Huskers Add Four NCAA Qualifiers at adidas Classic

The Nebraska men's and women's track and field teams hosted a home meet, the adidas Classic, for the second straight week Saturday afternoon at the Bob Devaney Sports Center Indoor Track. Athletes from Division I schools Drake, Iowa State, Northern Iowa, Oklahoma State and Wichita State, as well as Division II Lincoln (Mo.), provided stiff early-season competition for the Huskers.

NU notched its first NCAA automatic qualifier when sophomore Priscilla Lopes raced to an 8.14 finish in the women's 60-meter hurdles, improving on her pervious season best, which was a provisional-qualifying time of 8.18. Lopes also earned her first provisional mark in the 60-meter dash, which she won handily in a time of 7.38.

Sophomore Dmitrijs Milkevics, a 2004 NCAA All-American both indoors and outdoors in the 800-meter run, made his indoor season debut an overwhelming success by winning the men's 1,000 meters in a personal-best 2:22.82. The time ranks as the second-fastest ever on the Huskers' all-time charts, merely 0.70 slower than junior teammate Aaron Nasers' school record 2:22.12 set at last year's Big 12 Conference Championships. Nasers flourished in the men's 800-meter race, claiming first place in 1:51.23.

Freshman sensation Dusty Jonas excited the Devaney Center crowd of 1,376 early in the day by tying his personal-best height of 7-3 in the high jump. He previously recorded a jump of 7-3 in 2003 at the AAU National Junior Olympic Games, setting a meet record. With his effort, Jonas recorded the seventh-best mark in NU history.

Senior sprinter Dusty Stamer reached his first provisional qualifying mark by winning the men's 60-meter dash in 6.71. A member of the 2004 NCAA All-American outdoor 4x100-meter relay team, Stamer also set a personal-best time of 22.00 in the 200-meter dash to finish eighth.

The trio of junior Courtney Jones and seniors Nenad Loncar and Richard Davidson, Jr. finished 1-2-3 in the men's 60-meter hurdles. Jones reached the provisional qualifying mark by notching a time of 7.91. Loncar and Davidson finished in respective times of 7.98 and 7.99.

Junior Jessie Graff won the women's pole vault over senior teammate Christi Lehman by clearing a provisional-qualifying height of 12-11 1/2. Lehman, who reached the standard last week, recorded a vault of 12-5 1/2. Junior Ray Scotten, a 2004 All-American in the men's indoor pole vault at Southern Illinois, won the men's contest with a height of 17-0 3/4. Scotten just met the provisional-qualifying standard, while sophomore Gabe Baldwin finished third by vaulting 16-6 3/4.

Junior Kwonya Ferguson owned the women's jump events on the day, claiming first-place finishes in both the triple jump (41-6) and high jump (5-8 1/2), while taking second in the long jump (19-0). Ferguson improved on the provisional-qualifying height that she set last week in the triple jump, while her leap in the high jump tied her career-best performance.

Peter van der Westhuizen, a recent addition to the NU men's ranks, dominated the mile run by winning in a time of 4:12.98. Van der Westhuizen finished ahead of second-place Craig Cartier of Iowa State by more than four seconds. The South Africa native also competed in the men's 1,000 meters, claiming third place (2:25.26).

Other winners for NU included senior Anne Shadle, who ran a career-best 2:11.47 in the women's 800, and Egle Uljas, who recorded the 10th-fastest 600-yard time (1:20.65) in Husker women's history in her first collegiate race. Sophomore Sheryl Morgan added a first-place finish in the women's 200 meters with a mark of 24.24.

The Huskers will hit the road for the first time this season next weekend when they travel to the Northern Iowa Invitational in Cedar Falls, Iowa, on Saturday.