Huskers Gain Experience at Winter Cup

Las Vegas, Nev. ? Nebraska senior Jason Wassung, junior Stephen T?trault and sophomore T.J. Schmidt went head to head against some of the nation’s top gymnasts at the Sports Center Arena in Las Vegas, Nev. on Thursday for the preliminary round of the 2007 Winter Cup. All three Husker gymnasts performed as part of 42 competitors in Session I, which began at 2 p.m. on Thursday.

 

Despite solid performances from the Nebraska trio, none of the Huskers advanced to the event finals, which consists of the top 42 competitors from the combined preliminary sessions. Wassung finished 10th overall in Session I with a score of 81.70. The senior all-arounder’s top performance came on the pommel horse, where he tied for 11th (13.70), while he also put up strong finishes on the vault (15.15) and high bar (13.80), tying for 13th in both.  

 

Schmidt and T?trault finished 27th (54.70) and 28th (54.60), respectively, with neither gymnast competing in all six events. Schmidt, normally an event specialist, continued that trend at the Winter Cup. The Blair, Neb., native, who owns a pair of parallel bars titles this season, put up an especially solid routine on that event to finish eighth (14.55) in the session. Schmidt also finished 14th on pommel horse (13.45).

 

After a lengthy absence from the all-around due to a knee injury suffered during a vaulting warm-up, T?trault was again held from the floor exercise and vault at the Winter Cup. But the Lincoln, Neb., native gave a strong performance on the four remaining events, gaining the highest event finish of the three Huskers with a seventh-place showing on the pommel horse (14.20).

The top 42 gymnasts from both sessions combined, based on the points ranking system approved by the Men’s Program Committee, advanced to the finals, which begin at 9:15 p.m. central on Saturday, Feb. 10. Stanford's David Sender leads the way heading into the finals with an all-around score of 89.45, followed by Team Chevron's Alexander Artemov (88.75) and Texas/HGA/GymMasters competitor Sean Townsend (88.10).

Fans are able to catch the action from the final day of the Winter Cup via a free, live Web cast on Feb. 10 beginning at 9 p.m. U.S. Olympians Steve McCain (2000) and Mihai Bagiu (1996) will serve as commentators for the event. A link to the free Web cast is provided at the top of this page.

Wassung, T?trault and Schmidt rejoin the No. 10-ranked Huskers following this weekend’s competition and enjoy a two-week training period before Nebraska hits the road to take on the Iowa Hawkeyes on Saturday, Feb. 24 at 7 p.m.