NU Set to Host 30th Annual Frank Sevigne Husker Invitational

The Nebraska men’s and women’s track and field teams will be geared up for the finest meet of its indoor regular season this weekend when it hosts the 30th annual Frank Sevigne Husker Invitational at the Bob Devaney Sports Center Indoor Track.

Competition is scheduled to begin with multi-events at 1 p.m. Friday, with the sprint prelims to follow at 6 p.m. The men’s and women’s long jump and weight throw events will also be held Friday, beginning at 6 p.m., as will the 5,000-meter run, which will conclude the day’s competition. A full slate of action is scheduled for Saturday, beginning with the conclusion of the men’s heptathlon at 10 a.m. Field events will follow the heptathlon, while action on the oval begins at
1:15 p.m. Team scores will not be kept during the invitational A complete event-by-event schedule can be found at Huskers.com.

The Huskers appear ready to compete at top form in this year’s Husker Invite. Several athletes participated in last Saturday’s UNI Invitational in Cedar Falls, Iowa, but the majority of the squad took the weekend off for training purposes. NU hopes to be prepared as 13 other Division I squads will be coming to Lincoln. Teams with athletes scheduled to compete this weekend include Alabama (women), Baylor, Drake, Iowa (women), Kansas, Kansas State, Kentucky, Minnesota, South Dakota State, Southwest Missouri State, Texas-El Paso, Washington State and Wyoming.

Meet recaps and results can be found at Huskers.com following the conclusion of both Friday and Saturday’s competition, while live results will also be offered both days.

Scouting the Competition
This year’s Frank Sevigne Husker Invitational will feature athletes who have already posted nearly 50 NCAA provisional-qualifying marks during the 2005 season. Nebraska itself owns 14 qualifications.

Highlighting this year’s action will be the men’s 35-pound weight throw, which features seven of the current top-30 ranked athletes in the NCAA. Husker junior Tom Donlin, who currently holds the No. 29 spot, will compete against second-ranked Coby Cost (Kansas State), No. 7-ranked Sheldon Battle (Kansas), No. 13 Zack Schaefer (Wyoming), No. 14 Kyle Herl (Wyoming), No. 20 Tarl Vetter (Kansas State) and No. 22 Andy Tilstra (Minnesota).

The women’s pole vault should also prove to be a competitive event, as four of the NCAA’s current top 16 will compete. Two of those top athletes, senior Christi Lehman (ninth) and junior Jessie Graff (16th), will compete for the Huskers, while Kate Sultanova (fifth) and Tamara Diles (seventh) will represent Kansas and Washington State, respectively. Sultanova currently ranks second in the Big 12 with a height of 13-7 1/4.

Three of the nation’s top men’s high jumpers will square off on Saturday. NU junior Aaron Plas claimed the No. 4 slot on the way to shattering his career best last weekend at the UNI Invite. His mark of 7-3 1/4 is slightly better than that of freshman teammate Dusty Jonas (No. 5), who has leaped 7-3. Another freshman, Kentucky’s Michael Mason, sits at No. 7 in the country after reaching 7-2 1/4 last weekend.

Husker sophomore Arturs Abolins, who set a provisional mark last weekend in the men’s long jump, is the highest seeded of six athletes that claim bests above the NCAA provisional mark. The women’s triple jump should be nearly as competitive. Junior Kwonya Ferguson, rated No. 7, will face off with Alabama’s La Tasha Pharr, who competed at the 2004 NCAA Outdoor Championships in the 100 meters, and Southwest Missouri State’s Luan Weekes, who reached the same NCAA meet in the triple jump.

One of the premier battles of the weekend will be in the women’s 60-meter hurdles. 2004 NCAA champion Priscilla Lopes, the lone automatic qualifier in the nation for the event thus far, competes against Alabama’s Beau Walker, who ranks sixth in the country. Lopes owns a season-best time of 8.14, while Walker has recorded an 8.28.

