Selig Highlights Day One of Husker Invite

Lincoln ? Sophomore Ashley Selig recorded the nation-leading mark in the pentathlon to lead the Huskers in the first day of the Frank Sevigne Husker Invitational Friday afternoon at the Bob Devaney Sports Center Track.

The Lincoln Lutheran graduate recorded a score of 3,958 points to finish third in the women’s pentathlon and win the top spot among collegiate athletes. Selig put on a dominating performance in the 800-meters with a winning time of 2:14.16 as she fell across the finish line.

"I feel that I really had a mediocre day," Selig said. "I didn’t hit personal records in my field events. I just hung in there. I didn’t have terrible marks, but I didn’t shine. I finished out okay, so it was a solid mark, but it is something I want to improve on. It is still early in the season and I want to keep getting better."

Selig also was third in the 60-meter hurdles to open the day with a time of 8.82 and threw an indoor career-best mark of 37-3 ? in the shot put.

"Ashley ended up with a great score," multi-event coach Rick Attig said. "She’s on the verge of some breakout performances in the field events, and they just didn’t happen today. She finished really strong though."

Teammate Sara Jane Baker took seventh place with 3,676 points on the day. Baker tied for first place in the high jump, clearing a height of 5-7. Fellow sophomore Casie Witte finished 13th with her score of 3,269.

Senior Chris Richardson had a fantastic day in the men’s heptathlon and is in second place after the first four events with a score of 2,970 points. The Boulder, Colo., native set personal-best marks in three of the four events on the day. Richardson ran a career-best in the 60-meter dash with his time of 7.23 and tied career-best marks of 41-7 ? in the shot and cleared 6-4 ? in the high jump.

"It was a good day," Richardson said. "I’m really pleased with my high jump. I felt like I should have cleared the bar at 6-6. We were talking, and I wish we could have stayed on the track and finished today because once you have a good event, you get momentum and you just want to keep rolling."

Redshirt freshman Lee Martin is in fourth place, with a score of 2,779 points in his first heptathlon of the season. Teammate Jesse Colburn is seventh with 2,637 points and Corlan Vonderschmidt is 11th with 2,372.

The men’s heptathlon will conclude Saturday beginning at 10 a.m. with the 60-meter hurdles. The rest of the meet begins with the men’s weight throw at 10 a.m. and the action on the track gets underway at 11 a.m. with the preliminaries of the 60-meter hurdles.

The meet will feature up to 10 NCAA champions from the 2003 season and nearly 40 All-Americans from last year. The meet is scheduled to wrap up at 8:05 p.m. with the men’s 4x400-meter relay.