Sixteen Huskers to Represent NU at NCAA Indoor Championships

A group of 16 Husker track and field athletes, 10 men and six women, will represent Nebraska this weekend at the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships in Fayetteville, Ark. The University of Arkansas will sereve as site host with most events to be held at the Randal Tyson Track Center. Both men’s and women’s weight throw events will take place at Walker Pavilion.

Competition begins at 9 a.m. Friday with the start of the men’s heptathlon, while field events kick off at Noon with the men’s 35-pound weight throw. Running events commence with the preliminary round of the women’s 800-meter run at 4:30 p.m. Running finals to be held on Friday include the men’s and women’s 5,000-meter run, 60-meter hurdles, 200-meter dashes and distance medley relay events.

The conclusion of the men’s heptathlon begins Saturday’s action at 11 a.m., while the women’s pentathlon competition starts at 11:30 a.m. The women’s 20-pound weight throw will lead all remaining field events at 2 p.m. at Walker Pavilion. A full evening of running event finals begins at 6:15 p.m. with the women’s mile, with the men’s mile and men’s and women’s 800 meters, 400 meters, 60 meters, 3,000 meters and 4x400-meter relays to follow.

Defending NCAA 60-meter hurdle champion Priscilla Lopes leads a group of six Husker women in Fayetteville. Lopes will aim to defend her 2004 national title, while adding another in the 60-meter dash. Ashley Selig brings her No. 1 NCAA ranking into the women’s pentahlon competition with the hopes of a high finish, while teammate Sara Jane Baker looks for her first career All-America honor in the same event after falling just short in 2004.

The trio of seniors Authea Chambers, Christi Lehman and Anne Shadle hope to end their collegiate indoor careers on a high note. Chambers makes her first NCAA indoor appearance for NU in the long jump, while Lehman attempts to duplicate last season’s All-America performance in the pole vault. Shadle enters the women’s mile competition as the No 4-rated individual.

Nebraska will field a larger group of men’s athletes at the NCAA meet. Ten Huskers hope to improve on last season’s 19th-place team indoor finish. NU will be led by its pole vault and high jump groups, which each boast a pair of high-ranking athletes. Ray Scotten will look for his second NCAA All-America honor, and first as a Husker, in the pole vault, while Gable Baldwin could make a big splash in the same event as only a sophomore.

Aaron Plas, in his second NCAA championship event, and Dusty Jonas, only a freshman, will aim for high finishes in the high jump after finishing the regular season with respective rankings of Nos. 4 and 8. The horizontal jumps will also be well-represented with Arturs Abolins competing in the long jump and Daniel Roper in the triple jump.

The sprint events could provide NU with a boost as 2004 All-Americans Dusty Stamer and Nate Probasco compete in the 60-meter and 200-meter dash events, respectively. Both athletes were members of the men’s 4x400-meter relay that finished eighth at last year’s outdoor national meet. Seniors Richard Davidson Jr. and Nenad Loncar also hope to make noise in the 60-meter hurdles  in their last go-around at the NCAA indoor meet.

Live NCAA Indoor Championships Results Available On-Line
Live updated results will be available during the weekend at the University of Arkansas women’s athletics web site. Recaps and full sets of results will aslo be available following each day’s action at Huskers.com.

Coach Pepin’s Thoughts on This Year’s NCAA Indoor Championships
Head Coach Gary Pepin will be making his 25th consecutive trip to the national indoor championships this weekend as the leader of Nebraska’s men’s and women’s track and field teams. Since he took the reigns as women’s coach in 1981 and men’s coach in 1984, Pepin has guided at least one athlete from both squads to the indoor national meet every season. With those credentials, he knows what to expect from his teams this weekend.

On his women’s NCAA Indoor Championships team:
“We feel that we’re going into the meet with a small women’s squad, but it’s very talented. Our athletes are confident and expect everything to go well there. One of our team goals going into this season was to get a Top-10 team finish at the national meet, and I think we can do that.”

On his men’s NCAA Indoor Championships team:
“I feel same way on the men’s side. We have a fine men’s team going (to the national meet). There is a nice mix of people who have been there before and newcomers. Overall, though, it’s a pretty young team. It was disappointing that some kids didn’t make it, but we should still be okay on the men’s side.”

NU to Match Up With Defending Champs
The Huskers will face stiff competition at this weekend’s NCAA Indoor Championships, as 2004 defending national titleists return in 13 men’s and women’s events.

The NU women may have the easier road of the two teams, as only one 2004 women’s winner returns in all of the Huskers’ events. Fortunately for the Nebraska women’s squad, the lone exception is Husker Priscilla Lopes, who won last year’s title in the 60-meter hurdles.

