Huskers Look to Add Last-Minute Qualifiers

Twenty members of the Nebraska track and field team will travel to Ames, Iowa, on Saturday for the Cyclone NCAA Qualifier with the hopes of registering strong performances that could earn spots at next week's NCAA Indoor Championships.<?xml:namespace prefix="o" ns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office"?>

 

Field events begin at 10 a.m. with the women's weight throw, while the women's 5,000-meter run leads off all running events at 10:25 a.m. A recap, as well as full results, will be available on Huskers.com following the day's activities.

 

Cyclone NCAA Qualifier

Athletes from across the nation will compete in <?xml:namespace prefix="st1" ns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags"?>Ames this weekend with hopes of qualifying for the NCAA Indoor Championships on their minds. The meet is one of only a limited number of qualifying meets allowed by the NCAA.

 

Huskers competing in the Cyclone NCAA Qualifier include not only athletes seeking their first qualifying marks, but also those aiming to improve on existing qualifications. The key number for NU this weekend is 16, as in the average number of competitors selected to fill out the field in each event at the NCAA indoor meet. While that number is never a set amount, athletes historically ranked near the 17th spot or lower are long shots to be selected for the competition.

 

Among NU's contingent this weekend will be NCAA All-Americans Gable Baldwin (men's pole vault), Jenny Green (women's pole vault), Aaron Plas (men's high jump), Nate Probasco (men's 200-meter dash) and Daniel Roper (men's triple jump). Green and Plas, who rank No. 12 on the national performance list for their events, currently sit in good position and may not need to notch improved marks to reach the NCAA Championships. Baldwin (17th) appears to be a long shot to reach the field without an improved performance on Saturday, while Roper (19th) and Probasco (20th) will not be selected unless they post outstanding marks at IowaState.

 

Jenna Blubaugh (women's pole vault), Elizabeth Lange (women's 800 meters), Aaron Ross (men's 60-meter hurdles) and LeRon Williams (men's long jump) also own provisional-qualifying marks, but none of the athletes currently are in the NCAA selection picture without enhanced marks this weekend. All remaining Huskers slated to compete will be searching for their first career qualifying marks, with the exception of third-ranked Courtney Jones (men's 60-meter hurdles).

 

Nebraska’s Returning 2005 NCAA Indoor Championships Qualifiers:

Women

Name                                Event           Personal Best

Sara Jane Baker          Pentathlon           4,088

Priscilla Lopes              60 Meters           7.23

                               60m Hurdles           7.96

Ashley Selig                Pentathlon           4,327

 

Men

Name                                Event           Personal Best

Arturs Abolins             Long Jump           25-9 1/2

Gable Baldwin              Pole Vault           17-8 1/2

Dusty Jonas                High Jump           7-4 1/2

Nate Probasco            200 Meters           20.93

Daniel Roper              Triple Jump           52-1 1/4

Aaron Plas                  High Jump           7-3 3/4

Ray Scotten                Pole Vault           18-0 1/2

 

Nine Huskers Win Big 12 Indoor Titles

A two-day total of 5,198 spectators who packed the Devaney Center Indoor Track last weekend were treated to some terrific performances by Nebraska athletes, including nine who earned individual Big 12 titles. While both Husker men's and women's squads came up short in the race for their third straight Big 12 indoor team titles, several athletes stepped up their performances on the big stage.

 

Three Huskers?Priscilla Lopes, Dmitrijs Milkevics and Ashley Selig?broke their own school records while adding more Big 12 hardware to their respective trophy cases.

 

Lopes blazed to a time of 7.92 in the women's 60-meter hurdles, setting new standards for the DevaneyCenter and Big 12 indoor meet, as well as the conference's all-time best performance. The title was her second straight in the event, as well as her fourth overall. Lopes also claimed silver-medal honors in the 60-meter and 200-meter dash events to power the NU women's team.

 

Selig put together a school-record point total of 4,336 to win the women's heptathlon over teammate Sara Jane Baker. The 2005 NCAA indoor champion in the event, Selig overtook the NCAA's No. 1 score while winning her second conference pentathlon championship, and third title overall. Baker's score (4,203) ranks third nationally.

 

Milkevics shattered his own school record, as well as the former Big 12 meet and DevaneyCenter standards, with a time of 1:46.46 in the men's 800-meter run. Along with adding his second career Big 12 indoor title, the reigning NCAA outdoor champion also regained the top NCAA performance.

