NU Begins Final Stretch with Big 12 Championships

The Nebraska men’s and women’s track and field teams will aim for an unprecedented second sweep of the men’s and women’s indoor and outdoor conference titles at this weekend’s Big 12 Outdoor Track and Field Championships in Manhattan, Kan.

The Huskers’ championship quest begins Noon Friday at Kansas State’s R.V. Christian Track Complex with the start of the women’s heptathlon and men’s decathlon competitions. Other individual events to take place Friday include the men’s and women’s hammer throw, javelin and 10,000-meter run events. The multi-events wrap up Saturday, while several more field event finals will also be held, including the women’s long jump, high jump and shot put, as well as the men’s pole vault, shot put and long jump. All running events held Saturday will be preliminary races. The conference meet will wrap up Sunday. Field events begin at 1 p.m., while a full slate of running event finals commence at 3 p.m. with the women’s and men’s 4x100-meter relays.

NU finds itself halfway to the season sweep after claiming both men’s and women’s indoor titles back in February. The Huskers previously earned each of the four championship titles in 2000. The only other Big 12 team to accomplish the feat once is Texas (1999).

The women’s team is looking for only its second outdoor title during the conference’s nine-year history. Nebraska returns none of last year’s five outdoor title winners, but three others, Anne Shadle (1,000; Mile), Ashley Selig (pentathlon) and Priscilla Lopes (60-meter dash and hurdles), arrive at the championships with a combined five Big 12 indoor titles already in hand.

The Husker men will attempt to claim their fourth straight title overall, as well as their second consecutive outdoor trophy. Issar Yazhbin (hammer throw) enters this weekend as NU’s lone returning individual Big 12 outdoor winner, but three members of last year’s first-place 4x100-meter relay team also return in Dusty Stamer, Oliver Williams Jr. and Nate Probasco. Five indoor champions, Nenad Loncar (60-meter hurdles), Probasco (200), Daniel Roper (triple jump), Ray Scotten (pole vault) and Stamer (60) will also aid NU as it aims for its 13th men’s conference title in 18 attempts.

Where to Find Results this Weekend
Live results for the Big 12 Outdoor Championships can be found at www.kstatesports.com or at www.big12sports.com. Complete recaps covering Nebraska’s athletes will be available at www.huskers.com following the conclusion of each day’s events. Fox Sports Net also will offer a tape-delayed shortened broadcast of the meet. Check local listings for availability in your area.

Husker Rosters Take Shape
Nebraska faced some difficult decisions on who to take to Manhattan this weekend due the Big 12 Conference’s 32-athlete roster limit for the Outdoor Championships. Making the selections even more difficult was the injury status of several Huskers.

The women’s squad will field a squad of only 24 athletes, eight less than the allowed limit. While NU’s team may be small, it should pack some serious punch. Nineteen of the athletes hold a top-eight conference ranking for at least one event, while only nine are not entered in multiple events. Leading the way for the Huskers is a freshman?Frances Keating. Keating is entered in a team-high four events. Five other women, including Priscilla Lopes, Sheryl Morgan, Jen Steiner, Egle Uljas and Casie Witte, will compete in three events. Nebraska will feature athletes in all but three events, the 200, 10,000 and 3,000-meter steeplechase.

Unlike the women’s squad, numbers should not be an issue for the NU men’s team. The men have pieced together a full squad of 32 athletes for this weekend with more than half of the squad (18) scheduled to compete in only one event. Multiple events will still be required of some Huskers, such as Nate Probasco, who is scheduled to compete in four running events. Oliver Williams Jr. is the only other athlete entered in as many as three events. The lone men’s event that will not feature a Nebraska athlete will be the 400-meter dash.

For a complete listing of Nebraska’s Big 12 Outdoor Championships rosters and event entries, see page 6 of this week’s track and field release.

How Nebraska Stacks Up Against the Big 12
Just as they do nearly every season, NU athletes have settled their names alongside, and in some cases above, the league’s best athletes in 2005. Huskers appear in the top eight (scoring places) on this week’s Big 12 performance list 52 times (29 women, 23 men), a gain of one scoring spot from last week’s total of 51.

Nebraska possesses balance on both the men’s and women’s sides, as Husker athletes hold a top-eight spot in 16 (women) and 14 (men) of the 21 events that will be contested at this year’s outdoor conference meet.

Nate Probasco (200 meters), Gable Baldwin (tie-pole vault), Ray Scotten (tie-pole vault) and Issar Yazhbin are the Husker men leading an event. Two others sit alone or are tied for second place?Richard Davidson Jr. in the 110-meter hurdles and Aaron Plas (tie) in the high jump.

