Lopes, Scotten Earn All-America Honors

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SACRAMENTO, Calif. ? Priscilla Lopes and Ray Scotten put Nebraska’s first points on the board Friday at the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships held at SacramentoState’s Alex G. Spanos Sports Complex. Lopes was the runner-up finisher in the women’s 100-meter hurdles, while Scotten tied for eighth in the men’s pole vault.<?xml:namespace prefix="o" ns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office"?>

                        

Lopes found herself behind USC’s Virginia Powell from the sound of the gun in the hurdles but slowly made up ground late in the race before finishing a close second with a season-low time of 12.82. Powell won the event in 12.80. For Lopes, the race was the second-straight close call at the NCAA Outdoor Championships, as she also finished second to Texas’ Raasin McIntosh in 2004.

 

“I didn’t get out,” Lopes said. “It was kind of like last NCAA’s. I didn’t get out, but I just ran and went with it. After about halfway through, the 5-6-7-8-9-10 hurdles, (my pace) just kept picking up and picking up. I was just hoping for one more hurdle.

 

“There are greater things (in store) for the future.”

 

The runner-up finish gained the Husker women their first eight team points, while Lopes also earned her sixth NCAA All-America honor.

 

“The hurdles was a great race,” Head Coach Gary Pepin said. “(Powell) got out to a good start, but Priscilla closed like crazy.”

 

Ray Scotten garnered his third All-America finish when he tied for eighth in the men’s pole vault with a height of 16-10 3/4. Scotten passed on the opening height of 16-5 and cleared the next mark of 16-10 3/4 on his first opportunity before missing on all three of his chances at 17-4 3/4. The height of 16-10 3/4 ranks as the lowest performance of the season for this year’s NCAA indoor runner-up.

 

 “I’m extremely disappointed,” Scotten said. “It’s easily (my) worst height of the year. I wasn’t accelerating very well at the end, and I kept getting caught like a foot under (the bar). I finally fixed it on the last jump somewhat, but I still wasn’t accelerating enough.”

 

Ashley Selig and Sara Jane Baker each started fast during day one of the women’s heptathlon competition and sit in good position entering Saturday’s final events. Both Huskers are currently ahead of their 2004 NCAA pace, which garnered them respective finishes of third and ninth.

 

Selig set career-best marks in her first two events and currently stands seventh with a score of 3,420. The 2005 NCAA indoor pentathlon champion set personal bests of 13.94 in the 100-meter hurdles and 5-8 3/4 in the high jump, while she approached her own standard of 24.98 in the 200-meter dash by running a 25.01. Selig is 181 points ahead of her pace from last year’s NCAA meet. She sat in 10th place after the first day of the 2004 competition.

 

“I was happy to come close to (three) PR’s,” Selig said. “I had a pretty solid first half of the day, and I hung in there for the other two events. If I can put together a good day tomorrow I should be able to put together a pretty good score. I’ll definitely have to work hard tomorrow, though. We have a very talented field, there are a lot of us close together and we’ll all be vying for each spot.”

 

Baker is also ahead of her 2004 NCAA pace after producing a first day total of 3,224 points, which ranks 18th. The junior began the competition with a career-low time in the 100-meter hurdles (14.70), while her marks of 5-8 3/4 in the high jump, 35-4 in the shot put and 25.45 in the 200 each approached personal standards. Baker is 193 points ahead of where she stood at this time last year, when she concluded day one in 21st place.

 

“I had pretty solid marks, but nothing I’m too thrilled about,” Baker said. “Everything’s pretty solid all around. I think I’m a little ahead of where I was (when she set her personal-best score of 5,469 earlier this year), so that’s good.”

 

“We’ve had a lot of people get here who didn’t do so well, but some of the athletes we thought had the best chance to do well are still to come,” Pepin said.

 

The NCAA Outdoor Championships come to a close Saturday with the conclusion of the heptathlon beginning the day at 11 a.m. PT. Along with Selig and Baker in the heptathlon, five other Huskers will compete in event finals, including Dusty Jonas and Aaron Plas in the men’s high jump, Anne Shadle in the women’s 1,500 meters and Dmitrijs Milkevics and Egle Uljas in the men’s and women’s 800 meters.

 

Team Scores

Women

1. Texas            31

2. Tennessee     28

3. USC              18

4. UCLA            16

5. Colorado        14

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T15. Nebraska   8

 

Men

1. Arkansas       32

2. Florida           23

3. Virginia Tech  21

4.  Boise State  18

     Florida State 18

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T53. Nebraska   0.5