Husker Gymnasts Halfway Home on Big 12, Big Ten Title Goals

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Last summer, when the ink was dry to formalize Nebraska's move to the Big Ten Conference on July 1, 2011, Dan Kendig, Danna Durante and Tim Garrison huddled up in their office to chart a rare competitive challenge - how to exit the Big 12 Conference one year and then transition to a league with twice as many women's gymnastics programs the next.

"Our focus was to dominate our last Big 12 championship and then dominate our first Big Ten championship a year later," Kendig said Monday. "We're halfway home."

Kendig, who has led Nebraska to a record 21 Big Eight/Big 12 Conference championships - 12 more than next-in-line Oklahoma - acknowledged his bold strategy Monday in the presence of Durante and Garrison, his two trusted assistants.

Given a chance to amend that double-barreled goal from "dominate" to "win" back-to-back championships in two different conferences, none of the three backed down. The goal is what it is ... great expectations based on tradition, confidence, consistency and athletes accustomed to embracing such a challenge.

Next weekend, Nebraska will travel to Corvallis, Ore., as the No. 2 seed in a regional hosted by Oregon State, the nation's No. 3-rated team. If form holds, Nebraska will be one of the two qualifiers from that six-team regional for the 2011 NCAA Championships in Cleveland. The other four Corvallis regional qualifiers are No. 15 Iowa, Southern Utah, San Jose State and Michigan State.

To help frame Nebraska's chances in the regional and national meets, we turn to the Huskers' four seniors describing Nebraska's upset win over No. 4 Oklahoma last Saturday in the Big 12 Championship in Columbia, Mo.:

Erin Davis: Seniors Laid Championship Foundation

For Erin Davis, life doesn't get any better than it was over the weekend. Not only was she the Big 12 vault champion with a 9.925 and the conference floor exercise champion with a 9.90, the senior from Round Rock, Texas, also took home the title of Big 12 Event Specialist of the Year.

"That was the best competitive day I've ever had at Nebraska," Davis said Monday. "This was the last Big 12 meet for our four seniors. We all wanted that championship really bad, and we knew we had to rise up and meet the challenge as an underdog. When we pulled it off, we made sure we celebrated like champions."

Davis wants the non-seniors to remember the way life used to be as a Nebraska female gymnast. "We all loved putting on the championship T-shirts and taking all the pictures of each other to remember what we just did," she said, "but we also know how important it will be to get back in the gym to prepare for regionals and nationals."

A back-to-back Big 12 vault champion, Davis felt she was competing for more than her fellow seniors in their last conference championship. "We talked last week, and we really wanted to lay the foundation for this team to be Big Ten champions next year," she said. "It wasn't about beating Oklahoma. It was doing what we knew we could do."

Davis was so exhausted that she was still sleeping late Monday morning with the little brown beanie baby dog she received four years ago. "I sleep with Roscoe every night," she said, explaining that, like gymnastics, it's become habit.

Maria Scaffidi: Came in and Left as a Champion

Unlike her non-senior teammates and incoming recruits, Maria Scaffidi won't have the opportunity to win back-to-back championships in two different conferences. But the Sussex, Wis., native had the pleasure to celebrate a Big 12 Conference championship as both a freshman and a senior.

"Our senior goal was to go out of the conference with a big bang, and that's exactly what we did," said Scaffidi who won the Big 12 title with a 9.90 on uneven bars.

"As a freshman, Oklahoma was not really a rival for us," she said. "But then they won the next three conference meets (including one in 2009 when an injury forced Scaffidi to redshirt that season). Oklahoma had not lost all season, and they were favored to win at Missouri. It was incredibly exciting to be back on top and especially fun for me to compete on a Big 12 champion team as a freshman and go out as a Big 12 champion as a senior."

Scaffidi says she couldn't have written the script any better. "No one would have envisioned me as an individual conference champion as a freshman," she said. "But thanks to a lot of hard work, great coaching, plenty of experience and the right people teaching me not to be so nervous, I was able to do something out of the ordinary for the team. It was unreal to come through for my teammates with my mom and dad in the stands."

The result was the best bus ride back to Lincoln that Scaffidi has ever had. "It was so much fun," she said. "Everybody was yelling and screaming. We were all so happy for each other. We were so giddy, we even had a good old time watching a couple of movies on the way home ("The Next Three Days" with Russell Crowe and "Due Date" with Robert Downey Jr.). It's great to have a day off, but we'll all be ready to get back in the gym and prepare for regional."

Maddie Steinauer: Team Leveraged Psychological Unity

There is no doubt that the Huskers' move up to No. 10 in the national rankings this weekfollowing the upset of No. 4 OU had a rock-solid psychological foundation to it. Just ask Omaha native and fellow senior Maddie Steinauer. She transferred from Cal State-Fullerton to experience what she did last weekend. Though not an event champion, Steinauer was remarkably consistent and pivotal to the upset, posting a 9.875 on balance beam, a 9.850 in floor exercise and a 9.825 on vault.