Other elite college athletes to keep an eye on this weekend include Alabama’s Beth Mallory (No. 12, women’s weight throw) and Tahesia Harrigan (2004 60-meter dash All-American); Baylor’s Darold Williamson (No. 2, men’s 400), Lakadron Ivery (2004 NCAA Indoor qualifier-women’s 200) and men’s 4x400-meter relay (2004 NCAA Indoor and Outdoor champs); Iowa’s Peaches Roach (2004 NCAA Indoor qualifier); Kansas’ Benson Chesang (2004 Big 12 men’s cross country champ); Kansas State’s Laci Heller (No. 19 women’s weight throw); Kentucky’s Andy Fryman (No. 15, men’s shot put); Southwest Missouri State’s Casey Owens (No. 12-women’s 3,000); Texas-El Paso’s Adriana Pirtea (2004 NCAA Indoor qualifier-women’s 3,000); and Washington State’s Julie Pickler (No. 3, women’s pentathlon).

Athletes competing unattached this weekend include Leo Bookman (Kansas, 2004 NCAA Indoor champ-men’s 200), Eric Eshbach (Nebraska, 2003 NCAA Outdoor champ-men’s pole vault), Ann Gaffigan (Nebraska, former American Record holder-women’s 3,000-meter steeplechase), Shane Lavy (Nebraska, seven-time All-American-men’s high jump), Brad Teeple (Nebraska, 2004 All-American-men’s pole vault) and Shellene Williams (2004 NCAA Indoor qualifier-women’s 200).

Plas, Abolins Reach NCAA Provisional Status at UNI
Nebraska 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.

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 Priscilla Lopes’ automatic mark in the women’s 60-meter hurdles.

Aaron Plas recorded the NU performance of the day when he cleared a height of 7-3 1/4 in the men’s high jump. The mark, which shattered his previous indoor personal best of 7-1 1/2, easily surpassed the provisional-qualifying requirement and was merely 1/2 inch short of the automatic standard. Plas’ performance gives the NU men their second provisional qualifier in the high jump, to go along with Dusty Jonas.

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

Not to be outdone, 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 3/4. Selig’s mark, which was a career best by nearly 11 inches, beat second-place Christina Taylor (19-4 3/4) 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 1/4) in the triple jump and junior Aaron Ross, who equaled his season-best time of 8.12 in the 60-meter hurdles.

Jessie Graff and Christi Lehman earned second- and third-place finishes in the women’s pole vault with respective heights of 12-5 1/2 and 11-11 3/4, while Kwonya Ferguson produced a third-place mark of 42-0 3/4 in the women’s triple jump. Another junior, Jamie Senkbile, smashed her previous personal-best spin of 52-4 1/2 in the weight throw. Senkbile recorded a distance of 56-4 3/4 to finish fourth.

NU Athletes Rank Among Nation’s Best
While still early in the season, Nebraska athletes have already started to make noise on the national scene. Huskers were ranked among the top-10 athletes for eight events on this week’s NCAA performance list. Overall, 13 NU athletes, seven men and six women, appeared on the NCAA list.

Priscilla Lopes leads the way for the women’s squad as the only Husker to crack the top-10 in two events. Lopes’ time of 8.14 ranks No. 1 in the 60-meter hurdles, while she currently places ninth in the 60-meter dash. Kwonya Ferguson is the next highest-rated Husker, placing seventh in the triple jump. The pole vault and pentathlon are the deepest events for the women’s team with two ranked athletes each. Christi Lehman (ninth) and Jessie Graff (16th) are both national-level competitors in the pole vault, as are Ashley Selig (12th) and Sara Jane Baker (21st) in the pentathlon.

The highest-rated athletes for the NU men’s team both compete in the high jump. Aaron Plas breaks onto the list this week for the first time at fourth place, while Dusty Jonas follows right behind in fifth. Arturs Abolins jumped one space in the long jump from seventh to sixth, while junior Ray Scotten remained eighth in the pole vault. Senior Dusty Stamer, who did not compete last week, fell from sixth to 12th in the 60-meter dash, and junior Coutney Jones remained 16th in the 60-meter hurdles. Tom Donlin rounds out the NCAA rankings for NU with his 29th-place ranking in the weight throw.

