NU Chases National Honors at NCAA Meet

Twenty-eight Nebraska track and field athletes will conclude the 2005 collegiate season this week with the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships in Sacramento, Calif. Competition will be hosted by Sacramento State at the Alex G. Spanos Sports Complex Wednesday, June 8 through Saturday, June 11. The Spanos Sports Complex is the same site where last year’s U.S. Olympic Trials were held.

NU recorded 23 automatic qualifiers at last weekend’s NCAA Midwest Regional in Norman, Okla. Five more at-large selections (Gable Baldwin, Frances Keating, Ray Scotten, Laura Wortmann, Issar Yazhbin) were added to the Huskers’ total with the release of last Tuesday’s qualifier list. The total of 28 athletes ranks second among all squads competing at the national meet. Only Texas Tech (31) will feature more athletes, while Nebraska ranks ahead of USC (26), Arkansas (25), UCLA (25), Stanford (24), Florida (21) and Texas (21). In terms of individual entries, Nebraska (29) notched more than any other school.

The Huskers will feature balanced men’s and women’s squads with respective roster sizes of 15 and 13. The only athletes competing in multiple events for NU will be the four members of the men’s 4x100-meter relay: Arturs Abolins (long jump), Oliver Williams Jr. (100 meters), Nate Probasco (200 meters) and Dusty Stamer (100 meters).

NU will aim for a pair of top-five outdoor national team finishes for only the second time in school history. Nebraska’s 2003 team is the lone squad to accomplish that feat, as both the men and women earned No. 5 finishes. With the quality and depth of this year’s Husker rosters, that accomplishment could be matched or exceeded.

The Nebraska men’s areas of strength will be the hurdles, high jump and pole vault. Three Huskers have qualified for the 110-meter hurdle competition in Richard Davidson Jr., Courtney Jones and Nenad Loncar, while Mark Harrison will compete in the 400-meter hurdles. NU possesses two of the favorites (Gable Baldwin and Ray Scotten) to win the pole vault competition, while Dusty Jonas and Aaron Plas each intend to follow top-eight indoor high jump finishes.

The strength of the women’s team lies within its three NCAA indoor national champions, Priscilla Lopes (60m hurdles), Ashley Selig (pentathlon) and Anne Shadle (mile). The Huskers also posess a pair of highly ranked athletes making their first national appearances in the discus (Dace Ruskule) and javelin (Kayla Wilkinson).

For a complete schedule of events for the NCAA Championships along with NU entries, see pages 2 and 3 of this week’s Husker track and field notes.

Where to Find Results this Weekend
Results and complete recaps covering Nebraska’s athletes will be available at www.huskers.com following the conclusion of each day’s events. Live results for the 2005 NCAA Outdoor Championships can also be found at: http://www.hornetsports.com/ncaa/2005/results.asp.

The NCAA Championships will be shown on a tape delay basis by CBS at 1 p.m. CT on Saturday, June 18. Highlights of the meet for media purposes are also scheduled to air via satellite. Check www.ncaasports.com for time and coordinates.

About Nebraska’s 2005 NCAA Outdoor Squad...
With a huge roster of 28 athletes, one of the largest that Nebraska has ever fielded at the NCAA Championships, this Husker NCAA team has recorded some amazing accolades. As a combined group, Nebraska’s athletes, who hale from a total of eight nations (United States, Canada, England, Estonia, Israel, Latvia, Serbia & Montenegto, South Africa) have accounted for:

70 individual NCAA indoor and outdoor meet appearances
22 individual Big 12 Conference championships
21 NCAA All-America honors
21 academic All-Big 12 First Team Awards
12 official Nebraska track and field records
9 Big 12 Conference indoor and outdoor team championships (2002-05)
8 NCAA indoor and outdoor top-10 team finishes (2002-05)
5 Olympic appearances (Lopes, Ruskule, Uljas, Loncar, Milkevics)
3 individual NCAA titles

Men Claim Second Straight Midwest Regional Title
The Nebraska men’s team won its second consecutive regional team title at the NCAA Midwest Region Championships held at Oklahoma’s John Jacobs Track Complex. The Husker men collected 92.50 points to edge runner-up Texas Tech (85.50), while the women’s squad (65.50) finished second to first-place Texas (75). The Huskers now have combined for three of the six Midwest championships since the regional format began in 2003 (the women won their only title in 2003).

