NU Hosts Big 12, Mountain West Opponents

Lincoln?The Nebraska men's and women's track and field teams turn their attention toward team competition this Saturday when they host the first annual Conference Challenge at the Devaney Center Indoor Track. The Huskers will pair up with fellow Big 12 squads Kansas State and Missouri to take on the Mountain West duo of Air Force and Colorado State beginning at 11 a.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 seven and older. Admission is free for NU students with a valid ID and children six and under.

The Conference Challenge is a new concept introduced by the Husker track and field staff intended to provide an exciting team scored competition pitting two successful conferences against one another. Each school will be permitted two entries per event, with the dual meet scoring system assigning point totals as follows:

Individual Events:
1st place = 5 points
2nd place = 3 points
3rd place = 2 points
4th place = 1 point

Relay Events:
1st place = 5 points
2nd place = 3 points

Since Team Big 12 will have one more squad than Team MWC, a random draw will be conducted to determine a wild card team for each event that designates one Big 12 squad's scoring exempt for that event. The wild card squads in each event will be kept secret until after each event is concluded, in order to ensure the integrity of the individual competition.

Live results will be offered throughout the day on Huskers.com. Final results and a recap will also be posted on the web site following the completion of each day's events, while a complete list of competitors will be available on-line early Thursday afternoon.

Following the Conference Challenge, all athletes, plus those who did not compete earlier, will be offered the chance to participate in the Nebraska Wesleyan Invitational, which begins at 3 p.m. at the Devaney Center Indoor Track.

> NU Opens Season with 18 Event Titles at Holiday Inn Invite
Nebraska collected 13 titles on the final day of the season-opening Holiday Inn Invite, and 18 victories overall, last weekend at the Devaney Center Indoor Track.

Three Husker men who met NCAA provisional-qualifying standards in their specialty events led the squad?senior Gable Baldwin (pole vault), junior Dusty Jonas (high jump) and freshman Lukas Hulett (400 meters).

Others who approached qualifying while earning victories included junior Peter van der Westhuizen (men's 5,000 meters); sophomores Brysun Stately (women's pole vault) and Zarinah Suluki-Drakes (women's triple jump); and freshman Erin Hannon (women's high jump). Suluki-Drakes and Jonas each notched two event crowns by adding wins in the men's and women's long jump events.

Additional Huskers who made headlines included: senior Issar Yazhbin, who concluded a 19-month layoff by setting a new personal best with a mark of 63-11 to win the men's weight throw; Nikita Eades, who won the women's 60-meter hurdles in her first Husker competition; and van der Westhuizen, who came within eight seconds of the school record in the men's 5,000 with the No. 5 time in program history (14:25.81).

Overall, 22 NU men recorded personal-best indoor marks in 24 events, while 17 women's athletes reached career bests in 20 events.

> Hulett Makes Impressive Debut
One of several Huskers to make excellent impressions during their home debuts was freshman Lukas Hulett. A former high school All-American from Bellevue, Neb., Hulett clocked in at 47.03 to win the final heat of the men's 400-meter dash by a huge margin of 1.6 seconds at the Holiday Inn Invite.

Hulett's performance lofted his name into third place on Nebraska's all-time performance chart, only 0.66 seconds shy of Tamas Molnar's school record of 46.37. The mark also earned Hulett NU's first NCAA provisional-qualifying mark of the season. While still very early in the season, he currently owns the nation's quickest time for the event.

> All-American Veterans Baldwin, Jonas Hit NCAA Qualifying Standards
It did not take long for All-Americans Gable Baldwin and Dusty Jonas to place their names among the early qualifiers for the NCAA Indoor Championships. Both Huskers reached the provisional-qualifying standards during the first cracks at their specialty events for 2007.

Baldwin surpassed the 17-foot barrier in the pole vault last Saturday, just meeting the NCAA provisional requirement of 17-0 3/4. Last season as a junior, the Grand Island, Neb., native did not reach 17 feet until the third week of the indoor season.

Jonas also met the provisional requirement dead-on with a winning 7-1 leap in the high jump. The performance should come as no surprise to anyone who has followed Jonas' successful Husker career, as he has reached at least 7-0 in each meet since a 6-10 3/4 showing at the Kansas Relays during his freshman season of 2005.

> NU Distance Shows Early Improvement
Out of all of Nebraska's event groups, no area experienced as much success during the season opener as the Husker distance corps. As a whole, 13 of assistant coach Jay Dirksen's 16 athletes combined to set personal-best times in races ranging from the 800 meters to the 5,000. Included in the total was a 7-for-7 effort by the Husker men.

Leading the pack was Peter van der Westhuizen, who posted the fifth-best time in Husker history for the men's 5,000 meters. Others who won events with lifetime-best marks were sophomore Joslyn Dalton (17:55.06) in the women's 5,000 and Jennifer Pancoast (10:13.04). NU's women's distance medley relay of Jennifer Pancoast, Kim Pancoast, Sara Prince and Ari Goldstein also claimed victory with a time of 12:16.42.

> NU Ranked 9th, 14th in Trackwire 25
As is the case most years, both NU squads were included among the Trackwire 25 in the projection's initial release on Tuesday, Jan. 16.

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.

