The second annual Tumble N Rumble meet at the Devaney Sports Center Friday night brought “all around” smiles to many faces – athletes, coaches and fans. Mark Manning’s Husker wrestling squad rumbled their way to a 25-6 win over Purdue. Dan Kendig’s women’s gymnastics team earned their first win of the 2015 season with a 195.30 – 190.55 win over Lindenwood. An enthusiastic crowd of 3,506 fans enjoyed the dual meet action keeping warm indoors on a nippy Nebraska night.
The No. 12 Nebraska wrestling team (5-1, 2-1 Big Ten) was victorious in 8 of 10 matches. Top-ranked NU wrestler Robert Kokesh continued his quest for an undefeated season with a winning decision over Chad Welch 9 – 4. In a surprise upset, second-ranked Husker wrestler James Green lost in tiebreaker-1 to Doug Welch, 5-4. This was Green’s second loss of the season so he moves forward with a record of 18-2.
An unexpected bright spotlight of the night featured unranked NU sophomore Aaron Studebaker upsetting 8th-ranked Braden Atwood in the 197 pound weight class, 3- 1. The former Raymond Central sophomore had been wrestling in the 184 pound weight class previously, but TJ Dudley was in that spot on this night, moving Studebaker up to the 197 weight class. WAY TO GO AARON!
197: @Dudbaker22 with the upset of Atwood! 3-1!#Huskers lead 21-6#TumbleNRumble
— Nebraska Wrestling (@HuskerWrestling) January 10, 2015
On the “flip” side in the gymnastics competition (see what I did there), the star performer of the evening was Ashley Lambert. She won 2 events – vault (9.875) and floor (9.825). Her well executed routines on vault, beam, bars and floor exercise brought her 1st career ALL-AROUND victory (39.175)! Hollie Blanske was a very consistent competitor across all 4 events which placed her 2nd in the ALL-AROUND competition (39.125). Jennie Laeng completed a very strong routine on bars and won the event title (9.825).
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Freshman Grace Williams, in her first collegiate meet, participated in the vault, beam and floor events. Her beam routine won the event with a high score of 9.80! That’s some GRACE! (I’m on a roll!) No. 9 Nebraska women’s gymnastics comes into the 2015 season with a smaller squad and less depth than last season. With this victory over Lindenwood, Coach Kendig marks his 600th victory. WAY TO GO COACH KENDIG!
Tonight also marks Head Coach Dan Kendig's 600th Career Win! Congrats coach!! pic.twitter.com/mr7aFdV1mm
— Nebraska Women's Gym (@HuskerWGym) January 10, 2015
Coach Kendig’s team has only 12 members but returns a group of several All -Americans. He was prepared to compete with just 10 girls last night but injuries and sore muscles reduced that number to 9. In an interview earlier this week said the quality of routines is far more important to him than how many girls he has to perform them. The ladies finished up their meet first but went to support the grapplers. I think that’s a pretty awesome display of sportsmanship. Well done, ladies.
Huskers support Huskers. #TumbleNRumble pic.twitter.com/3bzzC4WSk4
— Nebraska Women's Gym (@HuskerWGym) January 10, 2015
Nebraska wrestling continues its season in two weeks when it travels to Champaign for a dual meet with Illinois, Friday, Jan. 23 at 7pm. Nebraska women’s gymnastics will return to Devaney next Saturday, Jan. 17th, when they welcome Penn State. Competition will begin at 3 p.m. and be televised on the Big Ten Network. As always GO BIG RED!!!