Lincoln Journal Star from Lincoln, Nebraska • 21

iTTTsfwnPTn Ml (nicks survive Hfce, llornetslo take 2- Lincoln Journal Star Sunday, Aprl 27, 1997 I r-) Hcmnbleton I i faB.fc..uJra,m,Mi,....,l,M,, l.TiMl;,Ui,.Mi,1IB.iiin..n, 1.11,,11.,11-Hri,,.,- ILv. TO TV nifl fill flflU A-i II 11 li IV II II II 11 if II li II El II tl Jl 14 11 flH 18, JuL V1, BY KEN HAMbLETON 'X 5 "'vl I tJncoln Joumal staf I ipi i jrm i i ni.i,i..i,ii,mii.i i mil i If it's possible to win a spring game, matching a team against itself, Nebraska must have come close Saturday, when the Reds beat the Whites 34-28 before 42,018 curious fans in Memorial Stadium. Judging from the smile on Coach Tom Osborne's face, to the glowing reports of players from the rebuilt defense and the injury-ridden offense, it seemed everybody was a winner. From the smashing runs of red-shirt freshman Dan Alexander whom seemingly nobody can tackle or wants to tackle, according to quarterback Scott Frost to the smothering tackles of defensive standouts Jason Peter and Chad Kelsay, the annual intrasquad scrimmage was a success. -Osborne explained his enthusiasm.

"Overall, the offense did a little better today," he said. "I hope they don't have to go up against a lot of defenses that are better than our No. 1 defense. We didn't load things up the way so many do by putting all the top players on one team, and we saw some great competition. I thought the offense was getting a bit of confidence.

"I wanted this to be like playing at Colorado or at Washington. And we shouldn't see a lot better people on the other side than we saw today all next year." He downplayed the lack of passing success Frost was 7-of-27 for 109 yards and backup Frankie London was 4-of-6 for 46 yards and praised the running of I-backs Ahman Green and Alexander. Nebraska's defense, searching for eight new starters, was solid throughout the scrimmage. "We have a chance to be pretty decent on defense, and that's encouraging, because most years when our defense has been fairly dominant, we have had a good football team," Osborne said. Frost said he was impressed with the defense.

"It's pretty exciting to see that we lost eight guys to graduation from the starting defense and we have the talent to replace them right away this spring," he said "It didn't seem to me like we were missing much on defense." The White team, made up of the h. 4 RANDY HAMPTONUncom Journal Star Aaron Wills of the Red team knocks the ball from White team quarterback Jeff Perino early in the second quarter of Saturday's NU Spring Game at Memorial Stadium. The ball was recovered by the Red's Gregg List 37 yards behind the line at the White 4-yard line. The Reds held off the Whites 34-28. spring game numbers.

We've got everybody back here, and we're going to have a good passing game. "I was really happy with the offense compared to the first three scrimmages (this spring)," Frost added. "We came out with the idea we were going to dominate the line of scrimmage, and we got some first downs and moved the ball well." The Reds scored on a long drive against a mix of the first and fourth defenses, getting the help of a fake punt by Dan Hadenfeldt and two de- fensive penalties. Aaron Wills set up the next score when he knocked the ball out of the hands of White quarterback Jeff Perino and teammate Gregg List recovered at the 4-yard line. Two plays later, quarterback, Monte Christo scored.

Jeremy Stanislav, who played six-man football in high school at Prague, scored for the Reds to pad the lead to 28-7, capping a drive that was More on NU, Page 2C 'Inspired' Husker wins with record toss say and Co. stopped almost everything, the rest of the first half, including all but 3 of 17 passes. In the 13 drives that the top offense had against the top. defense, the offense managed a total of two touchdowns and a field goal, and was forced to punt 10 times. "This was a rough spring for passing because we had guys missing from the offensive line, we had some (passes) dropped some I didn't put in the right place," Frost said.

"But I don't put a lot of stock in 14m. 77 Variety spice of spring rehearsal Calm down. Take a deep breath. It was only one of four major spring football scrimmages. The annual Red-White-Sawyer-Brown-Say-No-To-Drugs Spring Game did not help or hurt Nebraska's chances of playing in the Alliance Bowl in Miami for the national championship next January.

Nebraska still has to play at Washington, at Colorado and possibly, at San Antonio, Texas, next December against Texas or Texas in the Big 12 playoff What did it all mean Saturday at Memorial Stadium? To Coach Tom Osborne, the most important aspect of the intrasquad scrimmage was that there were no serious injuries. "On balance, we came through this OK," he said. That's all spring ball can be at its best -OK. If the offense looks too good, it makes you wonder about the defense, Osborne said. If the defense dominates everything, it usually means the whole team will be pretty good the next fall, Osborne said.