Aside from the team hardware, NU also had a great meet in the pursuit of individual berths to this week’s NCAA Championships. Nebraska earned 23 automatic qualifications during the two days of competition in 19 events. Five others met the at-large qualification standard, and each received NCAA bids.

Women’s individual regional champs included Priscilla Lopes (100-meter hurdles), Dace Ruskule (discus) and Anne Shadle (1,500 meters), while Dmitrijs Milkevics (800 meters) and the 4x100-meter relay team of Arturs Abolins, Oliver Williams Jr., Nate Probasco and Dusty Stamer added wins for the Husker men’s team.

Nebraska athletes also set several records during the regional. Huskers (Dusty Jonas, Milkevics, Aaron Plas, Shadle, Egle Uljas, 4x100) surpassed previous meet standards for six events on the weekend, while three of the competitors (Milkevics, Shadle, 4x100) set the new all-time marks.

NU Women Win Second 2005 Big 12 Title
The Nebraska women’s team completed its second-ever sweep of the Big 12 Championships by winning the outdoor team title over second-place Texas in Manhattan, Kan. The Huskers also claimed both women’s indoor and outdoor titles in 2000.

The win was only the second outdoor championship for the squad since the formation of the Big 12 Conference in 1997. Counting indoor titles, Nebraska now has earned seven conference championships, which trails only Texas (nine) in the short history of the Big 12. The combined number of men’s and women’s championships stands at 19, which leads the second-place Longhorns’ total of 13.

NU’s all-time conference totals are eye-popping. The most recent win for the women’s team was its 40th all-time championship between the former Big Eight Conference and current Big 12, while the men’s total continues to stand at 57. Nebraska (97 total titles) will be in reach of cracking the century mark next season if it can claim three of the four team titles.

Huskers Claim Eight Individual Conference Wins
While the Nebraska women and men were earning respective conference team finishes of first and second, the Huskers also managed to take home eight individual Big 12 titles.

Priscilla Lopes won her third conference title of 2005 in the women’s 100-meter hurdles after recording the two fastest times in the prelims and finals. Lopes was the only competitor to break the 13-second barrier, notching times of 12.99 (prelims) and12.85 (finals).

Ashley Selig led a Husker sweep of the 1-2-3 spots in the women’s heptathlon by matching the career-best total of 5,587 points that she set at last year’s NCAA Outdoor Championships. Selig set individual event personal-best marks in the 100-meter hurdles (14.19), shot put (40-0 3/4) and 200-meter dash (24.98).

Shadle pulled double-duty during the weekend by winning the women’s 1,500 meters and earning runner-up status in the 5,000. The win in the 1,500 was expected, but the 5,000 performance was not. The race, which Shadle decided to participate in to help NU claim the women’s title,  marked the first time Shadle had ever run the event.

Nebraska had two first-time women’s winners in Dace Ruskule and Kayla Wilkinson. Wilkinson managed to outdistance the second-place competitor in the javelin by seven feet with a heave of 162-11, while Ruskule defeated teammate Laura Wortmann with a mark of 174-11 in the discus. Only sophomores, both athletes could have more titles in their futures.

On the men’s side, a pair of Huskers in Gable Baldwin and Aaron Plas, took home their first top conference honors.

Baldwin continued his impressive sophomore campaign by tying former teammate Eric Eshbach’s Big 12 Outdoor Championships record (18-2 1/2) to win his first conference title, while Plas outdueled defending NCAA champion Andra Manson (Texas) and current national leader Kyle Lancaster (Kansas State) in the high jump.