 

Two Huskers, Daniel Roper (triple jump) and Ray Scotten (pole vault), successfully defended men's indoor titles despite experiencing up-and-down regular seasons. Roper, who missed the first two weeks of the season while recovering from ankle surgery, soared to a mark of 50-9 1/2 while winning his second Big 12 title. Scotten, a three-time All-American who had failed to break the 17-foot barrier in the vault during the season's first six weeks, cleared 17-9 for his second title and first NCAA provisional-qualifying mark of the year.

 

Jenny Green and Becky Breisch each returned to championship form after redshirting during the 2005 season. Green won her third women's Big 12 pole vault competition in three attempts with a season-best clearance of 13-5 1/4. She led a 1-2-3 Husker finish also featuring Jenna Blubaugh (13-1 1/2) and Jessie Graff (12-7 1/2). Breisch held on for victory in the women's shot put with a heave of 57-6 1/4. The honor counted as Breisch's eighth conference title, including her fifth in the shot.

 

Courtney Jones recorded the performance of his life to win his first conference title, in the men's 60-meter hurdles. His time of 7.74 shattered his previous best of 7.84, while also taking over the No. 3 spot on the NCAA performance list.

 

Nebraska's final champion was Arturs Abolins, who provided a mild upset of the NCAA's No. 1-ranked athlete in the men's long jump. The Riga, Latvia, native registered a leap of 25-8 1/4 to outdistance Texas A&M's Fabrice LaPierre by two inches. Abolins, who ranks second in the NCAA for the long jump, matched his 2004 indoor Big 12 championship with the victory.

 

2006 Nebraska Big 12 Indoor Champions:

Women

Name                                 Event         Titles

Becky Breisch                 Shot Put         5 (06i, 04i, 04o, 03i, 03o)

Jenny Green                  Pole Vault         3 (06i, 04i, 04o)

Priscilla Lopes            60m Hurdles         2 (06i, 05i)

Ashley Selig                  Pentathlon         2 (06i, 05i)

 

Men

Name                                  Event         Titles

Arturs Abolins               Long Jump         2 (06i, 04i)

Courtney Jones           60m Hurdles         1 (06i)

Dmitrijs Milkevics                  800m         2 (06i, 04i)

Daniel Roper                Triple Jump         2 (06i, 05i)

Ray Scotten                   Pole Vault         3 (06i, 05i)

 

Eight Huskers Own NCAA Auto Marks

Eight Nebraska athletes already have punched their tickets to the 2006 NCAA Indoor Championships in Fayetteville, Ark., by posting automatic-qualifying performances this season. Five women and three men currently make up NU's national meet squad, but one weekend still remains for other Huskers to be added.

 

The women's pentathlon is the team's strongest event, as both Ashley Selig and Sara Jane Baker posted auto marks earlier this month during the Frank Sevigne Husker Invitational. Becky Breisch has hit the automatic standard five times in the shot put this season, including a personal-best mark of 57-10 1/2 at the Iowa State Classic. Priscilla Lopes has claimed an auto qualification for the third straight year in the 60-meter hurdles with her NCAA-leading time of 7.92, while Egle Uljas qualified for the first time in the 800 meters indoors after notching a new school record at the Husker Invite.

 

All three Husker men's automatic qualifiers are highly ranked. Arturs Abolins, Dusty Jonas and Dmitrijs Milkevics each earned their qualifications through spectacular performances at the Tyson Invitational. Milkevics ranks first nationally in the 800 meters, while Abolins is second in the long jump. Jonas is the NCAA's No. 4-rated athlete in the high jump.

 

Women Ranked Third in Coaches Poll

In conjunction with the launch of its new web site this season, the United States Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association has begun organizing a Division I USTFCCCA Coaches Poll. Nebraska is one of five programs to have both its men's and women's teams appear among the poll's top 10 this week.

 

The NU women, who have been ranked fifth nearly the entire season, jumped to third following their performance at last weekend's Big 12 Championships. The squad trails only Texas (first) and South Carolina (second) in the poll.

 

The Husker men were voted as the sixth-best team by the coaches for the second straight poll after spending four consecutive weeks in the No. 7 spot. Defending NCAA indoor and outdoor champion Arkansas is tied with Big 12 champion Texas at the top. Other ranked conference squads include Baylor (11th), Kansas (13th) and Texas A&M (14th).

 

NU Men Tumble in Trackwire 25

Tuesday's release of the latest Trackwire 25 marked the first time this season that Nebraska did not place both men's and women's teams among the ranking's top 10, as they had been cemented during each of the poll's previous six weeks this season.

