion Utah, and the 1999 Region 3 Championships when the Huskers finished second to NCAA runner-up Michigan.