Huskers Set to Play Host to adidas Classic

The Nebraska men's and women's track and field teams continue their early season indoor schedule this weekend by playing host to the adidas Classic at the Bob Devaney Sports Center Indoor Track on Saturday, Jan. 21. Competition begins with field events at 1 p.m., while action on the track starts at 2 p.m.

Reserved tickets for Saturday's meet may be purchased from the Husker Athletic Ticket Office for $6, while general admission prices are $4 for adults and $2 for children ages 7+. Admission is free for NU students with a valid ID and children under the age of six.

The adidas Classic will mark Nebraska's first Division I competition of the 2006 season, as last week's Holiday Inn Invite featured small colleges and junior college squads. The adidas Classic will also include two of NU's Big 12 counterparts in Iowa State and Oklahoma State. Meet recaps and results can be found at Huskers.com on Saturday following the conclusion of competition, while live results will also be available throughout the day. For a complete event-by-event time schedule and list of NU competitors, see page 2 of this week's Husker track and field notes.

NU Ranked 4th, 7th in Trackwire 25
The first edition of the Trackwire 25 team rankings for the 2006 season were released Tuesday, and both Nebraska men's and women's squads were listed among the nation's top 10.

The women's team debuted at No. 4, the same spot it placed at the 2005 NCAA Indoor Championships. NU is one of four Big 12 Conference schools included among the top 25, along with Texas (No. 2), Texas A&M (No. 13) and Kansas State (No. 20).

The Husker men also were placed in the same position (No. 7) they finished during last year's NCAA indoor meet. The poll predicts a talented Big 12 men's field in 2006, as eight teams appear in the rankings: Texas, (No. 4), Texas Tech (No. 9), Texas A&M (No. 12), Kansas (No. 13), Kansas State (No. 20), Baylor (tie-No. 25) and Oklahoma (tie-No. 25).

The Trackwire 25 attempts to predict team scores for the NCAA Championships based on individual athlete rankings for each event?nicknamed the "Dandy Dozen"?that are updated weekly by track and field statistician Gary Verigin.

Nebraska leads all NCAA teams with 14 individual athletes appearing in the Dandy Dozen this week. The eight men's picks ties Wisconsin for the national lead, while NU's six women rank behind Miami's (Fla.) national-leading seven.

Husker athletes among this week's "Dandy Dozen" include:
Women
Becky Breisch, Shot Put?1st
Ashley Selig, Heptathlon?1st
Priscilla Lopes, 60m Hurdles, 2nd; 60 Meters?5th
Egle Uljas, 800 Meters?5th
Jenny Green, Pole Vault?7th
Sara Jane Baker, Heptathlon?11th

Men
Dmitrijs Milkevics, 800 Meters?1st
Arturs Abolins, Long Jump?4th
Daniel Roper, Triple Jump?5th
Ray Scotten, Pole Vault?6th
Dusty Jonas, High Jump?7th
Nate Probasco, 200 Meters?7th
Aaron Plas, High Jump?9th
Courtney Jones, 60m Hurdles?11th

Huskers Open Season at Home
Nebraska dominated the field in its season-opening competition, the Holiday Inn Invitational, last weekend at the Devaney Center. The Huskers earned 12 event crowns, including eight on the meet's final day, and three NCAA provisional-qualifying marks.

Leading the way was Jenny Green, who won the women's pole vault while clearing a provisional-qualifying 12-11 1/2 in her first competition as a Husker in more than 1 1/2 years. Other Husker women to notch provisional marks included Priscilla Lopes, who won the 60 meters in 7.40, and Becky Breisch, who threw 51-11 3/4 in the shot put in her first meet as a Husker since 2004.

Channing Anseth posted a suprising performance in the women's 5,000 meters that featured the ninth-best time in NU history (17:21.00). Sara Jane Baker (high jump), Joslyn Dalton (mile) and Zarinah Suluki (triple jump) also captured individual wins for the Husker women.

Nate Probasco may have put up the most impressive performance of the weekend with his personal-best time of 47.68 in the 400 meters, which ranks seventh on Nebraska's all-time performance list. Gable Baldwin (pole vault), Courtney Jones (60m hurdles), Aaron Plas (high jump) and Peter van der Westhuizen (3,000 meters) also won individual event crowns during the weekend. Aaron Ross also had a special meet in the 60m hurdles, setting personal-best times (8.04 and 8.02) twice during the three-heat competition.

Distance Corps Opens Season Strong
While several event groups started the season on the right foot last weekend at the Holiday Inn Invitational, no group experienced a more successful meet than Nebraska's young distance runners. Coach Jay Dirksen's group collected four of NU's 12 event titles during the season opener, while eight athletes set personal-best marks.

