Huskers Begin 2005 Outdoor Season at Stanford Invitational

The Nebraska men’s and women’s track and field teams begin the outdoor portion of the 2005 schedule this weekend in Palo Alto, Calif., with Friday and Saturday’s Stanford Invitational. Only the throwers, pole vaulters and distance groups will compete this weekend, as NU’s sprinters and jumpers have elected to utilize the time for training purposes. Athletes in attendance will face stiff competition, as the meet annually draws some of the nation’s top collegiate talent.

Thirty Huskers will make the trip to the Stanford Invite, which will be held both Friday and Saturday. Some of NU’s top athletes will be featured, including the top three men’s pole vaulters (Ray Scotten, Gable Baldwin and Nic Petersen) and top four 110-meter hurdlers (Richard Davidson Jr., Nenad Loncar, Courtney Jones and Aaron Ross). Nebraska’s two indoor national champions, Ashley Selig (pentathlon) and Anne Shadle (women’s mile) will also begin their quests for 2005 outdoor honors this weekend in the women’s long jump and 1,500-meter events, respectively.

The largest contingent of Huskers competing in Palo Alto will be the weight groups. NU’s finest women’s throws athletes will participate in the discus (Amber Curtis, Dace Ruskule, Jen Steiner and Laura Wortmann), shot put (Steiner, Curtis and Wortmann), javelin (Kayla Wilkinson) and hammer throw (Curtis, Jamie Senkbile and Tamara Solari). The Husker men will feature Bubba Kramer in the shot put and discus, as well as Tom Donlin in the hammer throw, while Peter van der Westhuizen (1,500 meters), Kyle Doperalski and Paul Wilson (3,000-meter steeplechase) and Eric Rasmussen (10,000 meters) will represent the men’s distance crew.

Other Huskers traveling to Stanford include: Mark Harrison and Andy Nelson (men’s 400-meter hurdles); Kim Pancoast (women’s 1,500 meters); Sheryl Morgan (women’s 400-meter hurdles); Sara Jane Baker and Casie Witte (women’s high jump); and Jessie Graff and Christi Lehman (women’s pole vault).

Fourteen Athletes to Compete at UNK Invite
Of the numerous Huskers staying in the state of Nebraska this weekend, 14 athletes will travel west down Interstate-80 to Kearney for Saturday’s UNK Invite. The men’s hammer throw kicks off the field events at 10 a.m., while running events begin with the mixed (men’s and women’s) 1,000-meter run at 11:15 a.m. All events will be held at Kearney High School’s Joe Greeno Field.

Only a couple members of the NU women’s team are slated to compete in Kearney, both in distance events. Betsy Miller and Val Zajac will represent the Huskers’ distance group in the 1,500- and 3,000-meter runs, respectively.

Several Husker men will be in attendance, including multi-eventers Kyle Goerl, Lee Martin and Corlan Vonderschmidt. All three athletes will participate in the 110-meter hurdles, discus, javelin and long jump competitions. Four throwers, Adam Evans and Sam Morris (hammer throw); Thorin Meyer (javelin); and Matt Senske (discus and javelin), will also compete, while Nebraska’s pole vault corps will also be represented by Patrick Southern and Danny Tylka. Bryce Dickmeyer and Alec Maduza will both make their first appearances of 2005 in the 5,000-meter run after redshirting during the indoor season.

Ruskule to Debut at Stanford Invitational
Newcomer Dace Ruskule will make her first appearance in a Nebraska uniform at this weekend’s Stanford Invitational. The Vecumnieku Pagasts, Latvia, native holds the potential to make a huge impact for the Husker women this season in the discus.

A 2004 Olympian for Latvia, Ruskule earned 14th place in the event’s qualifying round at last summer’s Athens Games after unleashing a throw of 188-5. The three-time Latvian national champion owns a personal-best mark of 195-9, which would have won last year’s Big 12 Championships by nearly 25 feet, as well as finished runner-up to teammate Becky Breisch (204-5) at the NCAA Championships.

Next Up: Texas Relays (April 7-9)
Both Husker squads will take next week off from competition as they prepare for the Texas Relays, which will be held April 7-9 in Austin, Texas. Like the Stanford Invitational, the Texas Relays annually boasts one of the strongest fields of collegiate competition outside of the NCAA Championships.

Shadle, Selig Claim First NCAA Championships
Two Huskers went a long way toward pushing the Nebraska women’s squad to its fourth-place team finish at the NCAA Indoor Championships two weeks ago in Fayetteville, Ark. Ashley Selig and Anne Shadle both broke NU records to earn their first national titles with the Huskers.

Selig overcame a strong performance by BYU’s Amy Menlove to claim the women’s pentathlon championship with a school-record 4,327 points. The three-time NCAA All-American set personal bests in the high jump (5-9 1/4) and long jump (20-2 1/2) to break her own Husker women’s record of 4,269 points. Selig’s win came as no surprise; she entered the competition with the nation’s No. 1 ranking for the event.

Anne Shadle provided what outsiders may have described as a mild upset in the women’s mile. Shadle entered the weekend with the nation’s No. 4 time in the event, but gave the best performance of her life during Saturday’s final to finish in an NU-record 4:38.22. The mark bumped former Husker great Fran ten Bensel’s 1992 record of 4:38.33 from the top of the Nebraska women’s charts.

While Selig and Shadle were the lone Huskers to win NCAA titles, several other athletes also had fantastic finishes. Including the two champions, Nebraska took home 12 All-America honors. Priscilla Lopes earned two awards for finishing second in the women’s 60-meter hurdles and eighth in the dash. Three NU men finished runner-up, including Dusty Jonas (high jump), Ray Scotten (pole vault) and Dusty Stamer (60 meters). Other All-Americans included Gable Baldwin (men’s pole vault), Richard Davidson Jr. (men’s 60-meter hurdles), Aaron Plas (men’s high jump), Nate Probasco (men’s 200 meters) and Daniel Roper (men’s triple jump).