The men’s 4x100-meter realy team of Arturs Abolins, Oliver Williams Jr., Nate Probasco and Dusty Stamer earned their second consecutive Big 12 title after notching a time of 39.59 in the finals heat. The relay win was only the seventh 4x100-meter victory in NU history, and marked the first time Nebraska has won in back-to-back years.

Five Seniors Look to Go Out on Top
While Nebraska brings an exceptionally young team to this year’s outdoor nationals, there will be five outstanding athletes making their final appearance in Scarlet and Cream.

NU will lose only two athletes from the women’s squad in Christi Lehman and Anne Shadle. Both began competition in 2002 and have experienced All-America careers as Huskers. Lehman’s resume includes a Big 12 indoor pole vault title in 2003, as well as a 2004 Midwest Regional championship. Shadle owns an NCAA championship in the indoor mile and three Big 12 wins. More importantly, each has contributed to one of the most successful eras in Nebraska women’s track and field.

The same can be said of the three men’s seniors, Richard Davidson Jr., Nenad Loncar and Dusty Stamer. All three athletes began their college careers elswhere prior to transferring to Nebraska. Stamer has been one of the best short sprinters in NU history, collecting a pair of All-America honors and three Big 12 championships. He also has run anchor for the best 4x100-meter team in school history.

Davidson Jr. and Loncar have been the top two individuals in one of the best collections of high hurdlers in the nation over the past few years. The two have claimed an All-America honor (Davidson) and a Big 12 indoor title (Loncar) in 2005, and they combined with Courtney Jones and Aaron Ross to form the fastest 4x110-meter shuttle hurdle relay team in conference history (55.12).

NU Athletes Rank Among Nation’s Best
The final set of Trackwire Top 25 rankings for the 2005 outdoor season was released last Thursday with the Nebraska men’s and women’s teams each appearing among the nation’s top five teams. The women’s team jumped from ninth to fifth last week, while the men’s team reached its season peak by being tied for fourth after ranking 15th merely a month ago.

The rankings provide evidence that the Huskers are the nation’s top dual-squad program. NU is the only team to have both men’s and women’s squads ranked in the top five. The only other programs to have dual squads sitting as high as the nation’s top 10 are Tennessee (W-6th, M-6th), Stanford (W-7th, M-10th) and LSU (W-10th, M-t4th).

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. Eighteen Huskers appear in this week’s edition of the “Dandy Dozen.” For a complete list of NU athletes ranked, see page 4 of this week’s track and field notes.

Indoor Phenoms Aim for Outdoor Success
Included in Nebraska’s 28-athlete roster this week will be a trio of former NCAA champions in Priscilla Lopes, Ashley Selig and Anne Shadle. While each has reached the pinnacle of success indoors, none of the three have claimed victory outdoors, at least yet.

Lopes has come the closest to an outdoor national title. The 2004 NCAA women’s 60-meter hurdles champ was the runner-up finisher in the 100-meter hurdles at last years’s outdoor nationals. The junior can not be blamed for a lack of effort, as she decimated the former school record (12.85) and lost only to the third-fastest time in collegiate history, run by Texas’ Nichole Denby (12.62).

Selig also came close in 2004, claiming bronze in the women’s heptathlon competition after setting her personal-best score of 5,587. Only a sophomore last year, the Lincoln, Neb., native made a huge leap during the past indoor season to take her first national title in the pentathlon.

No one has made a bigger leap this year than Shadle. At this time last year, the senior was falling short or reaching the finals of the 3,000-meter steeplechase. What a difference a year makes. Shadle earned her first NCAA title earlier this year in the indoor mile. She currently owns the fastest national outdoor time for the 1,500 and has not been serioustly challenged in the event since the season-opening Stanford Invite.