Both Husker squads also appear in this week’s Trackwire Top 25, a set of rankings that are used to predict the outcome of the NCAA Championships based on season-best performances. The NU women are 16th this week, down from 12th last week, while the men’s team remained 25th.

How Huskers Stack Up Against the Big 12
Nebraska is proving to be a major force in the Big 12 Conference race for 2005. In the most recent league-wide performance list, Huskers rank among the top-5 performers in 33 events.

Two NU women have earned the top spot in their respective events, Priscilla Lopes in the 60-meter hurdles and freshman Egle Uljas in the 600-yard run. Lopes is the only Husker to rank in the top 5 for three events (60 meters-second; 200 meters-fourth), while Kwonya Ferguson (triple jump-second; high jump-third), Ashley Selig (long jump-second; pentathlon-second) and senior Anne Shadle (800-third; 1,000-third) each appear in two events.

Sophomore Dmitrijs Milkevics, who owns the top spot in the 1,000, is the only member of the Husker men’s team to currently rank No. 1 in an event, but eight athletes sit close behind in second place. Arturs Abolins (long jump), Courtney Jones (60-meter hurdles), sophomore Lee Martin (pentathlon), Aaron Plas (high jump), Daniel Roper (triple jump), Ray Scotten (pole vault), Dusty Stamer (60 meters) and senior Paul Wilson (5,000 meters) each have earned the second-best conference mark for their respective events. NU men rank among the Big 12’s top 5 in 15 total events.

Last Year’s Sevigne Invitational
The Huskers notched some monster performances at last year’s Frank Sevigne Husker Invitational, led by Priscilla Lopes in the women’s 60-meter hurdles.

Lopes twice broke the NU record in the event on her way to setting an NCAA automatic-qualifying mark of 8.15. She easily won the hurdles and finished second in the 60-meter dash. Ashley Selig also performed well in the women’s pentathlon, finishing third overall and first among collegiate athletes. Selig’s score of 3,958 was an NCAA-leading mark at the time. Former Husker Ineta Radevica collected the most Husker gold during the meet, winning both the women’s long and triple jump events.

Dmitrijs Milkevics nearly broke the Nebraska men’s indoor 800-meter record with his winning time of 1:48.75. He instead settled for the Devaney Center and Husker Invite records for the event. Former NU thrower Carl Myerscough kicked off his season by winning the men’s shot put with an automatic-qualifying mark of 67-10 1/4, while Brad Teeple took gold in the men’s pole vault.

Most Valuable Performers for the 2004 Husker Invite were Florida’s Candice Scott, who set Devaney Center and meet records of 75-5 1/2 in winning the women’s weight throw, and Minnesota’s Mitch Potter, who broke the same marks in the men’s 400 with his winning time of 46.00.

Ex-Husker Greats Return to Devaney
Six former Nebraska All-Americans are scheduled to appear among the field this weekend. The men’s pole vault will feature the most ex-athletes with 2003 NCAA outdoor pole vault champion Eric Eshbach and 2004 NCAA All-American Brad Teeple competing against NU’s current crop of vaulting greats. Shane Lavy, a seven-time All-American from 1996-99, will return to the Devaney Center Track for the men’s high jump, and Na’Tassia Vice, who placed eighth at last year’s indoor national meet, will vie for the women’s high jump title. Ann Gaffigan, who set the former American Record for the 3,000-meter steeplechase at last summer’s U.S. Olympic Trials, is entered in the 3,000-meter run, while Chris Richardson, who won gold at last year’s Big 12 Outdoor Championships, will battle in the heptathlon.

NU Adds Three to RosterThe Husker coaching staff went international in its search for the finest athletes during the past year, and three impact athletes were added to Nebraska’s roster for the 2005 season during the past week, two each to the men’s and women’s squads.

