Nebraska Hosts Hawkeyes on Sunday

Lincoln -- This Sunday, Jan. 25 at 1 p.m. Nebraska will host its first meet of the 2004 season as they head to the Bob Devaney Sports Center to take on the fifth ranked University of Iowa Hawkeyes. Last weekend, the Huskers met up with the Hawkeyes at the Rocky Mountain Open in Colorado Springs, Colo. where senior captain, Josh Rasile, took home second-place honors in the floor exercise and still rings, and the title on the vault. However, the Hawkeyes still managed an overall team score of 211.30 in the team competition, topping Nebraska’s 204.825 and handing the Huskers a 1-2 record heading into this weekend’s competition.

While Rasile has clearly taken the reigns over the Husker roster, several other members of the Nebraska squad will play key supporting roles. Junior Mace Patterson took home the No. 9 and 8 spots respectively in the parallel bars and high bar at the Rocky Mountain Open which earned him the honor of being Nebraska’s top all-around competitor coming in 9th overall. Not far behind however was sophomore Derric Wood who grabbed 8th in the high bar en route to an 11th place all-around finish.

Scouting the Hawkeyes
The No. 5 ranked Hawkeyes will travel to Nebraska for their second matchup with the Huskers this season after facing them last weekend at the Rocky Mountain Open. The meet was the second for Iowa which is 4-4 with losses to Oklahoma, Ohio State, Illinois, and Michigan.

Leading the Hawkeye lineup in 2004 is junior Linus Gaveika who joins the team from Lithuania. In Iowa’s first meet of the season, Gaveika put up a score of 53.50 in the all-around, tying the previous school record held by Cameron Schick. At the Rocky Mountain Open, Gaveika once again placed himself into the University of Iowa record books by breaking his own previously held school record of 9.725 with a score of 9.80 and a title in that event. Gaveika is ranked sixth in the nation on the high bars.

Joining Gaveika amongst the nations elite is sophomore Michael Reavis out of Tallahassee, Fla. Reavis has landed scores of 9.35 on the vault and 52.80 this season to place him seventh and ninth, respectively, in the national polls

Four Huskers Set Career Highs
Four Nebraska gymnasts set career high marks in their season opener at the Rocky Mountain Open. Junior Mace Patterson put up 9.35 on the high bar, boosting his previous record of 9.20 at the MPSF Championships in 2003. Sophomores Ray Hacker, Nic Matthews, and Nicholas Moore also wracked up new bests with Hacker earning an 8.30 on the still rings a full tenth of a point higher than his 2003 high of 8.20 against Air Force. Matthews shattered his pommel horse best of 7.65 against Ohio State with a new career high of 8.10, and Moore put up a 7.00 on the pommel horse versus his previous best of 6.45.