Sports shorts

By Mike Bushnell

Published Feb. 22, 2008

Gymnastics to make TV debut

The No. 13 gymnastics team’s biggest home match of the season, a tilt against No. 6 Oklahoma, will air on cable and broadcast outlets across Missouri’s Interstate 70 corridor. The match will air on KOMU/Channel 8 in the central part of the state, on KCWE/Channel 29 in western Missouri and on Fox Sports Net Midwest in the St. Louis area. The gymnastics team enters Friday night on a three-match winning streak, but those wins have come against teams from outside the conference. In MU’s toughest match to date, with Big 12 rival Nebraska, they lost. The match is the only blemish on their 5-1 record in the Big 12. MU’s Sarah Shire is the reigning Big 12 Gymnast of the Week. The match at the Hearnes Center starts at 6:30 p.m.

Baseball picked to finish second

The Big 12’s baseball coaches have picked MU to finish No. 2 in the conference, finishing behind only Texas. They garnered one first-place vote, and coaches aren’t allowed to vote for their own teams. It is MU’s highest preseason ranking ever, eclipsing when they were picked to finish third in 2006. The Tigers were ranked eighth last season but finished second in the league. They lost in the regional round of the NCAA Tournament after losing two games in a row to Louisville, when one win would have put them in the super-regionals. Texas has been picked to win the Big 12 seven seasons in a row and got eight of the 10 first-place votes in the conference. Iowa State and Colorado do not field baseball teams. Missouri has also been picked No. 6 in the nation in Baseball America’s preseason rankings, which is its highest national preseason ranking ever.

Football players in NFL combine

Graduating seniors tight end Martin Rucker, wide receiver Will Franklin and cornerback Darnell Terrell are participating in the National Football League’s draft combine through this weekend in Indianapolis. Usually, every team’s top scouts and executives attend the event, which is considered a major barometer for determining where a player will get drafted or whether a player will be drafted at all. The only player from MU’s 2006 season to receive an invitation to the combine was defensive end Xzavie Jackson, who did not play in the league this season. He spent the last half of 2007 on the Philadelphia Eagles’ practice roster. Rucker, a consensus All-American in 2007, is the only player projected to be drafted in the first two rounds of the draft.