 

The women's team stayed at No. 4, the same spot it placed at the 2005 NCAA Indoor Championships, for the seventh straight week. The Huskers trail No. 1 Texas by a projected 16 points, but the deficit between NU and No. 2 Stanford is only eight. Other than Nebraska and Texas, no other league school earned a top-25 ranking this week.

 

The Husker men fell from sixth to No. 15 this week following Dmitrijs Milkevics' recent announcement that he is turning professional. Due in part to that news, NU lost a projected 14 points this week. The poll predicts a talented Big 12 men's field in 2006, as six other teams also appear in the rankings: Texas (No. 3), Baylor (tie-No. 6), Kansas (No. 11) and Texas A&M (No. 17), KansasState (No. 19) and Texas Tech (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 is one of the hot names in the Dandy Dozen for 2006, as the program is tied for the national lead with 12 different individual athletes selected. Texas and Stanford also have 12 individuals selected.

 

Both Husker teams rank near the national lead in numbers of athletes selected. The seven men's picks tie Texas and Arkansas for the NCAA lead, while NU's five women's selections trail only Michigan (eight) and Stanford (eight).

 

Husker athletes among this week's "Dandy Dozen":

Women

Ashley Selig, Pentathlon?1st

Becky Breisch, Shot Put?2nd

Priscilla Lopes, 60m Hurdles?2nd

                       60 Meters?10th

Sara Jane Baker, Heptathlon?3rd

Egle Uljas, 800 Meters?5th

 

Men

Arturs Abolins, Long Jump?3rd

Courtney Jones, 60m Hurdles?5th

Daniel Roper, Triple Jump?6th

Dusty Jonas, High Jump?7th

Ray Scotten, Pole Vault?7th

Nate Probasco, 200 Meters?11th

Aaron Plas, High Jump?12th

 

Huskers Rank Among Nation's Best

Ten NU athletes sit among the top 10 for 12 events on the latest NCAA performance list. Three Huskers own the nation's best performance for their respective events, while four others rank second or third.

 

Each of Nebraska's No. 1 performances were set to break school records last weekend. Leading the way is Priscilla Lopes, who possesses the nation's No. 1 time of 7.92 in the women's 60-meter hurdles. Ashley Selig broke her own NU record score of 4,336 to take the national lead in the pentathlon, while Dmitrijs Milkevics regained the lead he owned two weeks ago in the 800 meters with his own record.

 

Two Huskers, Becky Breisch and Arturs Abolins, own No. 2 rankings for the women's shot put and men's long jump, respectively, while Sara Jane Baker is the third-ranked pentathlete despite exceeding her previous season best by more than 100 points last weekend. Courtney Jones also made the leap to No. 3 in the men's 60-meter hurdles with his incredible time of 7.74 that earned him his first Big 12 title.

 

Other Husker athletes ranked among the NCAA's top 10 include Dusty Jonas, who is fourth in the men's high jump; Egle Uljas, who owns the sixth-best time in the women's 800 meters; and Ray Scotten, who crashed the rankings for the first time this season at No. 8 in the men's pole vault. Lopes (tie-No.8: women's 60 meters) and Baker (tie-No. 8: women's high jump) are the lone Huskers to own top-10 rankings for multiple events.

 

Nebraska 2006 NCAA Indoor Event Rankings:

Women

Name                                     Event (Rank)         Mark

Channing Anseth                     5,000m (37th)         16:38.54

Sara Jane Baker                      Pentathlon (3rd)      4,203

                                              High Jump (t-8th)    5-11 1/4

Jenna Blubaugh                       Pole Vault (t-23rd)  13-1 1/2

Becky Breisch                         Shot Put (2nd)        57-10 1/2

Jenny Green                            Pole Vault (t-12th)  13-5 1/4

Elizabeth Lange                       800m (31st)           2:07.91

Priscilla Lopes                         60m (t-8th)             7.29

                                              200m (t-13th)         23.50

                                              60m Hurdles (1st)   7.92

Ashley Selig                            Pentathlon (1st)      4,336
                                              High Jump (t-20th)  5-10

Egle Uljas                               800m (6th)             2:05.30

 

Men

Name                                     Event (Rank)         Mark

Arturs Abolins                          Long Jump (2nd)     25-9 1/2

Gable Baldwin                         Pole Vault (17th)    17-5 3/4

Tom Donlin                              Weight Throw (27th)          64-11 1/4

Dusty Jonas                            High Jump (4th)      7-4 1/2

Courtney Jones                        60m Hurdles (3rd)   7.74

Dmitrijs Milkevics                     800m (1st)             1:46.46

Aaron Plas                              High Jump (12th)    7-3

Nate Probasco                         200m (20th)           21.17

Daniel Roper                            Triple Jump (19th)   51-4 1/2

Aaron Ross                             60m Hurdles (t-31st)          7.90

Ben Schutter                           Heptathlon (23rd)    5,363

Ray Scotten                            Pole Vault (8th)      17-9

P. van der Westhuizen             Mile (27th)             4:03.54

LeRon Williams                       Long Jump (t-41st)  24-6 1/4

 

Huskers Lead Nine Big 12 Events

Eight Huskers find themselves leading the league rankings for nine events that were held during last weekend's Big 12 Conference meet. Included among the total are four women's and men's athletes each.