Anne Shadle (1,500 meters), Dace Ruskule (discus), Kayla Wilkinson (javelin) and Ashley Selig (heptathlon) each have earned No. 1 rankings for the NU women, while Sara Jane Baker (heptathlon), Priscilla Lopes (100-meter hurdles) and Laura Wortmann (discus) all own second-place positions.

For a complete list of NU’s Big 12 rankings, see the chart on page 3 of this week’s track and field notes.

Huskers Dominate Nebraska Invitational
The Huskers dominated their only home meet of the outdoor season, the Nebraska Invitational, last Saturday at Ed Weir Stadium. NU competitors won 15 event titles and claimed six new NCAA regional qualifications as they prepared for the Big 12 Outdoor Championships.

Oliver Williams Jr. became the sixth-fastest all-time NU performer in the men’s 100-meter dash when he won the event in a blazing time of 10.34. The mark broke his previous best time of 10.40 and reached the regional-qualifying standard.

Nebraska swept the top four spots in the men’s 110-meter hurdles with each athlete notching a season-best time. Richard Davidson Jr. led the way with his clocking of 13.75, while Nenad Loncar finished second in 13.83. Courtney Jones (13.84) and Aaron Ross (14.17) finished in third and fourth places, respectively, with each recording career-low times.

Nate Probasco continued his strong 2005 season by running a wind-aided personal-best time of 20.65 while winning the men’s 200 meters. The time ranks No. 1 among all NCAA Midwest Region athletes, as well as 12th nationally this season.

The Huskers dominated the men’s hammer throw with Issar Yazhbin (204-10) and Tom Donlin (191-4) each recording career-best spins to sweep first and second place.

Daniel Roper earned his first regional qualification of 2005 to win the men’s triple jump with his outdoor personal-best leap of 49-4, while Dmitrijs Milkevics gained regional-qualifying status in his second event of the season (along with the 800 meters) by winning the men’s 400-meter dash in 46.95.

Other members of the Husker men’s team to claim event titles included Mark Harrison (52.25) in the 400-meter hurdles, Aaron Nasers (1:49.48) in the 800 meters, Ray Scotten in the pole vault, and NU’s 4x100-meter relay (39.86) team of Abolins, Williams, Probasco and Dusty Stamer.

Several Husker women posted tremendous performances, including Egle Uljas, who won the women’s 400 meters in 53.40. Uljas gained her second regional qualification of the year to go along with her existing mark in the 800 meters.

Anne Shadle’s strong senior campaign continued with a personal-best mark of 2:07.55 to win the women’s 800 meters. Shadle currently owns the team lead in two events (also the 1,500 meters).

Jamie Senkbile improved her career best in the women’s hammer throw by six feet with her third-place spin of 180-6. Senkbile surpassed her first-ever regional-qualifying standard with the effort.

Other NU women’s winners Saturday included Priscilla Lopes (13.52) in the women’s 100-meter hurdles, Kwonya Ferguson in the women’s triple jump (42-2 ?) and Kayla Wilkinson (170-0) in the women’s javelin.

One other notable performance was turned in by current Husker redshirt Becky Breisch, who was competing unattached. Breisch set an Ed Weir Stadium record in the women’s discus with a career-long heave of 208-5. The mark would have been an NU record for the 2004 NCAA champion if she had been officially competing for Nebraska, while it would also lead the nation by nearly 20 feet. Breisch will return to competition with the Huskers as a senior in 2006.

NU Places 35 on Academic All-Big 12 Teams
Thirty-five members of the Nebraska men’s and women’s track and field teams have earned academic All-Big 12 honors, the league office announced Wednesday, May 11. Twenty-nine Huskers (15 men, 14 women) earned first-team honors, while six others (three men, three women) were named to the second team.

Leading the men’s first-team selections were Paul Wilson, who claimed his fourth consecutive Academic All-Big 12 award, and Issar Yazhbin, one of seven male athletes to maintain a 4.0 grade-point average. Eric Rasmussen earned his fifth honor overall (three track and field, two cross country), while Tom Donlin, a second-team selection, picked up his third award.

Anne Shadle headlined Nebraska’s women’s selections by being named to her seventh academic All-Big 12 First Team. Shadle has been honored each of her four years in track, as well as three times in cross country. Fellow senior Christi Lehman made her third academic team, while six Huskers earned their second selections.

Nominated by each Big 12 institution’s director of student-athlete support services and sports information office, the track and field academic all-league squad consisted of those athletes who have maintained a 3.20 or better GPA during the year, while the second team was comprised of those with a GPA between 3.00 and 3.19.

Huskers Climbing the All-Time Charts
Nebraska’s all-time performance charts have taken quite a hit over the past two weeks. Following a weekend when six Huskers (or groups of Huskers) moved up in the all-time top 10 for their respective events, four more athletes accomplished the feat last Saturday at the Nebraska Invitational.