Leading the group was Channing Anseth, who produced the ninth-best all-time women's 3,000-meter time of
17:21.00 to win the meet crown in her first race as a Husker. Anseth, a sophomore, transferred to Nebraska from St. Cloud State, where she competed in cross country and swimming as a freshman in 2005.

Joslyn Dalton, also seeing her first action on the track after redshirting last season, led a 1-2 Husker finish in the women's mile in a career-best 5:07.92. Kayte Tranel, who is also coming off a redshirt season, finished second.

Kim Pancoast's time of 9:50.56 led a group of four NU top-10 finishes in the women's 3,000 meters. Each of the other four Husker 3,000 meter competitors (Betsy Miller, Jen Pancoast, Michaela Lenihan and Rachel Carrizales) set personal bests during the race.

Peter van der Westhuizen showed why he is Nebraska's best bet in the men's distance area, as he won the men's 3,000 by nearly 21 seconds in a lifetime-best 8:25.28.

Huskers Rank Among Big 12 Leaders
Despite an easy start to the year that included a limited lineup of athletes at last weekend's season-opening Holiday Inn Invitational, several Huskers already find themselves leading events on the initial 2006 Big 12 Conference indoor performance list. Three men and three women rank No. 1 among all league athletes for events to be held at this season's indoor conference meet.

Priscilla Lopes tops the women's 60-meter dash field with her NCAA provisional-qualifying time of 7.40, while Kim Pancoast owns a nearly 18-second cushion in the 3,000 meters (9:50.56). Channing Anseth (17:21.00) also owns a No. 1 ranking in the 5,000 over teammate Val Zajac, although the two are currently the only athletes to have a mark for the event.

Nebraska men with No. 1 event rankings include Nathan Kumm (1:12.35) in the 600-yard run, Alec Maduza (15:50.96) in the 5,000 meters and Courtney Jones (8.00) in the 60-meter hurdles. Maduza is the lone athlete on the 5,000-meter list, while Jones leads the hurdle rankings over teammate Aaron Ross by 0:00.02.

Nebraska Names 2006 Captains
NU announced that eight captains have been selected by the team to lead it into the 2006 season.

The women’s group of captains features four seniors, three of whom are former NCAA champions. Becky Breisch, Priscilla Lopes and Ashley Selig each will look to reclaim individual national titles while pushing the Husker women to their first team title since the 1984 season. Breisch (discus) and Lopes (60m hurdles) both earned titles in 2004, while Selig (pentathlon) claimed her first NCAA championship last season. The fourth women’s captain, Sara Jane Baker, is a four-time NCAA Championships qualifier and three-time Big 12 runner-up.

Representing the Nebraska men’s squad will be a trio of NCAA All-Americans?Aaron Plas, Nate Probasco and Ray Scotten?as well as a former Big 12 champion?Issar Yazhbin. The group is comprised of two seniors who earned a pair of 2005 NCAA top-10 finishes in Plas (high jump) and Scotten (pole vault). The two remaining junior captains each have formerly claimed respective Big 12 titles in the sprint events (Probasco?200m, 4x100m relay) and hammer throw (Yazhbin).

Thirteen All-Americans Return in '06
A combined 13 NCAA All-Americans will suit up for the Nebraska men's and women's squads in 2006. The Husker men will feature nine All-Americans, including 2005 NCAA champion Dmitrijs Milkevics, while four honorees will compete for the NU women. Of the four Husker women's All-Americans, three own NCAA championships in Becky Breisch (2003 outdoor shot put, 2004 discus), Priscilla Lopes (2004 60m hurdles) and Ashley Selig (2005 pentathlon).

Husker NCAA All-Americans (former NCAA champions in bold)
Women
Name; Honors; Event(s)
Becky Breisch; Eight; Shot Put (five), Discus (three)
Jenny Green; Two; Pole Vault
Priscilla Lopes; Six; 60m (two); 60m hurdles (two); 100m hurdles (two)
Ashley Selig; Four; Pentathlon, Heptathlon 

Men
Name; Honors; Event(s)
Gable Baldwin; One; Pole Vault
Dusty Jonas; Two; High Jump
Dmitrijs Milkevics; Three; 800m
Aaron Nasers; One; 800m
Aaron Plas; Two; High Jump
Nate Probasco; Two; 200m, 4x100m
Daniel Roper; One; Triple Jump
Ray Scotten; Three; Pole Vault
Oliver Williams Jr.; One; 4x100m

Grimes Tabbed as NU Assistant
Kris Grimes, formerly of Washington State, was hired as the men’s and women’s pole vault and combined events coach on Aug. 10, 2005.

A native of Jefferson City, Mo., Grimes has helped several athletes flourish on the national level during his 17 years of coaching, as his resume boasts 10 NCAA All-America athletes who have earned 14 individual honors. Included among the group is two-time NCAA champion Sevatheda Fynes, who Grimes coached to national wins in the 100- and 200-meter dash events while at Michigan State.

