Corn Kernels, April 21-27 -- Banquet Edition

Sorry for the late post this week.  I had a really busy weekend, and didn't have a chance to look over the week's results and previews.

This time of year is when the regular seasons for most spring sports wrap up, with finals and the summer approaching.  Softball and Baseball, of course, still play on into the summer, and track & field may keep running all the way to the Olympic trials, but most sports are riding into conference and national championships.

Of course, with the year ending, so too comes the end-of-the-year banquet, where the Male & Female Student Athlete of the Year awards are handed out.  This year, Sarah Pavan (volleyball) won the award for the women, while Stephen Tetrault (gymnastics) won the award for the men.  The women's cross country team and men's tennis team won the Herman Awards for top team GPAs.

The Men's Gymnastics team had the most significant competition of the week, competing in the NCAA Championships in Palo Alto, CA.  The Huskers started off strong, but fell out of the team finals, finishing 9th out of 12 teams.  Four Huskers, including former All-Americans Stephen Tetrault and T.J. Schmidt, competed in the individual competitions, but failed to advance to the event finals.

Three members of the Women's Gymnastics team will compete this Thursday at the NCAA Championships in Athens, GA.  Seniors Emily Parsons and Desire` Sniatynski will compete in the all-around competetion, while junior Tricia Woo will compete in the Beam.  All three were named All-Big XII, and Parsons, Nebraska's only 100-event winner, was named South Central Regional gymnast of the year.  Woo, who placed 1st in the Beam in Regional competition, is one of only 2 event specialists at the NCAA championships.  Event schedules can be found here.

More Huskers qualified this week for the NCAA Track & Field regionals, with Joslyn Dalton, Rachel Carrizales, Brian Parr, and Lara Crofford all notching qualifying times at the SAC Relays, while the relay teams and field events performed strongly at the Kansas Relays, with Regional No. 2 Kayla Wilkinson beating the top-ranked javelin thrower, while Husker Tyrell Ross  two-time Olympian Tom Pappas in the 110m Hurdles by .2 seconds.  The schedule continues this week with the Drake Relays Wednesday-Saturday and the Nebraska Open in Lincoln on Sunday.

It was another up-and-down week for the Husker Softball team, as they picked up their first conference win of the season by splitting a doubleheader with Baylor on Sunday, then lost at Iowa State 13-6 on Tuesday.  The Wednesday home game against the Cyclones was postponed until April 29 due to inclement weather.  The Huskers then wrapped up the week with their final two road games of the season, dropping 2 games at Oklahoma State.  The Huskers will remain in Lincoln for the rest of the regular season, beginning with a doubleheader against North Dakota State on Wednesday, and then a two-game home series with Big XII-leading Texas A&M on the weekend.

The Golf teams wrapped up their regular seasons early last week, with the men finishing 12th at the Palisades Golf Classic and the women survived a flu outbreak and came back to finish 8th at the Lady Buckeye Invitational.  Both teams participate in the Big XII Championships this weekend, with the Men going to Trinity, TX, and the Women going to Stillwater, OK.

The Men's and Women's Tennis teams also head to the Big XII Championships this weekend, with the Men seeded 7th, facing 2nd-seeded Baylor, and the Women also seeded 7th, facing 10th-seeded Kansas State.  The Men dropped their final two matches of the regular season, 7-0 to Baylor and 6-1 to Oklahoma.  The Women, ranked 67th nationally, went 1-2 in their last week, dropping 3-4 matches to Colorado and Kansas, and beating Kansas State 6-1.  All Big XII Tennis Championship events will take place in College Station, TX.
Edit 7:29 PM 4/21/08: I didn't see it earlier, but the Big XII has a preview of the Big XII Tennis Championships up on its site.