Huskers Sweep Home Triangular

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LINCOLN?The Nebraska men’s and women’s track and field teams swept team titles Saturday during the Nebraska Triangular at the Bob Devaney Sports Center Indoor Track. The Husker women earned a decisive victory, 148.50 to 128.50, over second-place ColoradoState, while the NU men sweated out a narrow win, 120.50 to 120, over the Rams. KentState finished third in both team standings.<?xml:namespace prefix="o" ns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office"?>

 

“We loved today’s meet,” Head Coach Gary Pepin said. “The idea behind it is to have a meet that moves very rapidly. It’s a scored meet, so everybody in the meet is important. I think it was also a meet that was a lot more fun for spectators to watch.”

 

NCAA All-Americans Daniel Roper and Dusty Jonas helped propel the men’s team to victory.

 

Following a CSU win in the 4x400-meter relay that placed Nebraska in a 4.5-point deficit, Roper and Jonas swept the men’s triple jump competition during the day’s final event for a five-point swing in the team scores. Jonas, who also won the men’s high jump with a season-best clearance of 7-3, overtook Colorado State’s Jarelle Johnson for second place by a mere inch on his final attempt to seal the half-point team win with a leap of 47-4 1/2. Roper, who suffered a setback during fall training after undergoing ankle surgery, soared to 49-0 3/4 in his first meet of the season.

 

“If Dusty Jonas hadn’t improved on his very last attempt of the meet, the men’s team would have lost,” Pepin said. “He had a great day.

                                   

“We were glad to see Roper come back and jump well,” Pepin added. “He’s only running from a short approach, and his jumps were very good.”

 

Priscilla Lopes pushed the women’s team to its easy victory on a day that saw her become the only women’s athlete in the nation with three NCAA provisional qualifying marks in individual events (not including relay events).

 

Lopes earned a win in the 60-meter hurdles with a time of 8.30, ahead of second-place teammate Ashley Selig (8.77), before finishing a close runner-up in the 60-meter dash to ColoradoState’s Janay DeLoach (7.38) with a season-best mark of 7.39. Lopes then defeated DeLoach in the 200-meter dash with a personal-best clocking of 23.82 for a provisional qualification in her first 200-meter race of the season. The six-time All-American surpassed the provisional standard in each of her three events Saturday.

 

Another Nebraska All-American, Gable Baldwin, hit his first provisional standard of the season for the men’s pole vault with a clearance of 17-4 1/2 to claim victory. Baldwin became the first Husker to surpass the 17-foot mark in 2006, while teammate Ray Scotten, a three-time All-American in the event, finished second (16-8 3/4).

 

One week after recording a provisional mark in his first competition of the season, Arturs Abolins won two events for the NU men’s team. The junior decimated the field in the men’s long jump with his season-best mark of 25-3 1/4, while his time of 6.80 in the 60-meter dash was also good for first place. Teammate Robert Rands (23-10) finished runner-up in the long jump.

 

The Huskers swept the top two spots in the men’s 60-hurdles Saturday, with Courtney Jones earning the win in 8.05. Aaron Ross was second with a time of 8.08. The tandem of Kayte Tranel (17:04.48) and Channing Anseth (17:11.73) also added a sweep for the NU women in the 5,000-meter run. Tranel’s time was only one second shy of her personal low, while Anseth cut nearly 10 seconds off her career best.

 

Sara Jane Baker gave the Husker women a huge boost in the high jump, an event that has been less than kind to the squad so far in 2006. Baker tied her personal best of 5-9 1/4 on her way to winning the competition. The previous best leap by an NU high jumper before Saturday was Baker’s mark of 5-7 1/4 set during the season-opening Holiday Inn Invitational.

 

Other winners for the Husker women included Becky Breisch, who currently is the NCAA’s top-rated athlete in the shot put, with a mark of 57-0 1/4 in the event; Jenny Green, who cleared 12-9 1/2 in the pole vault; Natalja Zarcenko, who ran 2:13.67 to take the 800-meter run; Kim Pancoast, who tied for No. 12 on NU’s all-time 1,000-meter chart with a time of 2:50.63; and the 4x400-meter relay (3:44.34) team of Baker, Selig, Sheryl Morgan and Pinar Saka.

 

Adding wins for the Nebraska men were Peter van der Westhuizen, who set a personal-best time of 1:50.77 in the 800-meter run, and Aaron Nasers, who notched a time of 2:26.73 in the 1,000-meter run.

 

Other Huskers Compete in Nebraska Wesleyan Twilight

Several Nebraska athletes also competed in the Nebraska Wesleyan Triangular at the DevaneyCenter following NU’s own Triangular. The competition was an unscored meet and matched Huskers against athletes from Nebraska Wesleyan and BakerUniversity.

 

Highlighting the second competition was Jenna Blubaugh, who notched her first career NCAA provisional-qualifying mark in the women’s pole vault with a winning clearance of 12-11 3/4. The height shattered her previous career best of 11-11 3/4 by exactly one foot and tied her with All-America teammate Jenny Green for the team lead in the event this season.

 

Also performing well was Aaron Ross, who recorded a career-best time of 7.98 while winning the men’s 60-meter hurdles. The race was Ross’ second of the day, as he finished second earlier on Saturday during the Nebraska Triangular.

 

Two more Huskers set personal bests to sweep the men’s and women’s weight throw competitions. Adam Evans claimed the men’s event with a spin of 56-2, which was more than two feet further than his previous best, while Jeni Steiner earned top honors for the women with a mark of 55-5, which improved on her best by more than one foot.

 

Other Huskers claiming event titles included Tierre Green, who won the men’s 60-meter dash in 7.00, Ashlee Dickinson, who cleared 5-5 to win the women’s high jump; and Ray Scotten, who improved his season best height to 16-9 in the men’s pole vault.

 

Nebraska returns to the Devaney Center Indoor Track next weekend, when it welcomes some of the nation’s top programs to Lincoln for the 31st annual Frank Sevigne Husker Invitational on Friday and Saturday.