The men’s team will be up against two returning champions, Andra Manson (Texas) in the high jump and DaBryan Blanton (Oklahoma) in the 60-meter dash. NU has already seen both athletes once before this season, two week’s ago at the Big 12 Indoor Championships, and appear to have the talent to go toe-to-toe with the former champs. Manson won the conference title in the high jump by merely an inch over Husker Aaron Plas, while Dusty Stamer avenged last season’s Big 12 60-meter loss to Blanton by winning gold in a photo finish.

These Husker Bubbles Didn’t Burst
March Madness took on an entirely different meaning for Nebraska track and field as the NCAA status of several athletes remained in question until Monday evening, when the official list of competitors for this weekend’s national meet was announced.

Huskers ranked between Nos. 12 and 18 in eight events on the national performance list following last weekend’s qualifying meets. Seven of those Nebraska athletes slipped into one of the final few spots for the NCAA Indoor Championships, including Daniel Roper (14th of 15) in the men’s triple jump, Nenad Loncar (12th of 14) and Richard Davidson Jr. (13th of 14) in the men’s 60-meter hurdles, Nate Probasco (13th of 16) in the men’s 200 meters, Christi Lehman (16th of 17) in the women’s pole vault, Authea Chambers (14th of 16) in the women’s long jump and Sara Jane Baker (15th of 16) in the women’s pentathlon.

Athletes should not be counted out at the national meet because they sneak into one of the final positions. A few 2004 Huskers in the same situation had outstanding performances. Brad Teeple, the last of 16 selections for the men’s pole vault, went on to finish eighth and grab All-America recognition, while another former Husker, Angela Dies, earned seventh in the women’s long jump after being the 13th of 16 competitors selected.

NU Athletes Rank Among Nation’s Best
Due to outstanding performances down the final stretch of the season, both Nebraska squads made leaps recently in the Trackwire Top 25, a set of ratings that project a hypothetical score for the NCAA meet by factoring in injury reports and other variables suppored by information gathered by coaches and competitions across the country. This projection is generated by scoring the “Dandy Dozen,” a power ranking of the top 12 athletes and relay squads in each NCAA event.

The women’s squad recently jumped from 11th all the way to fifth, with a gain of 12 points in their projected NCAA meet score. Meanwhile, the Husker men fell from from fourth to 11th behind a two-point loss. The squad’s previous ranking of fourth was its season-high mark.

Individually, many NU athletes saw their names fly up the NCAA performance list charts after strong performances at the Big 12 Championships. Ten Huskers appear among the top-10 athletes on this week’s national list, while several more sit among the nation’s top 30.

The lone No. 1-ranked Huskers belong to the women’s team, with both Priscilla Lopes and Ashley Selig leading the NCAA in the women’s 60-meter hurdles and pentathlon, respectively. Both athletes hold comanding leads in the events, with Lopes leading by 0.12 and Selig ahead by 97 points. Lopes is the only other NU athlete that owns as high as a second-place spot, where she resides in the 60-meter dash. Anne Shadle continues her outstanding season in the women’s mile with her No. 4 space. Nebraska women close to breaking into the top 10 include Sara Jane Baker, who comes in at No. 15 in the pentathlon, Authea Chambers, who holds the No. 14 slot in the long jump, and Christi Lehman, the 17th-ranked pole vaulter in the nation.

The Husker men’s talent is heavily concentrated in a few single events. Ray Scotten (third) and Gable Baldwin ?s (eighth) names both appear among the nation’s top-10 pole vaulters, while the same is true with Aaron Plas (fourth) and Dusty Jonas (eighth) in the high jump. Dusty Stamerappears on the top-10 60-meter list this week at sixth, down one place from last week. Arturs Abolins continues to be cemented among the NCAA’s best long jumpers in tenth place, while a pair of 60-meter hurdlers, Richard Davidson Jr. and Nenad Loncar, continued to be tied for 12th place. Daniel Roper fell two spots from 13th to 15th this week, while Nate Probasco (16th) also ranks among the nation’s elite athletes in the 200 meters. The week’s biggest drop was suffered by Dmitrijs Milkevics, who fell from ninth to 18th in the men’s 800 meters. The fall took Milkevics out of the running for a spot in this weekend’s national meet.

Nebraska Women Dominate Dual Meet Rankings
The Husker women appear at the top of the USTCA Team Power Rankings, a system that rates college teams in the same fashion as a multi-event athlete, for the third straight week. The Team Power Rankings take into account quality of individual performances, team depth and dual-meet scoring potential.

NU increased its potential score from 318.88 to 349.51 this week, ahead of runner-up Penn State, which has a score of 333.69. Other Big 12 Conference teams appearing in the rating’s top 25 are Kansas State (10th) and Missouri (19th). The Husker women finished first in last season’s final Indoor Team Power Rankings for the fifth time in program history.