The most accomplished athlete of the group, freshman Egle Uljas, hails from Tallinn, Estonia. Uljas, also a renowned concert pianist, reached the semifinal round of the women’s 400-meter dash at the 2004 Olympics after recording a career-best time of 51.91 in the quarterfinals. That mark would rank No. 1 on NU’s all-time indoor charts, ahead of former Husker Ximena Retsrepo’s school record of 52.12. Uljas is the reigning Estonian national indoor champion in the 400, and holds national records in the 300 meters (38.71), 400 meters both indoors (54.25) and outdoors (51.91) and the indoor 600-yard run (1:20.65).

Like the women’s team, the Husker men also landed a top-level athlete from South Africa. Sophomore Peter van der Westhuizen, from Kempton Park, South Africa, has recorded personal-best times of 1:50.35A over 800 meters and 3:44.0 over 1,500 meters. Van der Westhuizen’s 1,500-meter mark would place seventh on NU’s all-time performance list. He placed second in the 1,500 at the 2003 South African Junior (Under-20) Championships, as well as third in 2002.

Freshman Gatis Spunde, Nebraska’s final addition to the men’s squad, hails from Smiltene, Latvia. Specializing in the 400-meter hurdles, he won the 2004 Latvian national championships in the event, while also earning the Balkan Championships title the same year. Spunde owns a personal-best clocking of 51.31.

Please see accompanying bio supplement for more information on Nebraska track and field’s newcomers.

Lopes Earns Weekly Big 12 Honor
Priscilla Lopes, the defending Big 12 champion in the 60-meter hurdles, was named the Big 12 Female Track and Field Athlete of the Week on Jan. 18 for her performance at the Holiday Inn Invitational. Lopes received indoor recognition for the first time in her career.

The Whitby, Ontario, Canada, native won both the 60-meter hurdles and 200-meter dash at the invitational hosted by NU at the Devaney Center. Lopes reached the NCAA provisional-qualifying mark for the hurdles in each of her three heats, posting times of 8.37, 8.33 and 8.18. She recorded a time of 24.18 in the 200.

In her first season as a Husker in 2004, Lopes claimed the NCAA title in the 60-meter hurdles with a school-record time of 7.96 at the NCAA Indoor Championships. She added a silver-medal performance in the 100-meter hurdles at the 2004 NCAA Outdoor Championships, and later represented Canada in the 100-meter hurdles at the Olympic Games in Athens, Greece.

Fabrice Lapierre from Texas A&M garnered the men’s weekly award after provisionally qualifying for the NCAA meet in the long jump.

All-Americans Headline 2005 Captains
The NU track and field team elected eight athletes to serve as captains during the 2005 season. The group of four men and four women have accounted for a total of seven All-America honors and three individual Big 12 championships through their careers.

Husker women appointed captains included two seniors, Christi Lehman and Anne Shadle, one junior, Ashley Selig, and one sophomore, Priscilla Lopes. Lehman (2003 indoor pole vault) and Shadle (2004 indoor 1,000 meters) are both former Big 12 champions, while Lopes (sprints/hurdles), Selig (pentathlon/heptathlon) and Lehman have each earned All-America honors over the course of their careers. Lopes won the 2004 indoor national title in the 60-meter hurdles.

Senior Dusty Stamer leads the men’s quartet of captains after earning 2004 outdoor All-America recognition as a member of Nebraska’s school-record-setting 4x100-meter relay. Seniors Richard Davidson, who claimed third place in the 110-meter hurdles at last year’s Big 12 Outdoor Championships, and Kyle Goerl, who placed eighth in the decathlon at the same meet, were also elected. The lone non-senior to be named a men’s captain, junior Nic Petersen, earned eighth place in the pole vault at last year’s Big 12 Indoor Championships.