NU Fourth, Seventh in Final Dual Meet Rankings
The Nebraska men’s and women’s teams each finished among the top 10 teams in the final 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 14 points that raised its season-total score to 387.25, the NU men finished seventh in the rankings after sitting in the spot for the final three weeks. Other Big 12 Conference squads rating among the poll’s top 25 include Texas Tech (first) and Kansas State (14th). Nebraska closed the gap on No. 1 in the final weeks to less than 10 points. The Nos. 2 - 7 teams were separated only by a margin of four points.

The NU women’s team made a surge in the final weeks to vault into the No. 4 ranking, finishing with a potential score of 383.68. The Huskers were the top-rated Big 12 Conference team, with Kansas State (ninth), Texas Tech (26th) and Missouri (28th) also appearing among the top-30 schools. NU cut the margin between itself and first-place UCLA nearly in half during the last two weeks of competition from about 48 points to only 24.

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.

Record-Setting Relay Ready for an Encore
After having already conquered the Big 12 Conference and Midwest Region this season, NU’s men’s 4x100-meter relay team is setting its sights on a national championship. The feat is certainly in reach after the squad’s recent school record-breaking performance during the Midwest Regional.

The team of Arturs Abolins, Oliver Williams Jr., Nate Probasco and Dusty Stamer etched its name in the Husker record book by smashing the previous standard of 39.41 set at last year’s NCAA Championships. The new mark of 39.19 currently ranks No. 6 nationally, less than 0.50 behind current NCAA leader Arizona State (38.71).

This relay team’s story has been about small steps followed by huge leaps. Three of the four members competed on the 2004 edition, which continually improved throughout the season before claiming NU’s first Big 12 title for the event in 15 years (1989), as well as its first-ever NCAA finals appearance and All-America honor.

Following last season’s success, the team had high hopes. The squad advanced through the early season on a much quicker pace than 2004. NU was hitting on all cylinders by the Big 12 Championships, and it showed. The Huskers dominated the field to claim the first back-to-back 4x100-meter wins in school history. They followed that with their record-setting regional performance. If the team can continue to improve, it just may earn the first outdoor relay NCAA title in Nebraska men’s history.

World-Class Competitor
Dmitrijs Milkevics turned in a career and world-class performance in the Big 12 men’s 800-meter run competition, but it only earned him second place. Milkevics clocked a personal-best time of 1:45.10 that currently ranks third in the world, No. 1 for all European athletes and second in the NCAA this season. The only problem was that No. 2 on the world list was right ahead of him.

Texas Tech’s Jonathan Johnson recorded the second-fastest time (1:44.86) in the world this season in the 800-meter run finals, just edging Milkevics by 0.24. Johnson’s mark is now the top U.S. time for 2005. While he was the runner-up, Milkevics did manage to launch himself into second on NU’s all-time 800-meter chart behind former NU great Diedonne Kwizera (1:44.76), moving up from his previous position at No. 5.

Milkevics exacted his revenge at the Midwest Region Championships, winning the 800 in 1:46.48. Johnson finished third. While probably not as satisfying as a Big 12 championship, the Husker will have another shot at the defending NCAA champ this week. The two athletes bring the nation’s top two times into the race, which should feature one of the weekend’s most talented fields. The Big 12 will be well represented, as four of the top five seeded runners are from the conference (also No. 4-Jeremy Mims, Kansas; No. 5-Christian Smith, Kansas State).

Pepin, Shadle Earn USTCA Honors
The United States Track Coaches Association announced its annual NCAA Division I outdoor district track and field awards Friday, May 27, and Nebraska collected two of the organization’s four top honors for the Midwest Region.

NU Head Coach Gary Pepin was named Women’s Coach of the Year for his third USTCA coaching honor of 2005. Pepin led the NU women to their first outdoor Big 12 team championship since the 2000 season two weeks ago in Manhattan, Kan., to give the squad its second indoor-outdoor sweep in the conference’s nine-year history. Pepin also claimed both Men’s and Women’s Indoor Coach of the Year honors earlier this year after leading the Huskers to Big 12 indoor titles. He was voted Big 12 Women’s Outdoor Coach of the Year two weeks ago.