 

Dmitrijs Milkevics is the lone Husker to own No. 1 rankings for two events, the men's 600-yard and 800-meter run events. Courtney Jones, Daniel Roper and Ray Scotten also own top ratings for the men's team, with Jones and Scotten taking over the top spots thanks to Big 12 title performances.

 

For the NU women, Priscilla Lopes tops the women's 60-meter hurdles field with her NCAA automatic-qualifying time of 7.92, while Egle Uljas owns a lead in the 600 yards (1:18.44). Becky Breisch has earned an edge of more than four inches in the shot put with her automatic-qualifying mark of 57-10 1/2. Sara Jane Baker and Kim Shubert help No. 1-rated Ashley Selig form an impressive Husker women's pentathlon crew that ranks 1-2-7.

 

In all, Nebraska women rank among the Big 12's top-eight performers in 15 of the 19 events that are contested annually at the conference meet, with nine of those events featuring multiple Huskers. The NU men possess athletes in 14 of 19 categories, while also placing multiple performers in seven events.

 

Middle Distance Pair Earns Big 12 Honors

Two Huskers, Dmitrijs Milkevics and Egle Uljas, have garnered Big 12 Athlete of the Week honors this season after posting outstanding performances.

 

Uljas has garnered Women’s Athlete of the Week twice this season. She shattered a pair of longtime Husker women’s indoor records in a three-week stretch in early February.

 

Uljas recorded the nation’s No. 6 time while winning the women's 800 meters at the Husker Invite with a personal-best time of 2:05.30. She broke former Husker great Lisa Darley Graham’s 1991 school-record mark of 2:06.93 and the Bob Devaney Sports Center record shared by North Carolina’s Alice Schmidt (2:05.33) and Colorado’s Mary Decker [2:05.3 (yards)]. Uljas, a native of Tallinn, Estonia, also claimed a new Estonia national record during her first 800-meter race of the season, erasing the former record of 2:05.57.

 

Most recently, the 2004 Olympian claimed conference honors again Feb. 21 for shattering Marcia Tate's 1984 NU standard in the 600-meter run (1:33.11) with a time of 1:28.42. She also set a new DevaneyCenter record, as well as an all-time best Big 12 performance.

 

Milkevics was named Big 12 Conference Men’s Track and Field Athlete of the Week Feb. 14 for his performance during the Tyson Invitational in Fayetteville, Ark. He broke his own Husker men’s indoor 800-meter run school record with a personal-best time of 1:47.54.

 

Milkevics, the reigning NCAA men’s outdoor 800-meter champion, became the third NCAA automatic qualifier this season for the NU men’s team while recording the nation’s fastest time for the 800 meters with his win during the men’s Invitational section. He broke his former school record of 1:47.82, which he set as a freshman during preliminary sections of the 2004 NCAA Indoor Championships. The Riga, Latvia, native currently ranks third in the world after breaking his own record again to win the Big 12 800-meter title last weekend.

 

Thirteen All-Americans Return in '06

A combined 13 NCAA All-Americans will suit up for the Husker men's and women's squads in 2006. The NU men will feature nine athletes, 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).

 

Nebraska’s Returning NCAA All-Americans:

Women

Name                               Honors          Event(s)

Becky Breisch                       Five          Shot Put

                                          Three          Discus

Jenny Green                          Two          Pole Vault

Priscilla Lopes                       Two          60m Hurdles

                                            Two          60m

                                            Two          100m Hurdles

Ashley Selig                          Two          Pentathlon

                                            Two          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                       One          200m

                                            One          4x100m

Daniel Roper                          One          Triple Jump

Ray Scotten                        Three          Pole Vault

Oliver Williams Jr.                  One          4x100m

*Former NCAA champions in bold.

 

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, she 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, and Egle Uljas, competing for Estonia, ran in the men's and women's 800-meter competitions, 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, while Uljas finished 32nd overall out of 46 athletes.