Selig, Scotten Aid NU's Big 12 Indoor Title Hopes

Lincoln - Ashley Selig and Ray Scotten claimed individual conference titles for Nebraska Friday in the first day of action at the Big 12 Indoor Track and Field Championships held at the Bob Devaney Sports Center Indoor Track. NU set the pace in the races for both the men's and women's Big 12 team titles entering Saturday’s final day of competition.

               

The Husker women (39) hold a 13-point lead over second-place <?xml:namespace prefix="st1" ns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags"?>Colorado (26) in the team standings going into tomorrow’s day of finals, thanks mostly to the pentathlon. The men’s squad narrowly leads KansasState by a 33-31 score.

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Selig helped the Husker women get rolling early by breaking the Nebraska school record while winning the women’s pentathlon with 4,269 points. The Lincoln, Neb., native recorded personal bests in the 60-meter hurdles (8.67), shot put (38-8 3/4) and 800-meter run (2:11.26) to boost her score past Janet Blomstedt’s former school record of 4,235, which she set in 1996 for a then-American Record. Selig also finished fifth in the women’s long jump competition to pick up four more team points for the Husker women.

 

“Ashley had a great day, not only in (the pentathlon), but also coming back to help the team in the long jump,” Head Coach Gary Pepin said. “She had quite the first day.”

 

While Selig stole the show in the pentathlon, teammate Sara Jane Baker also had a career day in the event by compiling a personal-best score of 3,962. The total earned her second place for the NU women, while Casie Witte added a fifth-place point total in the competition.

 

Scotten claimed the Big 12 men’s pole vault title with his personal-best height of 18-0 ?, the third time he has reached the mark this year. Scotten edged Oklahoma’s Scott Martin, who he had trailed nearly the entire round due to late missed attempts, but cleared the final mark on his first try. Gable Baldwin also placed for NU, earning fourth with his vault of 17-5 1/2.

 

While other NU athletes competed mainly in preliminary rounds Friday, several performances stood out. In all, 21 Huskers advanced to tomorrow’s final day of action.

 

Dmitrijs Milkevics broke his 2004 Big 12 Indoor Championships meet record in the men’s 800 when he recorded a time of 1:48.29 to win the preliminary round. The race was the first competitive 800-meter race Milkevics has ran since he reached the semifinals of the 2004 Olympics in Athens, Greece, while it also gave him his first NCAA provisional-qualifying time of 2005.

 

“I thought that it was a good run for him,” Pepin said. “And it’s only the first time he’s run (the 800) this year, so it looks like he should offer some good competition tomorrow.”

 

Aaron Nasers won the men’s 1,000-meter preliminaries in 2:23.34, while Nenad Loncar recorded a blazing time of 7.80 to win the men’s 60-meter hurdle prelims. Loncar’s performance matched Richard Davidson Jr.’s Big 12-best for the year, while also earning Loncar his first provisional-qualifying mark for 2005.

 

Dusty Stamer matched his personal-best time of 6.65 in the men’s 60-meter dash, set last year, to advance to tomorrow’s final round, while Priscilla Lopes easily qualified in both the women’s 60-meter hurdle (8.10) and dash (7.37) events.

 

“It’s pretty hard to tell where (our teams) sit right now,” Pepin said. “I think we had a pretty good first day, but it’s still too early to tell how that reflects on the team standings.”

 

The Big 12 Indoor Championships continue Saturday morning at the BobDevaneySportsCenter with the conclusion of the men’s heptathlon at 9:30 a.m. Normal field events kick off at 1:30 p.m. with the women’s triple jump, while running events begin at 2 p.m. with the women’s 60-meter hurdles finals.