NU Adds Plas, Abolins to NCAA Qualifier List

Nebraska Track and Field Head Coach Gary Pepin took a reduced squad of athletes to Cedar Falls, Iowa, Saturday for the UNI Invitational. The meet, which included competitors from Kansas State, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Northern Iowa and Wichita State, was hosted by Northern Iowa at the UNI Dome.<?xml:namespace prefix="o" ns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office"?>

 

Despite the limited number of Husker entries, NU was able to add two more names to its growing list of NCAA meet qualifiers. Thirteen Nebraska athletes have now met the NCAA provisional-qualifying standard in an event, to go along with junior Priscilla Lopes’ automatic mark in the women’s 60-meter hurdles.

 

Junior Aaron Plas recorded the NU performance of the day when he cleared a height of 7-3 ? in the men’s high jump. The mark, which shattered his previous indoor personal best of 7-1 ?, easily surpassed the provisional-qualifying requirement and was merely ? inch short of the automatic standard. Plas performance gives the NU men their second such qualifier in the high jump, to go along with freshman Dusty Jonas.

 

"Aaron really jumped well today," Pepin said. "He also had a really good chance to clear 7-4 1/4."

 

Not to be outdone, sophomore Arturs Abolins also gained conditional status in the men’s long jump, winning with a season-best leap of 24-10. Abolins, the defending Big 12 Indoor long jump champion, competed at the NCAA meet in 2004, finishing 14th. He also sprinted to a personal-best time of 6.84 in the 60-meter dash.

 

"I though Arturs jumped well," Pepin said. "Plus, it was good to see him go out and have a performance in the 60 (meters) like he did."

 

The women’s long jump event also went to a Husker, junior Ashley Selig, who blew away the field with her jump of 19-10 ?. Selig’s mark, which was a career best by nearly 11 inches, beat second-place Christina Taylor (19-4 ?) of Wisconsin by six inches.

 

Several members of the NU men’s squad recorded runner-up finishes, including redshirt freshman Bubba Kramer (56-10) in the shot put, sophomore Daniel Roper (48-7 ?) in the triple jump and junior Aaron Ross, who equaled his season-best time of 8.12 in the 60-meter hurdles.

 

Junior Jessie Graff and senior Christi Lehman earned second and third place finishes in the women’s pole vault with respective heights of 12-5 ? and 11-11 ?, while junior Kwonya Ferguson produced third place in the women’s triple jump with a mark of 42-0 ?. Another junior, Jamie Senkbile, smashed her previous personal-best spin of 52-4 ? in the weight throw. Senkbile recorded a distance of 56-4 ? to finish fourth.

 

Nebraska returns to action next weekend when it hosts the 30th annual Frank Sevigne Husker Invitational on Friday and Saturday at the Bob Devaney Sports Center Indoor Track. Multi-event action begins at 1 p.m. Friday and will be followed by a limited number of events at 6 p.m. A full day of competition is slated for Saturday, beginning at 10 a.m.