Relay Club Newsletter - Spring 2006

President's Message
I want to thank all of the Relay Club members who have contributed to the organization this year. Most of our support went to an upgrade to the Track and Field Hall Of Fame area in the north end of the Devaney Center Track. If you did not see the changes this winter, stop by sometime or take a look next indoor season at the new shelving and lighting for all of the trophies and awards the Huskers have earned over the years. It's very impressive!

Hollis Anderson
President, Nebraska Relay Club

Abolins Claims First NCAA Title
Arturs Abolins polished off one of the most successful indoor seasons in school history with his first national title in the long jump earlier this month.

The Riga, Latvia, native won the first NCAA long jump crown in Nebraska history at the NCAA Indoor Championships after breaking the school record with a leap of 26-7 1/4 on his final attempt to overtake Texas A&M's Fabrice Lapierre for first place.

Prior to the attempt, Abolins trailed Lapierre by 3 3/4 inches with his mark of 26-0 3/4, which he recorded on his final attempt of three preliminary jumps. He barely reached the finals of the event after jumping 20-0 1/4 and fouling on his first two attempts before breaking the 26-foot barrier for the first time in his career.

Abolins' previous career best of 25-9 1/2 was recorded on the same Tyson track one month prior at the Tyson Invitational. He jumped 25-8 1/4 in late February to earn his second career Big 12 indoor title.

Abolins concluded a tremendous indoor season that saw him go undefeated against collegiate competitors.

Nine Win Big 12 Indoor Titles
A two-day total of 5,198 spectators who packed the Devaney Center Indoor Track Feb. 24th and 25th were treated to some terrific performances by Nebraska athletes, including nine who earned individual Big 12 titles.

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 Devaney Center 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 to a runner-up finish.

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.

Milkevics shattered his own school record, as well as the former Big 12 meet and Devaney Center 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. 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 Big 12 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. Jones finished second as a junior in 2005.

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.

Eight Named All-Americans
Eight members of the Nebraska men's and women's track and field teams officially were named NCAA Indoor All-Americans last week by the United States Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association. Each athlete competed at the NCAA Indoor Championships earlier this month.

Arturs Abolins, who won his first NCAA title in the men's long jump, and Sara Jane Baker, who tied for 11th place in the women's high jump, were the only Huskers to be honored for the first time in their careers. Becky Breisch, the fourth-place finisher in the women's shot put, claimed the ninth honor of her career, while Priscilla Lopes won her seventh award after finishing second in the women's 60-meter hurdles.

Other Husker award winners included Ashley Selig (fifth career honor), who earned fifth place in the women's pentathlon; Dusty Jonas (third career honor) and Aaron Plas (third career honor), the fifth- and seventh-place finishers in the men's high jump; and Ray Scotten (fourth career honor), who finished 11th in the men's pole vault.

In Division I track and field, the top eight finishers in each event at the NCAA Indoor Championships, including relays, earn All-America status. In the individual (non-relay) events, if one or more of the top eight finishers are of another nationality, eight American-born athletes are selected in addition to any foreign-born All-Americans.

2006 Indoor Record Breakers
While numerous Huskers posted outstanding performances during the 2006 indoor season, five athletes etched their names in the all-time Nebraska record books.

Egle Uljas twice won Big 12 Female Athlete of the Week honors after shattering a pair of NU women's middle distance marks during a three-week stretch in February. The Tallinn, Estonia, native first broke former Husker great Lisa Darley Graham's 1991 school record of 2:06.93 in the 800 meters with a time of 2:05.30 to win the event at the Frank Sevigne Husker Invitational. Two weeks later she broke Marcia Tate's 600-meter standard of 1:33.11 set in 1984 with a blistering mark of 1:28.42 at the Prairie Wolf Invitational. Uljas also set a Big 12 all-time best performance during the race, along with a new Devaney Center record.

Dmitrijs Milkevics broke his own men's 800-meter school record twice this season, the final time to secure his second career Big 12 indoor title at the Devaney Center. He first clocked a time of 1:47. 54 to erase the former mark of
1:47.82 he set to win the Big 12 title as a freshman. Two weeks later Milkevics ran 1:46.46 before turning to the professional ranks.

Priscilla Lopes showed up in a match-up of the two fastest women's 60-meter hurdles in collegiate history during the NCAA Championships with a time of 7.90. While the junior finished second in the national title race to USC's Virginia Powell, Lopes did surpass the previous NCAA record of 7.92 set by fellow Canadian Perdita Felicien (Illinois, 2002). She also wiped her previous Nebraska record of 7.92, which she set as a freshman to win the NCAA title, off the history books.

Another Husker to break her own school record, Ashley Selig, took the Big 12 pentathlon crown with a personal-best score of 4,336. Selig's previous best score of 4,327 helped her win the 2004 pentathlon national crown. The new school-record total was the top score posted in the nation during the 2006 season.

The squad's final record breaker, Arturs Abolins, set a big-time personal best of 26-7 1/4 while notching the first NCAA men's long jump championship in Husker history. Abolins removed former Husker Joe Laster, who registered a leap of 26-3 3/4 in 1997, from the all-time Nebraska records.

Lopes, Selig Earn Regional Honors
All Americans Priscilla Lopes and Ashley Selig were named Women's Indoor Track and Field Athletes of the Year for the Midwest Region this season by the United States Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association.

Lopes was named Track Athlete of the Year for the second straight season, matching the Midwest Regional indoor honor she won as a sophomore in 2005. She entered the NCAA Indoor Championships owning the nation's top time of 7.92 in the 60-meter hurdles, which she recorded to claim her second straight Big 12 Conference title. She finished runner-up in the hurdles at the national championships for the second straight season.

Selig was named Women's Field Athlete of the Year for the first time in her career. The 2005 NCAA indoor champion in the pentathlon, she posted the nation's No. 1 score of 4,336 in the event for the 2006 season before earning fifth place at the NCAA Championships. The Lincoln, Neb., native begins the outdoor season with hopes of defending her 2005 Big 12 heptathlon title, while also improving upon her bronze-medal finish at the NCAA outdoor meet.

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. He returned to the world stage to claim the bronze medal at the 2006 World Indoor Championships last month after turning professional.

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.