The most notable push came from Oliver Williams Jr., who moved from 10th on NU’s men’s 100-meter dash list to sixth with his personal-best winning time of 10.34.

A pair of Husker 110-meter hurdlers, Richard Davidson Jr. and Courtney Jones, made the jump to sixth and eighth place, respectively. Davidson Jr. clocked in at 13.75 to move up from his previous position of ninth, while Jones leaped from No. 10 after recording a mark of 13.84.

Jamie Senkbile utilized her personal-best heave of 180-6 in the women’s hammer throw to reach seventh place on the Huskers’ all-time list. Senkbile previously held the ninth-place spot with a mark that was nearly six and one-half feet shorter.

NU Fifth, Seventh in Latest Dual Meet Rankings
The Nebraska men’s and women’s teams both continue to rank among the top-10 teams in this week’s USTCA Team Power Rankings. The Husker women won the final Indoor Power Rankings earlier this year, while the men finished sixth.

Despite a gain of nearly 13 points that raised its season-total score to 373.22, the NU men remained seventh in this week’s ranking. Other Big 12 Conference squads also rated among the poll’s top 25 include Texas Tech (second), Kansas State (14th) and Iowa State (25th). Nebraska closed the gap on No. 1 UCLA considerably this week, from nearly 30 points to about 15.5.

The NU women’s team moved up two spots to fifth place this week after two consecutive polls at seventh. The Huskers gained nearly 15 points to raise their potential score to 365.83. The Huskers are the top Big 12 Conference team, with Kansas State (eighth), Texas Tech (20th) and Missouri (23rd) also appearing among the top-25 schools. NU still trails first-place UCLA by a wide margin, but cut the lead from 48 points to about 39.5.

The Team Power Rankings are a unique a system of rating college teams on the basis of quality of athletic performance, team depth and dual meet scoring potential. The system rates teams in the same fashion as a decathlete or heptathlete. Points are assigned for two athletes in each event contested in a dual meet and points assigned on the basis of quality of performance. The top person in each event has his/her points doubled to adjust for the value of the number one performer on each team in a dual meet. The points for all events are then totaled for the ranking score.

Fantastic Freshmen Make Their Marks
A common theme during the young outdoor season has been even younger Huskers recording big performances. So far, six NU freshmen have combined to notch eight regional-qualifying marks with only two weekends of competition remaining before the Midwest Regional.

Nebraska’s youthful group of throwers leads the way with three regional qualifiers. Bubba Kramer was able to record his first qualifying performance in his first outdoor meet--the Stanford Invitational. Kramer’s best throw of 56-10 1/4 in the men’s shot put currently ranks 11th in the Big 12. A pair of freshmen Husker women’s discus throwers, Amber Curtis and Laura Wortmann, also joined NU’s Midwest Regional list at the Emporia State Relays. Wortmann and Curtis have garnered respective conference rankings of second and sixth with their recent performances.

Dusty Jonas became the first member of the NU vertical jumps crew to qualify for regionals when he finished fifth in the long jump at the Texas Relays. Jonas is no stranger to early-career success, as he finished as runner-up in the high jump at the NCAA Indoor Championships. Meanwhile, Frances Keating joined fellow freshman women’s qualifiers Curtis and Wortmann by finishing seventh in the 400-meter hurdles at Texas, while she also teamed with three of NU’s upperclassmen to reach qualifier status in the 4x400-meter relay.

The Kansas Relays was another fine meet for Husker freshman, as Keating recorded another qualifying mark to win the 100-meter hurdles and tie Sheryl Morgan for the team lead with three regional qualifications. Egle Uljas also joined NU’s group of fantastic freshman with her qualifying performance that won the women’s 800 meters.

Last weekend, both Keating and Uljas were a part of the Huskers’ 4x100-meter relay team that notched its first qualification of the season, while Uljas also qualified in her second individual event of the year and her specialty, the 400 meters.

NU Athletes Rank Among Nation’s Best
The newest set of Trackwire Top 25 rankings for the 2005 outdoor season were released on Tuesday with the Nebraska women’s team once again earning top-10 recognition. The women’s team jumped from ninth place to seventh this week, while the men’s team remained No. 15.

The Trackwire Top 25, a set of rankings used to predict the outcome of this year’s NCAA Championships, are calculated by track and field statistician Gary Verigin, who uses his "Dandy Dozen" power rankings of the top 12 athletes in each NCAA event. A season-high 15 Huskers appear in this week’s edition of the "Dandy Dozen," up from last week’s previous season-best total of 13. For a complete list of NU athletes ranked, see page 4 of this week’s track and field notes.

Despite the outdoor season coming to an end, several Huskers own lofty event rankings on the NCAA’s latest performance list.

