No. 9 Huskers Host Nation?s Best at MPSF Championships

The ninth-ranked Nebraska men’s gymnastics team leaps into post-season action this weekend as it hosts five of the nation’s top teams for the 2008 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Championships. The meet is scheduled to start at 2 p.m. on Saturday, April 5. Tickets for the championship are available at the Devaney Center doors on April 5 or through the official Nebraska Athletic Ticket Office website at Huskers.com or by calling 800-8BIGRED. All seats are general admission and tickets for adults will be priced at $5, while tickets for NU students and students K-12 will be priced at $3.

Live statistics for the event will be available at http://www.huskers.com//fls/100/wgym/08mpsfregionals.htm.

Five teams will complete the field, including No. 1 Stanford, No. 2 Oklahoma, No. 4 California, No. 9 Nebraska and No. 15 Air Force.

Not only are some of the nation’s strongest teams vying for the MPSF title, but also many of college gymnastics top individual competitors will be present, including second-ranked all-arounder David Sender of Stanford. Additionally, the meet will host the nation’s No. 1-ranked individuals on floor exercise (Stephen Legendre), still rings (Jonathan Horton) and parallel bars (Tim McNeill).

Nebraska will also bring competition to the conference championships, including junior T.J. Schmidt, who is ranked ninth on pommel horse and seventh on parallel bars. Senior Stephen Tetrault is also ranked 20th on the pommel horse and 15th in the all-around, while sophomore John Robinson is ranked 20th on vault. Sophomore Kyle Shanahan will also be a vital competitor in the all-around, as he earned MPSF Gymnast of the Week honors last week.

NU starts the postseason after setting a season-high score of 353.65 over Air Force to close the regular season on March 22. With the win, Nebraska improved to 5-7 on the season and 3-6 in the MPSF.

Since joining the MPSF conference in 1994, Nebraska has captured two team titles in 1997 and 1999. After 1999, Oklahoma notched seven of the last eight conference championships.

Individuall, NU is looking for its first event title at a conference championship since Josh Rasile took top honors on the vault in 2002. Likely candidates include Schmidt, Tetrault, Robinson or Shanahan. Tetrault finished sixth in the all-around last season, while Schmidt placed third on pommel horse.

Following the 2007 MPSF Championships, Nebraska will wait to learn if it has qualified for the NCAA

Championships, which features the nation’s top 12 teams in three days of competition at Palo Alto, Calif., on April 17-20.