So what were 42,018 fans doing in Memorial Stadium Saturday afternoon? There was something for everyone: For those who like watching monster trucks smash cars or those who enjoy watching Godzilla kick the heck out of Tokyo, it would be easy to find pleasure in watching freshman I-back fullback Dan Alexander run, If your pleasure is watching movies where sharks shred boats, shake of harpoons and attacks, then the Nebraska defense will keep your attention. Even when it appears the shark is mortally wounded, it rallies to eat the boat captain's leg. In the same vein (pun intended), when Nebraska lost eight starters from one of its best defenses ever, it appears ready to chew up the Big 12 again. If you enjoy those thrillers in which the hero is stuck in his car as it goes over a cliff or the heroine is tied to the railroad -tracks, you probably enjoy the Nebraska passing game. Remember, this is Nebraska, where a thrown ball isn't just a pass, it's an adventure.

The Huskers will need to pass some. Nebraska's quarterbacks, especially Scott Frost, did not pass well this spring. But it is spring. It doesn't count Passing relies on timing and time. Nebraska's defense didn't give the offense much of a chance at either this spring.

Dancing and acrobatic feats are there for the asking, with the Eunt returns of Shevin Wiggins, the ick returns of Ralph Brown and defense of Eric Warfield, Octavious McFarlin and Mike Brown. There was the drama of Leslie Dennis, a starting cornerback in the fall of 1994, who has been riding the bench the last three years because of knee troubles. Saturday, he came off the bench and caught up with I-back Ahman Green at the end of a 67-yard run. "I keep an extra set of knees in my back pocket, and I guess I was able to use them on that play," Dennis said. The Spring Game offers plenty of humor, too.

Punter Bill Lafleur's much delayed pratfall after almost getting hit during a Eunt in the first quarter would ave made Charlie Chaplin proud Osborne popped off one-liners as well as Rodney Dangerfield: "I think the key to the White team doing so much better in the second half was the fact that I had absolutely no communication with them from the press box. So without me, they did much better. With me, they were minus 1 yard of offense in the first half. That shows you the value of coaching." If the popular show "Friends" is your fancy, you would have enjoyed defensive tackle Jason Peter asking roommate Grant Wistrom if he'd still be able to cook dinner aftet suffering a severely broken finger. "That probably won't hurt your golf swing either," Peter quipped.

For those who wanted the real taste of a game, rush end Aaron Wills went to the trouble of playing the role of Brian Bosworth. After a sack, Wills strutted and was called for a penalty. As Osborne said, "This was just a iehearsaL" rfw i I if top defense and No. 2 offense, opened the scoring when punt returner Shevin Wiggins raced 78 yards along the sideline only 2:13 into the game. The Red team, which included the top offense, quickly recovered when Green broke through the left side of the line and sprinted 67 yards before he was caught from behind by cornerback Leslie Dennis at the White 9-yard line.

Three plays later, Frost scored to tie the game. The top offense (Reds) then ran into a wall of defense as Peter, Kel lttle bit cocky with Connie, Thomp son said. "You know, 'I'm coming after you, but first I'm going to get the Relays She actually encouraged me. I was warming up for prelims and it kind of threw me off because she got really intense with me. "But I really appreciated it." Thompson, who won both the NCAA indoor and outdoor champi onships last year, had her best throw outdoors Saturday.

Her indoor best is60-7'i. "I thought the finals were going to be better," she said. "(Price-Smith) got in my face, I got in her face, the adrenaline started going in my body and I just started getting really intense." Thompson's win in the shot put was her second of the day. Saturday morning, she won the university-college division discus with a throw of 168 feet. That was three feet shy of her best this season and 3 feet, 3 nches off her all-time mark.

"I'm consistent around 170 feet, but I still think I can get in the 180s," she said. Like in the shot put, Thompson's winning throw came on her fifth attempt. Before then, eventual runner-up Rhonda Hackett of Georgia had taken the lead with a toss of 160-1. "I wasn't for sure who my competition was. Discus ain't my main event, so I just come in really relaxed," Thompson said.

"When I saw who I had to compete against, I was like, 'Hmm, I have a chance to and got in my mind that I was going to take first." Nebraska's Angee Henry, a win- Jockey Julio Garcia was just as concerned. "I thought, 'Oh my God, I'm he said. But with a little help, Leifeld was able to get Garcia to Fonner Park in time to ride Windy's Halo to a two-length victory in the $100,000 BosselmanGus Fonner Handicap in front of an estimated 4,500 fans. "Julio is a good rider," Leifeld said. "He makes a lot of difference." Windy's Halo, a ship-in from Santa Anita Park in California, covered dHAjUjXcrvO p.