Senior Anne Shalde was named Female Athlete of the Year for the Midwest Region after earning her first conference championship in the 1,500-meter run two weeks ago. Shadle, who won the NCAA title in the women’s indoor mile back in March, also clinched the outdoor Big 12 team title for the women by finishing second in her first-ever race of the women’s 5,000 meters.

NU Vaulters to Battle the Nation, Each Other
Gable Baldwin and Ray Scotten will square off against some of the top pole vaulters in the nation, as well as the world, at the NCAA Championships. The pair should be used to it by now; they have to match-up against each other nearly every weekend.

The Huskers currently are tied for second in the NCAA rankings, but the similarities do not stop there. Each has won a Big 12 Conference title this season, Scotten indoors and Baldwin outdoors, while both have cleared personal-best heights of 18-2 1/2 during the outdoor season. They sit in a tie for No. 25 in the 2005 world rankings.

The two NU athletes also will be aiming for their first NCAA title this week. A national title for Baldwin would have seemed highly unlikely before the outdoor season. The Grand Island, Neb., native never had cleared a height better than 17-0 1/2 before winning the Drake Relays with his career-best vault. Scotten came close to earning a championship when he took second at indoor nationals back in March. Baldwin tied for eighth at the same meet.

The 2005 indoor champ, Oregon’s Tommy Skipper, will not compete after no-heighting during the regional weekend, so both Scotten and Baldwin appear to have decent shots at their first national titles.
 
Fourth Time the Charm for Baker?
Sara Jane Baker will set out to claim her first All-America award this  week in her fourth attempt in an NCAA Championships multi-event competition. She has come about as close as one can without earning the honor.

The junior earned a ninth-place finish?only one spot off the All-America requirement of eighth?in the heptathlon during last year’s outdoor national meet. Her 10th-place standing in the pentathlon at last year’s indoor nationals also came close. She had her third shot earlier this year at the Indoor Championships but placed 12th, only 58 points behind UNLV’s Christine Spence for eighth.

Baker may be primed to break her hex this season in Sacramento. The Kalamazoo, Mich., recorded a personal-best score of 5,469 earlier this season at the Walton Multi-Events. That score would have earned fifth place at last season’s NCAA Outdoor Championships.

Hurdles, High Jump Key for Nebraska Men
Two events that will be important for the title hopes of the NU men’s team this weekend may be the high hurdles and high jump.

The 110-meter hurdles is Nebraska’s deepest event at outdoor nationals, men or women. Three Huskers, Richard Davidson Jr., Courtney Jones and Nenad Loncar, will have chances to add to the men’s team score. Both Davidson Jr. and Loncar have been here before?they competed at indoor nationals back in March with each finishing among the top 12 finishers in the 60-meter hurdles. Jones will be competing in his first NCAA title event, but he managed to claim the highest finish (2nd) for the three athletes at last month’s Big 12 outdoor meet.

Beside the pole vault, the high jump may be NU’s best bet for high team points. Both Dusty Jonas (2nd) and Aaron Plas (7th) scored for Nebraska at indoor nationals, becoming NCAA All-Americans in the process. Plas, fresh off a Big 12 outdoor title and second-place showing at regionals, ranks tied for sixth in the NCAA, while Jonas is tied for 14th.

Both jumpers have been inclined to put up big performances in important meets. Plas matched his career best of 7-3 3/4 to win the conference title over defending NCAA champ Andra Manson (Texas) and No. 1-ranked Kyle Lancaster (Kansas State), while Jonas recorded his personal high (also 7-3 3/4) during his indoor silver-medal run.

