No. 7 Huskers Collide with No. 5 UtahNo. 7 Huskers Collide with No. 5 Utah
Women's Gymnastics

No. 7 Huskers Collide with No. 5 Utah

?Nebraska Head Coach: Dan Kendig (14th Year)       

?Current Record: 13-3 (2-1 Big 12)

?2007 High Score: 196.975 (at Hearts Invitational, 2/17/07)

?Last Meet: 1st/3, 196.40 (Masters Classic, 2/25/07)

?2006 NCAA Finish: 5th (196.125)

                               

The seventh-ranked Nebraska women’s gymnastics team continues its three-meet homestand by playing host to No. 5 Utah at the BobDevaneySportsCenter on Sunday, March 4. Competition is scheduled to begin at 2 p.m.

 

Nebraska is 13-3 on the year after a 196.40 first-place finish in the Masters Classic last Sunday. The Huskers took four out of five individual event titles and scored a 49.0 or better on vault, beam and floor.

 

Following the Top 10 dual, Nebraska takes on 10th-ranked IowaState on March 11 at 2 p.m. at the DevaneyCenter.

 

Nebraska’s Competition Order with Utah

Rotation                 Nebraska              Utah

1                              Vault                       Uneven Bars

2                              Uneven Bars        Vault

3                              Balance Beam     Floor Exercise

4                              Floor Exercise      Balance Beam

 

Scouting the Competition: No. 5 Utah Utes

?Head Coach: Greg Marsden (32nd Year)    

?2007 Record: 8-1

?2007 High Score: 196.725 (vs. Washington, 1/19/07)

?Last Meet: W, vs. Michigan, 2/23/07 (196.225-193.80)

?2006 NCAA Finish: 2nd (196.80)

 

A Glance at the Utes...

?Head coach Greg Marsden is the only 800-win coach in NCAA gymnastics history with a career record of 856-149-5 at Utah. His teams have won a total of 10 national team championships.

?Utah’s top returning gymnast is junior Ashley Postell, a 10-time All-American who was NCAA runner-up in the all-around at the 2006 NCAA Championships.

?Nebraska and Utah last met at the 2006 NCAA Super Six Finals, where the Utes finished as national runner-up with a 196.80, and Nebraska placed fifth (196.175).

?Senior Nicolle Ford, a seven-time All-American, is out of the Utah lineup indefinitely with an ankle injury.

?Sophomore Kristina Baskett won a share of the NCAA bars crown as a freshman last season and was also a second-team All-American on vault. Baskett achieved Utah’s highest all-around mark of 2007 with a 39.70 against UtahState on Feb. 9.

?Utah boasts five returning All-Americans who have combined for 19 All-America awards.

?Despite a 35-6-2 all-time series lead over the Huskers, Utah is 1-3 at the BobDevaneySportsCenter. The Utes’ lone win came at the 1995 NCAA Regional Championships. When Utah last visited Lincoln in 2005, NU edged the Utes, 196.65-196.60.

 

Reviewing the Weekend: Nebraska’s Masters Classic

?Nebraska posted a score of 196.40 to win its 13th consecutive Masters Classic team title over No. 3 Stanford (195.80) and No. 22 NC State (194.475).

?Junior Emily Parsons competed as an all-arounder for just the second time this season and captured four individual event crowns: all-around (39.25), vault (9.925), beam (9.875) and floor (9.95).

?Parsons now owns 68 individual crowns in her Husker career.

?Sophomore Tricia Woo tied for the beam title -- her second of the year -- by matching Parsons’ 9.875.

?Sophomore Kylie Stone notched a 39.15 to finish second in the all-around with Stanford’s Carly Janiga.

?Junior Brittney Williams tied her career best on bars with a 9.875 to finish third with fellow Husker Desire’ Sniatynski. Williams previously hit the 9.875 mark for the first time at the Super Six Challenge on Jan. 5.

 

Parsons Named Big 12 Gymnast of the Week

Junior Emily Parsons was named Big 12 Gymnast of the Week for the second time this season, earning the 11th weekly conference honor of her career, the Big 12 office announced Tuesday. Parsons has also garnered Event-Specialist-of-the-Week nods three times in her junior campaign. Parsons, who is the nation’s No. 2-ranked vaulter, was recognized after finishing first in the all-around (39.25), vault (9.925), beam (9.875) and floor (9.95) at the Masters Classic last Sunday.