Ten Returning All-Americans to be Featured in 2005
A total of 10 NCAA All-Americans return for the Huskers this season, five each for the men’s and women’s squads. Headlining the group will be sophomore sprinter/hurdler Priscilla Lopes, who won accolades in the 60-meter dash and 60-meter hurdles indoors, as well as the 100-meter hurdles outdoors. Other women to return after reaching All-America status include junior Ashley Selig, who finished seventh indoors in the pentathlon and third outdoors in the heptathlon, and senior Christi Lehman, who finished ninth (eighth American) in the indoor pole vault. Senior thrower Becky Breisch, the 2004 NCAA discus champion, and sophomore Jenny Green, an All-American in both the indoor (third) and outdoor (third) pole vault, also return for NU, but both are likely to redshirt in 2005 because of injury.

Dmitrijs Milkevics will aim for NCAA titles in the 800-meter run following an outstanding freshman campaign that saw him earn All-America honors by finishing sixth at both the NCAA Indoor and Outdoor Championships. Junior Aaron Nasers, who finished ninth (fifth American) indoors in the 800, adds even more firepower to Nebraska’s middle distance crew. Finally, three members of NU’s eighth-place outdoor 4x100-meter relay quartet return in Dusty Stamer, junior Oliver Williams Jr. and sophomore Nate Probasco.

Nebraska: Home to the World-Class Athlete
Nebraska was represented well by both current and former track and field athletes at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Greece, at the end of August. In all, four current and two former Huskers vied for Olympic honors, the 13th straight Games that NU has been represented.

Once again, former Husker Merlene Ottey claimed the highest placing of any NU athlete by finishing 10th in women’s 100-meter dash competition while representing Slovenia. Ottey’s appearance was her seventh straight Olympics, over which time she has earned three silver and five bronze medals. She also competed in the 200, but did not qualify for the finals.

Another former NU athlete, Ineta Radevica, made her first appearance in an Olympics by representing Latvia in both the long jump and triple jump events. Radevica, who concluded her Husker career last spring with an NCAA title in the triple jump, claimed three national titles in the event during her three years at Nebraska. She was unable to reach the finals in either the long jump or triple jump in Athens.

Dmitrijs Milkevics became the first-ever Husker to reach the semifinals of the men’s 800-meter run while also representing Latvia. Milkevics, who earned two All-America honors in 2004 in the 800, won his quarterfinal heat in a time of
1:46.66 before bowing out in the semifinals.

Last year’s women’s NCAA 60-meter hurdle champion, Priscilla Lopes, competed in the 100-meter hurdles for Canada. She finished fifth in heat four of the five-heat first round, 20th overall. Another Husker hurdler, Nenad Loncar, represented Serbia and Montenegro in the men’s 110-meter hurdles, finishing 46th overall in first round competition with a time of 14.02.

A pair of newcomers to the Nebraska track and field ranks also competed in the Games for Latvia. Dace Ruskule, a sophomore thrower in 2005 for NU, earned 14th place in the women’s discus qualifying round after unleashing a throw of 188-5. The mark would have won last year’s Big 12 Championships by more than 18, while earning fourth place at the 2004 NCAA Championships. Egle Uljas, a late addition to the Nebraska’s women’s roster reached the semifinal round of the women’s 400-meter dash after blazing to a personal- and Estonian-record time of 51.91 in the preliminaries. Uljas was unable to reach the finals, but did run her second-best time of 53.13 in the semis.

Nebraska's 2005 NCAA Indoor Qualifiers
Women
Automatic
Name Event Mark
Priscilla Lopes 60m Hurdles 8.14

Provisional
Name Event Mark
Sara Jane Baker Pentathlon 3,707
Kwonya Ferguson Triple Jump 42-6 1/4
Jessie Graff Pole Vault 12-11 1/2
Christi Lehman Pole Vault 13-1 1/2
Priscilla Lopes 60 Meters 7.38
Ashley Selig Pentathlon 3,770

Men
Provisional
Name Event Mark
Arturs Abolins Long Jump 24-10
Tom Donlin Weight Throw 62-11 1/2
Dusty Jonas High Jump 7-3
Courtney Jones 60m Hurdles 7.91
Aaron Plas High Jump 7-3 1/4
Ray Scotten Pole Vault 17-0 3/4
Dusty Stamer 60 Meters 6.71