Women Aim for Points in Discus, Javelin
The NU women’s throws crew possesses two top-notch contenders for national honors in sophomores Dace Ruskule and Kayla Wilkinson. The two give the women’s squad a good shot at picking up team points in the discus, an event in which they have seen recent success, and the javelin, in which they have not.

Ruskule has helped ease the loss of defending NCAA discus champ Becky Breisch, who has been sidelined during all of the 2005 season with elbow problems. The newcomer from Latvia gave the Huskers their third Big 12 discus title in the last four years, helping the squad win its first conference team title since 2000. Ruskule ranks fourth among all athletes competing at this year’s outdoor nationals.

Wilkinson made huge improvements this season in the javelin after finishing seventh in the Big 12 in 2004. She won the competition this year to give Nebraska only its ninth conference title all-time, and the first since 1999 (Cassi Morelock). Wilkinson also sits second on NU’s all-time performance list, less than seven feet off Morelock’s school record of 181-0.

Eleven Huskers to Make NCAA Debuts
A common theme during the outdoor season has been young Huskers recording big performances. Nebraska will feature four freshman at the NCAA outdoor meet, three of which will be making their national meet debuts. In all, 11 NU athletes will compete in the NCAA Championships for the first time this week.

The NU women’s team leads the way with three freshmen selections, nearly 1/4 of its 13-person NCAA roster. Egle Uljas holds the highest ranking of any Nebraska freshman with her No. 6 rating in the women’s 800 meters. Laura Wortmann, who has made leaps in progress this season, was an at-large selction for the discus and ranks No. 17 among the field, while Frances Keating, also an at-large selection in the 100-meter hurdles, is rated 26th.

The lone freshman to qualify for the Husker men is the only youngster not making an NCAA debut. Dusty Jonas was the runner-up finisher in the high jump at the NCAA indoor meet.

Other Nebraska athletes who will be making their first national meet appearances include Kwonya Ferguson, Justine Roach, Dace Ruskule, Kayla Wilkinson, Casie Witte, Courtney Jones, Peter van der Westhuizen and Issar Yazhbin.

Selig, Shadle 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.

Priscilla Lopes (60m, 60m hurdles) also added a pair of All-America honors for the women, while Gable Baldwin (pole vault), Richard Davidson Jr. (60-meter hurdles), Dusty Jonas (high jump), Aaron Plas (high jump), Nate Probasco (200 meters), Daniel Roper (triple jump), Ray Scotten (pole vault) and Dusty Stamer (60 meters) earned recognition for the NU men.

Nebraska’s 2005 NCAA Outdoor Qualifiers
Women
Name Event Mark
Sara Jane Baker Heptathlon 5,469
Kwonya Ferguson Triple Jump 42-2 1/4
Frances Keating 100m Hurdles 13.50
Christi Lehman Pole Vault 13-3 3/4
Priscilla Lopes 100m Hurdles 12.85
Justine Roach 400m Hurdles 58.56
Dace Ruskule Discus 186-1
Ashley Selig Heptathlon 5,587
Anne Shadle 1,500 Meters 4:14.39
Egle Uljas 800 Meters 2:04.64
Kayla Wilkinson Javelin 174-4
Casie Witte High Jump 5-10
Laura Wortmann Discus 172-4

Men
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
Mark Harrison 400m Hurdles 50.75
Dusty Jonas High Jump 7-2 1/4
Courtney Jones 110m Hurdles 13.83
Nenad Loncar 110m Hurdles 13.83
Dmitrijs Milkevics 800 Meters 1:45.10
Aaron Plas High Jump 7-3 3/4
Nate Probasco 200 Meters 20.53w
Ray Scotten Pole Vault 18-2 1/2
Dusty Stamer 100 Meters 10.35w
Peter van der Westhuizen 1,500 Meters 3:43.62
Oliver Williams Jr. 100 Meters 10.34
Issar Yazhbin Hammer Throw 206-11
Nebraska 4x100m Relay 39.19