Huskers Travel to Missouri for Tiger Classic

The <?xml:namespace prefix="st1" ns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags"?>Nebraska track and field team will leave Lincoln for the last time until after the Big 12 Indoor Championships this weekend when it goes to Columbia, Mo., to compete against Missouri, Indiana and Wichita State in a quadrangular meet on Friday afternoon.<?xml:namespace prefix="o" ns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office"?>

 

The Huskers will take momentum from a string of strong performances last weekend at the Holiday Inn Invitational and will begin preparing for a solid field next weekend when they play host to the 29th Annual Frank Sevigne Husker Invitational.

 

Events in the Tiger Classic will get underway at 4 p.m. on Friday beginning with the men’s weight throw and the women’s long jump.  Action on the oval will commence at 6 p.m., beginning with the 60-meter hurdles, and is scheduled to end at 9:15 p.m. with the 4x400-meter relay.  The meet is not team scored.

 

While the entire Husker track and field will not travel to Missouri, a squad of about 60 athletes will see action in the four-way meet.

 

Scouting the Competition

Nebraska will see its first action against a Big 12 Conference foe this weekend when they lineup against Missouri in the Tiger Classic. The Huskers will also take on Wichita State and Indiana for the only time during the indoor season before the NCAA Indoor Championships.

 

Missouri finished last in a triangular the Tigers hosted last weekend, falling short of conference foes Kansas and Kansas State. Despite the finish, three MU athletes posted provisional-qualifying marks, including Amanda Bales (mile), Conrad Woolsey (shot put) and Janae Strickland (shot put).

 

Woolsey currently leads the conference in the men’s shot put with a throw of 60-3 1/2, and is the only Tiger who holds the top spot on the Big 12 performance list.

 

The MU men and women took third at the 2003 Big 12 Indoor Championships, while the women were 27th at the NCAA Indoor Championships and the men finished 45th.

 

Wichita State’s women took fourth and the men finished sixth among 13 teams last weekend at the Air Force Invitational in Colorado Springs, Colo.  Junior Paul Speer automatically qualified for the NCAA Indoor Championships in the heptathlon with a school record 5,555 points.

 

Indiana is coming off second-place finishes by its men’s and women’s team last weekend at the Ohio State Three-Way meet, falling to Ohio State and defeating Purdue.

 

Successful Stint in the Holiday Inn Invitational

Nebraska got off to a great start on its home track last weekend in the Holiday Inn Invitational. The Huskers proved to be in great shape when the season began two weeks ago at the Panther Classic in Cedar Falls, Iowa, but several personal-bests set in the Holiday Inn Invite showed that they are continually improving.

 

Dusty Stamer and Christi Lehman earned their first NCAA provisional-qualifying marks of the season, while several others improved their qualifying marks. Stamer ran a solid provisional-qualifying time of 6.67 in the 60-meter dash, while Lehman cleared 13-0 1/4 in the pole vault to provisionally qualify for the national meet. Becky Breisch improved her automatic mark to 54-8 in the shot put. Ineta Radevica leaped a season-best 43-7 in the triple jump, and Priscilla Lopes dropped her time in the 60-meter hurdles to 8.21.

 

Overall, the Huskers won 18 events and set 43 personal-best marks.  The Huskers doubled wins in the mile, the 800 meters, the distance medley relay, the 600-yard run and the triple jump.

 

The Best of the Best

The Huskers boast some of the best track and field athletes in the country, and they have the rankings to prove it. Ten NU marks rank in the top five among NCAA Division I performances.

 

Ineta Radevica’s leap of 21-0 1/2 in the long jump is leading the nation by two and three-quarter inches. Radevica’s mark of 43-7 in the triple jump ranks fourth.

 

Showing Nebraska’s depth in the women’s pole vault, three Huskers rank in the top five in the nation, including Jenny Green (second), Jessi Graff (tied for third), and Christi Lehman (tied for fifth).

 

In the multi-events, Chris Richardson and Ashley Selig both rank fourth in the heptathlon and pentathlon, respectively.

 

Sophomore Priscilla Lopes is also fourth on the women’s 60-meter hurdle list with a time of 8.21.

 

Dusty Stamer’s time of 6.67 is tied for fifth in the nation.

 

In the shot put, Becky Breisch is fifth with a throw of 54-8, while teammate Leann Boerema is 20th with her mark of 51-0 1/4.

 

Big 12 Standings

Several Huskers hold the top spot in the Big 12 rankings, and several more rank near the top of their events.

 

Dusty Stamer is second behind Oklahoma’s DaBryan Blanton in the 60-meter dash with his personal-best time of 6.67, ran at the Holiday Inn Invitational. He is also tied at eighth with teammate Andrew Pearson in the 200 meters with a time of 22.20. Oliver Williams Jr. is ranked fourth in the event and Shelldon Simpson is fifth.

 

Eric Rasmussen leads the conference with his 14:40.57 in the 5,000-meter run, clocked last weekend.  Ann Gaffigan leads the way in the women’s 3,000 meters with a time of 9:45.03, and Kayte Tranel has the top time in the 5,000 meters (17:30.25).

 

The Husker women pole vaulters have a firm grip on the conference race, taking the top four spots led by Jenny Green and followed by Jessi Graff, Christi Lehman and Alissa Koerner.

 

Ineta Radevica is on top of the long jump with her mark of 21-0 1/2 and the triple jump with her leap of 43-7.

 

Going 2-3-4 in the 60-meter hurdles are sophomore Courtney Jones (7.99), Richard Davidson Jr. (8.04) and Nenad Loncar (8.08).

