Husker Men, Women Lead at Big 12 Championships

MANHATTAN, Kan. ? The Nebraska men’s and women’s track teams continued their push for conference supremacy Saturday with some outstanding performances during day two of the Big 12 Outdoor Championships. The Huskers currently lead the women’s team race with 45.67 points, while the men also lead their field with 49 points.

Ashley Selig, Sara Jane Baker and Casie Witte gave the NU women a huge boost early in the day by finishing 1-2-3 in the women’s heptathlon competition. Selig tied her career-high score of 5,587 to win her second Big 12 title, and first in the heptathlon. The performance also earned her an NCAA automatic qualification for the second consecutive year.

"My first day, I was very pleased with," Selig said. "I knew today was just a matter of staying with it. My second day is usually pretty strong for me. It really wasn’t today. I struggled in the long jump, a little bit in the javelin, but I had a pretty solid 800. Overall, I was very pleased with my meet."

Witte also broke her personal best with a score of 5,138, which was just shy of Baker’s second-place total of 5,199. Baker improved on last year’s heptathlon finish of third.

"Although I was disappointed in my score, getting second is great," Baker said. "I knew it would be tough to go 1-2-3, but I knew we could do it."

Selig would also add a seventh-place performance in the women’s long jump competition with a season-long leap of 19-11 ?.

Gable Baldwin tied former Husker great Eric Eshbach’s Big 12 meet record of 18-2 ? while winning his first conference championship in the men’s pole vault. The Grand Island, Neb., native cleared the height on his third and final attempt to steal the title from teammate Ray Scotten. Scotten finished runner-up with a height of 17-10 ?.

"Everything came together perfectly in that last vault," Baldwin said. "I am starting to put things together technically and my confidence continues to grow."

The Huskers also had a good day in the men’s long jump, claiming the second, fourth and seventh spots. Arturs Abolins leaped 25-2 ? as the runner-up finisher, while LeRon Williams and Daniel Roper each set personal bests of 24-11 and 24-4 ? to add much-needed points to Nebraska’s team score.

Jen Steiner earned bronze in the women’s shot put with her career-long throw of 51-11 ?, while Laura Wortmann (46-11) added another team point with her eighth-place finish.

Lee Martin concluded the men’s decathlon competition with a sixth-place total of 6,769. Martin exceeded his previous best by 57 points despite an elbow injury that dramatically affected his javelin. The Waverly, Neb., native cashed in on big performances Friday, which saw him set or tie personal standards in four of five events.

A host of Nebraska athletes also made it through the qualifying rounds of several running events Saturday afternoon.

Dusty Stamer recorded the fastest automatic time under any conditions in NU history in the prelims of the 100-meter dash with his wind-aided clocking of 10.14. While the mark does not count as the school record because of its 5.0 wind rating, it is still the fastest automatic time run by a Husker in school history.

"To (run that time) today was nice, but I have to run the finals tomorrow," Stamer said. "I hadn’t run a 100 (meters) race in a couple weeks. I was a little worried about what was going to go on. I felt really good today. I just went out there and tried to run a really good race to give myself some more confidence going into the finals."

Nate Probasco accomplished the same feat as Stamer in the men’s 200-meter dash. Probasco’s 20.53 (3.1 wind reading) clocking was 0.02 quicker than the previous automatic wind-aided time of Tamas Molnar (1990). Like Stamer’s performance, the mark will not count as an NU record because of the excessive wind readings.

Priscilla Lopes (12.99) and Anne Shadle (4:27.26) cruised through their respective preliminary races of the women’s 100-meter hurdles and 1,500-meter run events with each posting the day’s fastest times. Frances Keating joined Lopes in the finals of the 100-meter hurdles, while she also qualified for Saturday’s finale in the 400-meter hurdles.

Other Huskers to reach Saturday’s event finals included Dmitrijs Milkevics and Aaron Nasers in the men’s 800 meters; Mark Harrison in the men’s 400-meter hurdles; Oliver Williams Jr. in the men’s 100 meters; Danute Ceika in the women’s 800 meters; Peter van der Westhuizen in the men’s 1,500 meters; Egle Uljas in the women’s 400 meters; and Richard Davidson Jr., Courtney Jones, Nenad Loncar, and Aaron Ross in the men’s 110-meter hurdles.

The Big 12 Outdoor Championships wrap up Sunday with the women’s pole vault, discus and triple jump events leading the way at 1 p.m. Action on the track begins at 3 p.m. with the men’s 4x100-meter relay.