"It was a great feeling ... something that still feels like a dream," Steinauer said Monday, admitting she thinks she knows what enabled the Huskers to take OU with a certain amount of shock and awe.

"Oklahoma beat us every meet last year and beat us at home this year (196.30 to 195.80 at the Devaney Center on Feb. 6)," Steinauer pointed out. "The most frustrating part of this year's loss was Oklahoma showed more outward emotional support for their teammates than we showed for ours in our own facility.

"I think Saturday in Columbia was the loudest I've ever heard our team pull for each other," Steinauer said. "It was real love for our teammates, but it came with a strategy. Our seniors talked about it with Dr. (Larry) Widman (team psychiatrist). He helped show us how we can reinforce each other like we never have before and do it without being obnoxious.

"We cheered each other on and helped each other perform at Missouri," Steinauer said. "We wanted to step it up in terms of loudness, and I think it worked. The idea wasn't so much to intimidate the opponent, but I think we had so much fun, they could see it, and it might have gotten a little bit intimidating."

 Brittnee Habbib: She Grew Up Learning to Aim High

Great expectations are what lured Brittnee Habbib from North York, Ontario, to Nebraska. She chose the Huskers over national power Utah.

"My dad always taught me that setting high goals is always the first step of doing something great," said Habbib, who performed admirably in Saturday's championship.

Habbib's father, Wayne, a successful entrepreneur in Toronto, "told me always aim high for everything you want to do," Habbib said. "That's the way I was brought up and what attracted me to Nebraska in the first place. That philosophy has stuck with me every year I've been here and will stick with me for life."

No wonder the first-team Academic All-Big 12 gymnast and five-year Canadian National Team member can speak fluent French, play the piano and believe she can become "America's Next Top Model" at the same time she prospects for the right job in Communication Studies, post-graduation.

"Nebraska has taught me that when you put your mind to something and work hard, anything's possible," said Habbib, who scored a 9.825 on balance beam and a 9.775 on uneven bars in the Big 12 Championship. "It was huge for us, almost unreal, if it hadn't been exactly what we intended to do. Everything kind of came from within. We've been waiting for that one moment to explode, and we did. The Big 12 was our time to shine."

Dan Kendig: Best Prepared Team He's Ever Had

Nebraska's Big 12 performance at Missouri was no fluke, even if the Huskers were ranked No. 11 and taking on an unbeaten No. 4 nationally ranked team.

"It may have seemed like a big upset, but I went in thinking we were going to do exactly what we did," Kendig said. "Going into the meet, I felt this team was more prepared than we've ever been for any conference championship. To be honest with you, we were so well prepared that, for the first time this season, I was more concerned about (uneven) bars than I was about (balance) beam."

For Kendig, saying goodbye, so long and farewell to the Big 12 and especially Oklahoma, coached by friends K.J. Kindler and Lou Ball, was a bittersweet experience.

"They coached at Iowa State before going to Oklahoma, and I believe they made us better just like we made them better," said Kendig, who was surprised his team received a police escort in Columbia Saturday night to a post-championship dinner that drew 65 Husker gymnasts, coaches, parents and other family members and friends.

Next year, Nebraska women gymnasts will compete in an eight-team championship instead of a four-team championship. Michigan, Penn State, Ohio State, Michigan State, Illinois, Iowa and Minnesota are the women's gymnastics programs that will welcome Nebraska into the league.

"We've had a great rivalry with Michigan," Kendig said, and the series record proves his point. The Husker women gymnasts lead the Wolverines all-time, 18-17-1. Nebraska also holds a 26-9 edge over Penn State, 16-3 over Iowa, 6-2 over Michigan State, 16-2 over Illinois and 19-9-1 over Minnesota. The only Big Ten team which has an all-time lead over Nebraska is Ohio State with an 11-8 edge.

"It's interesting," Kendig said. "We won the last three conference championships in the Big Eight and the first three in the Big 12. At one point, we won nine in 10 years, so it's nice to be back on top again."

Huskers Well Positioned to Meet Big Ten Goal

Obviously, Nebraska will lose four outstanding seniors from its 2011 Big 12 Conference championship team, but every senior leaving the program firmly believes the Huskers are ideally positioned to win the 2012 Big Ten Conference women's gymnastics title.

"We laid the foundation," Davis said.

"We ended with a big bang in the Big 12, but there's going to be even more explosions in the Big Ten," Scaffidi said.

"Of course, they'll win the Big Ten because they're already working toward that goal," Habbib said.

"The Big 12 was only the beginning," Steinauer said. "The recruits we have coming in next season are so awesome, they'll pick right up where we leave off. It won't be easy, but our coaches and athletes like a challenge, so I think we'll definitely be Big Ten champions next season, even without us four seniors."

Yes, Nebraska is halfway home on its ultimate goal to win back-to-back championships in two different conferences, and the good thing about shooting for the moon is even if the Huskers miss, they're still bound to land among the stars, especially if they continue to take care of business the rest of this season.

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