Nebraska women who have earned high rankings include: Anne Shadle, the top-ranked athlete for the 1,500-meter run; Priscilla Lopes, who ranks third in the 100-meter hurdles; and Ashley Selig and Sara Jane Baker, who own the No. 6 and 7 rankings for the heptathlon, respectively. Dace Ruskule and Kayla Wilkinson also rank among the nation’s top-10 competitors with Ruskule making a leap into the third-place slot after her season-best performance at last weekend’s Nebraska Invitational. Wilkinson continues to be ranked seventh in the javelin.

NU’s hurdlers lead the men’s team in the NCAA rankings with six athletes among the nation’s top-ranked performers. Four Huskers, Richard Davidson Jr. (No. 11), Courtney Jones (No. 17), Nenad Loncar (tie-18th) and Aaron Ross (No. 63) rank among the top performers in the 110-meter hurdles, while Andy Nelson (29th) and Mark Harrison (tie-48th) both represent NU in the 400-meter hurdle ratings. Nebraska’s pole vault crew is also well-represented with second-ranked Ray Scotten and Gable Baldwin, as well as Nic Petersen (tie-43rd). Aaron Plas (tie-sixth) and Dmitrijs Milkevics (sixth) own NU’s final top-10 rankings in the high jump and 800 meters, while Dusty Jonas (tie-13th, high jump), Nate Probasco (tie-12th, 200 meters) and NU’s 4x100-meter relay (No. 19) also fit in among the nation’s top 20 for their respective events.

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 in Fayetteville, Ark. Ashley Selig and Anne Shadle each broke NU records to earn their first national title 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).

Nebraska's 2005 NCAA Outdoor Qualifiers
Women
NCAA Championships Provisional Qualifiers
Name Event Mark
Sara Jane Baker Heptathlon 5,469
Ashley Selig Heptathlon 5,474
Casie Witte Heptathlon 5,072

NCAA Midwest Regional Qualifiers
Name Event Mark
Sara Jane Baker High Jump 5-8 3/4
Danute Ceika 800 Meters 2:09.23
Amber Curtis Discus 167-10
Kwonya Ferguson Long Jump 19-8 3/4
Triple Jump 42-2 1/4
Jessie Graff Pole Vault 12-5 1/2
Frances Keating 100m Hurdles 13.51; 400m Hurdles 59.00
Christi Lehman Pole Vault 13-1 1/2
Priscilla Lopes 100m Hurdles 12.89
Sheryl Morgan 400 Meters 54.39; 400m Hurdles 59.94
Kim Pancoast 1,500 Meters 4:27.55
Justine Roach 400m Hurdles 59.18
Dace Ruskule Discus 185-7
Jamie Senkbile Hammer Throw 180-6
Anne Shadle 800 Meters 2:07.55; 1,500 Meters 4:14.39
Jen Steiner Shot Put 50-9
Egle Uljas 400 Meters 53.40; 800 Meters 2:08.87
Kayla Wilkinson Javelin 174-4
Casie Witte High Jump 5-9 3/4
Laura Wortmann Discus 171-3
Keating, Lopes, Dietrich, Uljas 4x100m Relay 45.50
Roach, Keating, Morgan, Uljas 4x400m Relay 3:37.84

Men
NCAA Midwest Regional Qualifiers
Name Event Mark
Arturs Abolins Long Jump 25-1 3/4
Gable Baldwin Pole Vault 18-2 1/2
Richard Davidson Jr. 110m Hurdles 13.75
Tom Donlin Hammer Throw 191-4
Mark Harrison 400m Hurdles 51.97
Dusty Jonas High Jump 7-1 3/4
Courtney Jones 110m Hurdles 13.84
Bubba Kramer Shot Put 56-10 1/4
Nenad Loncar 110m Hurdles 13.83
Dmitrijs Milkevics 400 Meters 46.95; 800 Meters 1:47.68
Aaron Nasers 800 Meters 1:49.48
Andy Nelson 400m Hurdles 51.39
Nic Petersen Pole Vault 16-10 3/4
Aaron Plas High Jump 7-2 1/2
Nate Probasco 200 Meters 20.65w
Daniel Roper Triple Jump 49-9
Aaron Ross 110m Hurdles 14.17
Ray Scotten Pole Vault 18-2 1/2
Dusty Stamer 100 Meters 10.35w
Peter van der Westhuizen 800 Meters 1:49.57; 1,500 Meters 3:43.62
Oliver Williams Jr. 100 Meters 10.34
Issar Yazhbin Hammer Throw 204-10
O. Williams, Probasco, Abolins, Stamer 4x100m Relay 39.86
Harrison, Probasco, Nasers, Nelson 4x400m Relay 3:09.24