Aft BY CURT McKEEVER Lincoln Journal Star 1 DES MOINES, Iowa Michael Johnson stopped the Drake Relays competition briefly Saturday, but the track superstar's presence only served as inspiration to Nebraska shot putter Tres-sa Thompson. Minutes after Johnson won the special 200-meter dash in a 1997 world-best time of 20.05 seconds, Thompson unleashed a Relays university-college division record throw of 58 feet, Vjinch. THOMPSON sets mark "They'll have to put up with me like that some day," said Thompson, taking the momentary delay caused by Johnson in good humor. That, however, was not how Thompson was feeling after three preliminary throws. At that point, her best put was 54-7.

"I kept falling back at the beginning," Thompson said. "I went up to my coach and said, 'What's wrong, what can I do to He's like, 'You've just got to do it Go after the Relays Thompson also was inspired by Connie Price-Smith, a 1996 U.S. Olympian who had the best throw of the day at 60-1 but was not recognized as the winner because she is not in school. "I'm out here kind of getting a Cowboys corral win over NU BY RYLY JANE HAMBLETON Lincoln Journal Star It will take perfection to make Oklahoma State Coach Tom Holliday really happy, but he was cheered up by his Cowboys' performance Saturday, The Cowboys counted on a complete-game pitching effort from Jon Adkins and a grand slam by Nathan Kaup to earn an 8-2 victory against Nebraska at Buck Beltzer Field in the second game of a three-game series. The Cornhuskers won the opener Friday and the final game of the series will be today at 1:05 p.m.

"I guess I'm getting a little picky now that we're 36-13, but I'm not satisfied with four out of five on the road," Holliday said. The Cowboys swept Iowa State before coming to Lincoln. "We're stiU a little flat," Holliday added. "You start smelling the tour-; naments and you're looking for the perfect game. Our guy on the mound gave us a chance to go out and get things done.

He's done that a whole bunch and I give him credit for giv- ing us a chance to go out and swing -the bats." Adkins picked up just his second complete game of the season to im- prove to 9-4. He gave up home runs to Gabe Garcia and Craig Moore and allowed just two other hits while striking out nine and walking just two. Adkins faced the minimum 15 batters over the final five innings, with his defense turning double plays in the sixth to offset a walk and to end the game after allowing a single. "We're getting extended to the lat-' ter part of the season, so we're look-. ing for our starters to pick it up," the sophomore right-hander said.

"The past two or three outings, our start-' ers have been knocking off six or seven innings, which helps when you get to tournaments because then you have to use your bullpen a lot. "I didn't feel I had to do anything extra today to get us going, just get in seven innings and turn it over to the bullpen." Adkins didn't need that The Cowboys put him on top 2-0 in the second inning when Nathan Kaup doubled in Jay McCuIlough, then scored on a More on BASEBALL, Page 7C ASSOCIATED PRESS A World-record holder Michael Johnson celebrates his victory Saturday in the men's invitational 200-meter dash at the Drake Relays in Des Moines, Iowa. Johnson, competing in his first 200 of the season, recorded a 1997 world best of 20.05 seconds. Vvu KVv 111. Doane's Shannon wins men's 100.

7C State's Michelle Baptiste by 2 inches. Nebraska freshman Dalhia Ingram was third at 19-8H, but got Henry's Drake Relays watch (the reward for winning an event) as a token of appreciation. Ingram would More on DRAKE, Page 7C worthwhile without a little help. After Garcia departed the plane in Lincoln and found no one there to pick him up, he approached airport security. They called John Skold, State Fair Park's general manager, who in turn called Doug Schoepf, the racing secretary at Fonner Park.

Schoepf was able to get ahold of Leifeld on his cellular and send him to Lincoln. Realizing 'the time More on RACE, Page 7C IF Windy's Halo makes owner's mad dash ner in the triple jump Friday, didn't feel that way during Saturday's long jump competition, but still pulled off a leap of 20 feet, 3Vi inches to join Thompson as a double winner. "I felt good, but I was dragging my feet," Henry said. "I was just dropping too soon because I was getting a lot of height It kind of scares you up there you want to get to the ground." Henry beat Southwest Missouri the mile and l16th in 1:44 25. Nebraska-bred Skunktail, a local favorite, was second.

Prince Of The a ship-in from Oaklawn Park in Arkansas, was third. Windy's Halo, a 5-year-old gelding, gave Leifeld and trainer Tom Garry their second consecutive Bosselman trophy. The two teamed to win the race with Sahara King in record time (1:43) last year. Leifeld, owner of Trucking Inc. in Grand Island said they couldn't have pulled off the victory BY JEFF KORBEUK Lincoln Journal Star GRAND ISLAND Thoroughbred owner Don Leifeld didn't have a chance Saturday to get nervous prior to the state's richest horse race.

He was too busy trying to find his jockey in another part of the state. "I was suppose to pick him up in Omaha and he flew into Lincoln," Leifeld said. "I didn't know where he was at, it was 2 o'clock.".