 

Parsons earned her 10th weekly conference honor last week after achieving the first perfect 10.0 score of her career on vault at NC State’s Hearts Invitational on Feb. 17. She has claimed 68 event crowns in just over two seasons at Nebraska.

 

Parsons has earned seven All-America awards in the last two seasons and finished fourth on vault and sixth on floor in the individual event finals at the 2006 NCAA Championships. Parsons was also named the South Central Regional Gymnast of the Year and snagged Big 12 Conference crowns on vault and beam in 2006. In a sophomore season that saw her earn four All-Big 12 nods (vault, beam, floor and all-around), Parsons went on to claim NCAA regional titles on vault, floor and all-around for the second straight year.

 

Kendig Builds One of Nation’s Top Programs at Nebraska

Head Coach Dan Kendig is the all-time winningest coach in the 30 years of Nebraska women's gymnastics history. In 13 seasons at Nebraska, Kendig is 324-118-4 overall and 228-44-2 in regular-season meets. Kendig is in his 24th year of coaching and owns a career record of 437-231-4.

 

A six-time Big 12 Conference Coach of the Year, Kendig has guided the Huskers to eight conference championships and three straight regional championships from 2000 to 2002.

 

He has also led Nebraska to 10 NCAA Championships appearances in the past 12 seasons, including NCAA Super Six Finals appearances in 1997, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2005 and 2006. Kendig was honored as the NCAA Coach of the Year in 1999 and 2003, a year in which the Huskers finished fourth nationally.

 

Under Kendig's guidance in 2006, Nebraska finished with a 26-11-1 overall record. The Huskers placed second (196.275) in the NCAA Southeast Regional behind Georgia and also placed fifth (196.175) in their eighth consecutive NCAA Championships appearance. Seven of Kendig's gymnasts -- Emily Parsons (AA, V, FX), Tricia Woo (BB, FX), Vanessa Meloche (UB) Michele Zabawa (UB) and Desire’ Sniatynski (UB), Stephanie Carter (FX) and Kylie Stone (V) -- earned a total of 10 All-America honors.

 

Kendig is assisted by associate head coach Danna Durante, who is in her fifth season with Nebraska, and assistant coach Tim Garrison, who is in his first year on the Husker staff.

 

Sniatynski Emerges as All-Arounder in Husker Lineup

Junior Desire’ Sniatynski has emerged as Nebraska’s top all-around competitor, as she ranks 15th nationally in the all-around standings with a regional qualifying score of 39.15. She is also rated 12th nationally on bars with a 9.86 RQS. After her career-high 39.375 performance at Missouri, Sniatynski was recognized with her first career Big 12 Gymnast-of-the-Week award on Jan. 31.

 

The Kenosha, Wis., native followed up with a 39.25 score to place second against Oklahoma on Feb. 2, when she also took a share of the floor title with teammates Emily Parsons and Kylie Stone with a 9.85. In addition, Sniatynski finished second on bars (9.85), third on vault (9.80) and seventh on beam (9.75). She most recently took third-place honors on bars at the Masters Classic by tying with junior Brittney Williams (9.875), while also finishing fourth on floor (9.85) and fifth (9.825) on vault.

 

A two-time All-American on bars, Sniatynski is the defending co-Big 12 bars champion. She has earned a total of 12 individual event crowns in just over two full seasons of competition for the Huskers.

 

Rock-Solid Stone Notches Career High All-Around at NC State

Sophomore Kylie Stone scored a career-high all-around score at NC State’s Hearts invitational on Feb. 17 with a 39.425, passing her previous record of 39.40 at the 2006 NCAA Super Six Finals. At the Masters Classic last Sunday, Stone finished second in the all-around (39.15) behind fellow Husker Emily Parsons’ 39.25. Stone placed fifth on vault (9.825) and fourth on floor (9.85).

 

After a superb showing at Michigan on Feb. 9, Stone was named Big 12 Event Specialist of the Week for the first time in her career. She was recognized after garnering the floor title against the Wolverines with a 9.925, while tallying an outstanding career-high 9.90 on vault.

 

A second-team All-American on vault, Stone headlined the steady 2006 freshman class and was an All-Big 12 honoree in the all-around with a 39.25 performance at the Big 12 Championships in Lincoln. She came to Nebraska with an impressive list of accomplishments, having been a 2004 Canadian Olympian and a four-time Canadian senior national champion.