The Nebraska men’s team retained its sixth-place rating for the third consecutive week with a potential score of 334.48. The Huskers have increased their score by more than 20 points during the past two weeks due to their performances at the Big 12 Championships and last weekend’s last chance qualifiers. The NU men finished fourth in last season’s final indoor rankings, the highest placing since it finished third in 2002.

NU Sweeps Big 12 Indoor Championships...Again
NU claimed its second consecutive Big 12 indoor sweep two weekends ago after it outdistanced both Texas squads for the men’s and women’s conference team championships. The win was the sixth straight, and eighth in the nine-year history of the Big 12, for the men’s squad, while the Husker women earned their fifth title during that span. Nebraska’s combined total of 18 men’s and women’s indoor and outdoor Big 12 Conference championships easily outdistances Texas’ combined number of 13 men’s and women’s titles.

The pair of conference championships increases the Huskers’ amazing all-time tally of indoor titles to 54 (22 women’s, 32 men’s). The total number of conference titles, counting both indoor and outdoor, swelled to 96 (39 women’s, 57 men’s).

Seven Huskers Claim First Big 12 Titles
The 2005 Big 12 Indoor Championships proved to be a rebirth for Nebraska track and field, as seven NU athletes laid claim to their first conference titles. Of the squads’ winners, only Anne Shadle (1,000 meters in 2004) won a Big 12 championship prior to this season.

Priscilla Lopes left no doubt as to her talents after winning her first titles in the only two events she competed in, the 60-meter dash and hurdles. Ashley Selig avenged two consecutive 2004 second-place finishes by dominating the field in the women’s pentathlon, while Dusty Stamer atoned for last season’s second-place finish to defending NCAA champion DaBryan Blanton (Oklahoma) by winning the men’s 60-meter dash in a photo finish over Blanton.

Pepin Named Men’s Big 12 Indoor Coach of Year
Head Coach Gary Pepin earned his 12th conference indoor coach-of-the-year award on March 3, when he was named 2005 Men’s Indoor Coach of the Year by the Big 12 Conference. The award is the fifth consecutive men’s indoor accolade for the Huskers’ head coach and seventh in the nine-year history of the conference.

Pepin, in his 25th season at NU and 22nd as both men’s and women’s head coach, led the Husker men’s team to its fifth straight Big 12 indoor title, as well as eighth in the conference’s nine-year history. The all-time winningest coach in the history of the Big 12 Conference and former Big Eight Conference with 62 indoor and outdoor titles, Pepin also led the Nebraska women’s team to the conference indoor title for the second consecutive year.

Chambers’ Last Hurrah
This weekend will mark the final  appearance in a Nebraska uniform for Authea Chambers, a fifth-year senior for the Husker women. The Kingston, Jamaica, native’s eligibility will be exhausted following the NCAA Championships.

Noone can accuse Chambers of coasting through her final campaign, as she has saved her best performances for last.  She claimed her highest-ever finish at the Big 12 Championships (second) in two events this season, the long jump and triple jump. 
Chambers has also set personal bests in both events during the year, including a mark of 20-6 1/2 to collect silver at the conference meet. The senior will aim for the first All-America honor of her career Friday in the women’s long jump competition.

The Reign of Lopes: Unbeaten, Unmatched
Priscilla Lopes has begun the 2005 indoor season much like she finished her 2004 indoor campaign: by blazing past everyone in sight.

Last year’s NCAA 60-meter hurdles champion is undefeated so far this season in collegiate races of the 60-meter dash and hurdles, respective streaks of eight and 12 races. In fact, the last time Lopes lost a collegiate race in the 60-meter hurdles was at last year’s Big 12 Indoor Championships.

The junior has experienced a wealth of success in her short career, including rewriting the Nebraska record books. Lopes broke the Husker women’s 60-meter hurdles record on nearly a weekly basis in 2004, concluding with the current mark of 7.96 to win the NCAA title. While the hurdles accomplishment is quite a feat, perhaps her greatest achievement came at the Big 12 Indoor Championships two weeks ago.

Lopes broke Merlene Ottey’s 24-year-old school record in the 60-meter dash with her clocking of 7.23. The time blew away the junior’s previous best of 7.28, set in 2004, while also catapulted her into No. 2 in the event this season in the NCAA. Ottey’s record, one of 14 owned by the former Husker great, was one of the oldest in the NU women’s books. The most impressive aspect ot Lopes’ time is that it came in the confines of the Bob Devaney Sports Center’s track. Ottey’s mark came at an altitude above 6,000 feet, a factor that would add 0.04 to any of today’s qualifying marks, which would equal that time to 7.28.