Grimes brings a wealth of recruiting and coaching experience on the NCAA Division I level with him to Nebraska. He previously served as an assistant coach responsible for the development of the WSU men’s and women’s jump groups for the past eight seasons. Prior to his post with the Cougars, Grimes served as interim head women’s track and field coach at Michigan State for one season in 1996 before being named the Spartans’ interim Director of Women’s Track and Field and Cross Country. He remained in his interim post with MSU until 1998, when he was hired by Washington State.

A three-time NCAA All-American pole vaulter at Abiline Christian University, Grimes was a key contributor on four Division II national championship teams. After exhausting his eligibility, he served as an assistant coach for the Wildcats in 1989 while completing his bachelor’s degree in education. Grimes later received his master’s degree in education with concentrations in sport psychology and biomechanics while coaching in a graduate assistant role at Missouri from 1990-91. Between his time at Missouri and Michigan State, he spent five years (1992-96) as an assistant in charge of jumps and combined events at Louisiana-Monroe.

Three Win USATF Titles
The 2005 season proved to be a banner year for Nebraska athletes competing on the national stage. While Huskers brought home four individual NCAA titles, that success carried into the summer months with three athletes claiming titles at the U.S. Track and Field Championships in Carson, Calif.

Becky Breisch became the first Husker to win a USATF title in the women's discus with her final throw of 206-5, securing victory over four-time U.S. champion Seilala Sua (202-10). The win also clinched a spot for Breisch on the U.S. World Championships team, while she fell just short of qualifying in the shot put with a fifth-place finish.

Dusty Jonas and Robert Rands earned respective U.S. junior titles in the high jump and long jump events. Jonas cleared 7-4 1/2, more than five inches higher than the runner-up, to win the high jump, while Rands, who joined the Nebraska men's squad this fall, soared to 24-7 while taking the long jump. Jonas and Rands each qualified for the Pan American Junior Games, where they also claimed titles during the summer.

Huskers Take on the World
Four Nebraska athletes saw their 2005 seasons extend into the late summer to the IAAF World Championships in Helsinki, Finland, during late August. The elite competition served as the second consecutive world championship competition for Becky Breisch, Priscilla Lopes, Dmitrijs Milkevics and Egle Uljas.

Priscilla Lopes experienced the most successful stay among Huskers with her semifinals appearance in the women's 100-meter hurdles. Competing for Canada, Lopes notched the 10th-fastest semifinal time to fall only two spots shy of her first career final at a world competition.

Becky Breisch finished 18th overall during women's discus qualifying with a throw of 57.16 meters (187-6) on her second of three attempts. Breisch recorded fouls on her first and third attempts to finish 10th in her flight.

Dmitrijs Milkevics, competing for Latvia, ran in the men's 800-meter race, but did not advance out of the qualifying stages. Milkevics finished fifth in the third of six heats with a time of 1:50.44, just .30 seconds off the heat's winning time.

Egle Uljas competing for Estonia, ran a season-best time of 52.94 during women’s 400-meter qualifying to finish seventh in the first of six heats and 32nd overall out of 46 athletes. Uljas competed primarily in the 800 meters as a Husker last spring, but also competed at the 2004 Olympics in the 400.

Ten Recruits Signed to Letters of Intent
Ten athletes have signed National Letters-of-Intent to attend Nebraska and compete in track and field beginning next fall, including four in-state products.

While the group is deep in the jumps area with four nationally ranked individuals, a pair of in-state sprinters headline the class in Sarah Lyons (Omaha, Neb.) and Lukas Hulett (Bellevue, Neb.).

Lyons won all-class gold medals as a junior while sweeping the girls’ 100-, 200- and 400-meter dash events at the 2005 Nebraska Class C state meet. Hulett also claimed a 2005 all-class gold medal in the boys’ 400 meters while competing for Bellevue East High School at the Nebraska Class A state meet.

Seth Burney (Beatrice, Neb.), the 2005 Class B runner-up in the boys’ pole vault, and Danielle Smith, the 2005 Class A runner-up in the girls’ triple jump, were the final in-state products to sign with NU. Burney finished second to current Husker Sam Ogden at last spring’s state meet and ranks as the No. 6 senior nationally entering this season with a lifetime-best vault of 16-0 ?. Smith owns a personal-best mark of 38-3 in the triple jump.

Other athletes to sign with the Huskers include Leandra McGruder (Jefferson City, Mo.), Chantae McMillan (Rolla, Mo.), Dax Danns (Lemon Grove, Calif.), Erin Hannon (Bradford, Pa.) and Scott Wims (Ft. Wayne, Ind.).

For more information on each of NU's signees, visit the track and field site at Huskers.com.