 

Zabawa, Carter Tie Career Nights in Raleigh

Nebraska’s two seniors, Michele Zabawa and Stephanie Carter, each tied career-best marks on their respective events at the Hearts Invitational at NC State on Feb. 17. Zabawa notched a 9.90 to take second on vault and tie her career high, which was established in her freshman year on March 6, 2004 in a dual with Minnesota. The Omaha, Neb., native and three-time All-American also tied with teammate Kylie Stone for her first bars title of the season.

 

Carter also had a career-high-tying competition in North Carolina, contributing a 9.875 on floor to match her career mark, which she has hit twice in 2007 and a total of four times at Nebraska. Carter, who earned All-America status on floor in 2006, placed fourth on floor with fellow Huskers Tricia Woo and Desire’ Sniatynski, and added a 9.875 on vault for third-place honors.

 

A Bright Future: The New Husker Class Contributes to NU Lineup

Nebraska welcomed three true freshmen to its roster this season, as Maria Scaffidi, Kathryn Howard and Molly Ohnoutka joined the Huskers for 2007. A native of Sussex, Wis., Scaffidi is a former junior international elite gymnast. At the 2000 Junior Pan American Championships, Scaffidi led the U.S. team to a first-place finish, while also taking the all-around and beam crowns. Scaffidi scored a season highs of 38.60 in the all-around and 9.80 on beam to finish third on the event at the Masters Classic last Sunday.

 

Howard joined NU after the fall semester, having graduated early from KeystoneNationalHigh School. The Huntsville, Texas, native has made an immediate impact on the beam lineup, as she finished second on the event at Missouri on Jan. 26 with a career-high score of 9.875. Howard also achieved the Huskers’ highest beam score at Michigan with a 9.80 for second.

 

Ohnoutka, who hails from Omaha, Neb., will redshirt in 2007 while she rehabilitates an injury suffered during her senior year of high school.

 

Sophomore All-Americans Become Seasoned Veterans

Nebraska’s sophomore class includes a trio of returning All-Americans in Tricia Woo, Kylie Stone and Vanessa Meloche. Woo, a native of Milpitas, Calif., took first-team honors on floor at the NCAA Championships by finishing 10th, and second-team honors on beam. She has been as solid in her second year, as she tied with teammate Emily Parsons for first on beam with a season-high 9.90 against Oklahoma.

At the Masters Classic, Woo won her second beam title of the year by tying with Parsons (9.875). Woo also captured the 2005 Masters Classic beam crown.

 

The class also boasts a pair of former Canadian National Team members in Meloche and Stone. Meloche, a first-team All-American and the reigning Big 12 champion on bars, came out strong in her inaugural season as a Husker to win six individual bars titles. A seven-year member of the national team, she was the 2002 Canadian National bars champion. Meloche has claimed three bars titles in 2007, but suffered an injury on her landing on bars at Michigan three weeks ago. After determining that she sustained the third ACL tear of her gymnastics career, Meloche will undergo her 11th overall surgery and will be out for the remainder of the season.

 

A second-team All-American on vault in 2006, Stone grabbed an all-around crown and a floor title at PennState in 2006 to break into the NU lineup full-time. Before beginning her career at Nebraska, Stone competed in the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Greece, and finished 14th in the all-around at the 2003 World Championships in Anaheim, Calif., making her the highest-finishing Canadian female all-arounder in World Championships history.

 

Six Huskers Named to Big 12 Commissioner’s Honor Roll

Six current or former Nebraska women’s gymnasts were placed on the Big 12 Commissioner’s Fall Honor Roll, the conference office announced Feb. 5. The honor roll recognizes student-athletes with a grade-point average of 3.0 or higher during the previous semester, and within Nebraska’s 270 selections, 33 earned perfect 4.0 GPAs.


Former Husker Jamie Saas led the impressive contingent of women’s gymnasts on the list. Seniors Stephanie Carter and Michele Zabawa were honored for the seventh and sixth time, respectively. Sophomores Vanessa Meloche and Tricia Woo, as well as freshman Molly Ohnoutka, also achieved the conference academic honor. Meloche has been selected three times, while Woo and Ohnoutka both earned the honor for the first time in their careers.