Three NU School Records Set in 2005
The 2005 indoor season has been a record-breaking campaign for both the Nebraska men and women. Husker athletes have combined to set three NU and one collegiate record this season.

Dmitrijs Milkevics got the ball rolling early by breaking the collegiate record in the 600-meter run on Feb. 5 at the Frank Sevigne Husker Invitational. The Riga, Latvia, native’s time of 1:15.60 shattered the previous mark of 1:16.90, set in 2001 by Minnesota’s Tom Gerding, while it fell merely 0.48 of the world record. Milkevics also broke his own Big 12 indoor meet record in the 800-meter run by running a 1:48.29 in the preliminary round.

NU’s success continued at the conference championships, as both Priscilla Lopes and Ashley Selig rewrote the Husker women’s record books. Ashley Selig compiled a score of 4,269 in the women’s pentathlon to break Janet Blomstedt’s 1996 Nebraska record of 4,235 points, which was also the former American Record. Lopes bested former NU great Merlene Ottey’s 60-meter dash mark of 7.24 on her way to winning the Big 12 title. Ottey’s record had stood for more than 24 years.

Look for more Nebraska records to fall this weekend, as the Randal Tyson Center Track is renowned for being one of the fastest indoor surfaces in the country.

NCAA All-Americans Set for Another Go-Around
While 11 athletes on this season’s Nebraska rosters have previously earned NCAA All-American status, six arrive in Arkansas this weekend looking to add even more accolades to their already-long r?sum?s.

Headlining the group is sprinter/hurdler Priscilla Lopes, who won honors in the 60-meter dash and 60-meter hurdles indoors last season, as well as the 100-meter hurdles outdoors. Other women to return after reaching All-America status include 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.

Dusty Stamer and Nate Probasco aim to notch their first individual awards after teaming up on last season’s 4x100-meter relay that finished eighth at the NCAA Outdoor Championships. Stamer came close in the 60-meter dash last year, when he finished 12th, while Probasco will appear in his first individual event at a national meet when he competes in the men’s 200 meters. Ray Scotten aims for his first All-America honor as a Husker after finishing fifth in the men’s pole vault last season in Fayetteville while competing for Southern Illinois.

Huskers Earn Weekly Big 12 Conference Honors
Three Nebraska athletes have been named Big 12 Conference Indoor Track and Field Athletes of the Week during the 2005 season. Dmitrijs Milkevics and Ashley Selig earned acclaim for the week of Feb. 7, while Priscilla Lopes garnered honors for the week of Jan. 18.

Milkevics set a collegiate-record time of 1:15.60 to win the 600-meter run on Feb. 5 at the Frank Sevigne Husker Invitational. The Riga, Latvia, native’s mark was only .48 shy of the world record, and he smashed the NU (1:19.05) and Bob Devaney Sports Center Track (1:17.92) marks. The former collegiate standard was set by Tom Gerding of Minnesota in 2001. Milkevics shared the weekly men’s award with Texas A&M’s Fabrice Lapierre.

Selig compiled the greatest indoor pentathlon performance of her career to win the event with a nation-leading score of 4,171 points a day earlier. The Lincoln, Neb., native set personal-best marks in both the high jump (5-7 3/4) and shot put (38-5) on her way to overtaking the No. 1 performance in the Big 12 and claiming an NCAA automatic-qualifying mark. It was the third-best point total in NU history and currently ranks No. 1 in the NCAA by 93 points over second-place Amber Williams of Miami (Fla.).

Priscilla Lopes, the defending NCAA 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 won invitational titles in both the 60-meter dash and hurdle events while surpassing the NCAA provisional-qualifying standard for both events.

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 meters, 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, and was 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 feet and earned 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 Qualifiers
Women
Name Event Mark
Sara Jane Baker Pentathlon 3,962
Authea Chambers Long Jump 20-6 1/2
Priscilla Lopes 60 Meters 7.23
 60m Hurdles 8.00
Ashley Selig Pentathlon 4,269
Christi Lehman Pole Vault 13-5 1/4
Anne Shadle Mile 4:39.10

Men
Name Event Mark
Arturs Abolins Long Jump 25-6 1/4
Gable Baldwin Pole Vault 17-8 1/2
Richard Davidson Jr. 60m Hurdles 7.80
Dusty Jonas High Jump 7-3 1/4
Nenad Loncar 60m Hurdles 7.80
Nate Probasco 200 Meters 20.99
Daniel Roper Triple Jump 51-11 3/4
Aaron Plas High Jump 7-3 3/4
Ray Scotten Pole Vault 18-0 1/2
Dusty Stamer 60 Meters 6.65