 

On the women’s side, Priscilla Lopes ranks sixth on the 60-meter dash list (7.46), third in the 200 (24.06) and third in the hurdles (8.21).

 

Freshman Gable Baldwin is second among conference leaders in the men’s pole vault with his mark of 16-11 3/4 at the Pole Vault Summit.

 

Fellow freshman Daniel Roper is ranked second in the long jump (24-8 1/2) and fifth in the triple jump (48-11 3/4).

 

Becky Breisch has been passed on the shot put chart by Texas freshman Michelle Carter with a throw of 55-11. Breisch ranks second and teammate Leann Boerema is fourth.

 

The female pentathletes hold the second, third and fourth spots, with Ashley Selig ranking second followed by Sara Jane Baker and Casie Witte.

 

Nebraska Women Vault to No. 4 Ranking

After just two weeks of work, the Nebraska women have gone from a No. 7 ranking to fourth in the latest TrackWire rankings. The Husker men have fallen to 21st.

 

The TrackWire 25 is a power ranking which projects a hypothetical score for the NCAA meet, factoring injury reports and other variables supported by information gathered from coaches and NCAA-qualifying competitions.

 

The Louisiana State women and the Arkansas men are the heavy favorites to repeat as national champions in 2004. Each team returns two national champions, including one with multiple championships.

 

The Nebraska women have been projected to score 34 points in the national championship meet, while the men are projected to score 10 points in the team race, to tie with Oklahoma, Kansas, Washington and Connecticut.

 

Lopes, Stamer Begin Record Book Revisions

Sophomore Priscilla Lopes and junior Dusty Stamer have already began etching their names in the Nebraska school record books in their first season on the track for the Huskers.

 

Lopes’ time of 8.21 in the 60-meter hurdles last weekend was the second-best mark in school history. The Whitby, Ontario, native is only one-hundredth of a second off of Shelley-Ann Brown’s record set during the 2002 season. Lopes’ time of 7.46 in the 60-meter dash also ranks as the fourth best mark in NU history, and her time in the 200 meters (24.06) ranks ninth all-time.

 

If she continues to drop her times in the hurdles like she has the past two weeks, Lopes’ name will likely be the newest name on the Nebraska record board sometime in the near future.

 

Stamer’s time of 6.67 in the 60-meter dash ran at the Holiday Inn Invitational is tied as the fourth-best mark in school history. Chris Chandler holds the current record with a time of 6.61 set during the 2000 season.

 

Husker Newcomers Setting the Standard

The Nebraska newcomers have taken no time making their presence known in the first few weeks of the 2004 track and field season. Nine newcomers hold the Huskers’ best mark in their event after just two weeks of competition.

 

Five of those nine are freshmen. Grand Island natives Jenny Green and Gable Baldwin are leading the way in the women’s and men’s pole vault. Dmitrijs Milkevics ran a career-best time of 1:51.54 in the 800 meters at the Holiday Inn Invitational to lead the team.

 

Daniel Roper holds the top mark in the long jump, leaping 24-3 1/2 in the first meet of the season at the Panther Open.

 

Frosh Danute Ceika holds the top time in the 800 meters by more than six seconds. The Valmiera, Latvia, native clocked a personal-best 2:13.06 at the Holiday Inn Invitational.

 

Newcomers who are not freshmen that lead their event include Dusty Stamer (60-meter dash),  Aaron Nasers (mile), Cory Timm (shot put) and Dijana Kojic (600-meter run).

 

Welcome to Nebraska, Here’s the Track

Nebraska earned the services of four newcomers at the semester break. Issar Yahzbin,  Artur Abolins,  Aaron Nasers and Matt Senske have all joined the squad and will compete for the Huskers this season.

 

Abolins is a freshman long jumper from Riga, Latvia. The frosh competed for NU in the 60-meter dash at the Panther Open, taking third place in 6.88, and leaped 23-1 1/4 in the long jump at the Holiday Inn Invitational.

 

Nasers, a sophomore transfer from Western Michigan, also competed for the Huskers in Cedar Falls, taking second in the 800 meters in 1:54.41. The Kalamazoo, Mich., nativ also ran a team-leading time of 4:12.82 in the mile run at the Holiday Inn Invitational.

 

The other two newcomers are freshmen throwers. Yahzbin has recorded a personal-best mark of 200 feet in the hammer throw, while Senske is a Papillion, Neb., native who throws the javelin.

 

Green Rewrites Pole Vault Record

Freshman Jenny Green wasted no time in setting a new standard for the Nebraska women’s pole vaulters. The Grand Island, Neb., native cleared a height of 13-9 1/4 at the 2004 Pole Vault Summit in Reno, Nev., to become Nebraska’s first NCAA automatic qualifier.

 

The mark crushed junior Christi Lehman’s previous record by five and one half inches set at the NCAA Indoor Championships in 2003. Green won the college women’s division of the Summit competition and her mark would have finished fifth at the 2003 NCAA Indoor Championships. Three of the four athletes that set a mark better than Green’s at the 2003 national meet were seniors last year.

 

NU Returns Four National Champs in 2004

Nebraska is the only Division I university that returns four 2003 NCAA individual national champions to its 2004 squad. The Huskers return Carl Myerscough (indoor and outdoor shot put), Eric Eshbach (outdoor pole vault), Ineta Radevica (outdoor triple jump) and Becky Breisch (outdoor shot put).

 

North Carolina comes the closest to Nebraska, returning three individual national champs from the 2003 season, including indoor shot put winner Laura Gerraughty.

 

The Huskers also return the services of seven All-Americans, including Kyle Odvody (high jump), Na’Tassia Vice (high jump) and Artur Wszelaki (javelin) in addition to the four national champions.