The Nebraska men's team began the season ranked ninth with a projected NCAA team score of 17 points. One of seven Big 12 teams included in the list, the Huskers join conference opponents Texas (fourth), Baylor (sixth), Texas A&M (13th), Oklahoma and Texas Tech (tied-18th) and Kansas (tied-22nd).

The Husker women opened the indoor season tied for 14th place with Auburn and Washington after totaling a projected score of 16 points. Texas (fifth), Kansas State and Texas A&M (tied-ninth), Colorado (tied-21st) and Texas Tech (25th) also represent the Big 12 in this week's rankings.

Nebraska athletes among this week's "Dandy Dozen" include:
Women
Brysun Stately, Pole Vault?2nd
Gy?rgyi Farkas, Pentathlon?4th
Megan Wheatley, Pentathlon?6th

Men
Arturs Abolins, Long Jump?1st
Lukas Hulett, 400 Meters?10th
Dusty Jonas, High Jump?3rd
Daniel Roper, Triple Jump?8th

> Three Men Added to Roster at Semester
The Husker men's squad added three freshmen athletes to its 2007 roster this week following the start of second semester classes?Dax Danns (Lemon Grove, Calif.), Erwin Schmidt (Benoni, South Africa) and Cylend Simmons (Mesa, Ariz).

Danns, a sprints prospect out of Helix High School, arrives at Nebraska boasting solid personal-best times of 10.60 in the 100-meter dash, 21.21 in the 200 and 48.44 in the 400. A native of Guyana, both of Danns' 100 and 200 marks rank as national junior records. He finished fourth place in both events as a junior at the 2005 California state meet.

Simmons will join Nebraska's hurdles crew following an outstanding prep career at Mesa Westwood High School. He set the all-time Arizona state record of 37.01 while winning the 300-meter hurdles at the Arizona Meet of Champions last spring. Simmons was named the Gatorade Boy's Athlete of the Year for Arizona in 2006 and also owns a personal-best time of 14.26 in the 110-meter hurdles.

Schmidt brings outstanding potential from South Africa in the 800-meter run, as he owns a personal-best time of 1:49.75. The mark ranked third among all South African junior athletes for 2006.

> Nine All-Americans Return in 2007
Nebraska returns four women's and five men's athletes for the 2007 season who have combined to earn 19 NCAA All-America honors during their outstanding careers.

Leading the pack is senior Ashley Selig, who has registered five of the awards, including the 2004 NCAA indoor championship in the pentathlon. NU returns a second national champion in senior Dace Ruskule, who won the NCAA outdoor discus title last season, while senior Kayla Wilkinson (javelin) and junior Jenny Green (pole vault) also will compete for further accolades this season. Only Green will compete during the 2007 indoor season.

Nebraska brought in a fifth women's All-American to join the squad during the offseason in sophomore Brysun Stately, who placed sixth in the pole vault at the 2006 NCAA outdoor meet.

Senior Arturs Abolins, a two-time national champion in the long jump, leads the men's squad into the season, while junior Dusty Jonas, a four-time All-American in the high jump, also returns. Two-time All-American Nate Probasco will be the Huskers' leader in the sprints during his senior campaign. Gable Baldwin (pole vault) and Daniel Roper (triple jump), each one-time honorees, also will compete in their finals seasons as Huskers.

> NU Boasts Heralded Freshman Classes
A pair of incoming classes ranked among the nation's top 10 by Track & Field News magazine will aid both Husker men's and women's teams in their championship drives during the 2007 season.

The women's class, ranked No. 4 nationally by Track & Field News, will help fill the holes created by the loss of a 2006 senior class that accounted for three individual NCAA titles and 21 All-America finishes.

The group, which was highlighted with signings by former high school All-Americans Brysun Stately and Epley Bullock, along with international combined events prospects Gy?rgyi Farkas and Megan Wheatley, was NU's first-ever top-five ranked class.

While the Husker men lost 10 All-America finishes with members of its 2006 senior class, this season's group of newcomers earned one of the program's highest rankings ever by the famed track and field publication with a No. 8 rating.

The class featured the signings of former high school All-Americans Seth Burney, Tim Grier, Lukas Hulett, Nicholas Makukutu and Scott Wims.

> Pepin in 27th Season at Husker Helm
Nebraska Head Coach Gary Pepin is in his 27th year guiding the Husker women’s team and 24th year coaching the NU men's squad. Pepin is only one season shy of former Husker coach Frank Sevigne as the longest-tenured track and field coach in school history. Sevigne logged 28 seasons leading the NU men’s program from 1956 through 1983.

Pepin has helped the Husker women combine for 38 of their 40 conference titles, while also notching 20 of the program’s 21 top-five NCAA team finishes, including each of Nebraska’s three indoor national championships.

Pepin has led the men's team to 25 of its 57 indoor and outdoor conference crowns, while also notching two NCAA top-five placings. The Huskers' second-place finish at the 1996 NCAA Indoor Championships ranks as the squad's highest at an NCAA meet.

> Huskers to Host Full Home Schedule
Nebraska will host one of its most extensive series of home meets in recent memory during the 2007 season. In addition to scheduling four home competitions at the Devaney Center Indoor Track, the Huskers have three outdoor meets planned for Ed Weir Stadium.

The indoor schedule stacks up much the same as it has over recent years, with the Huskers hosting four straight home meets to open the season?the Holiday Inn Invitational, the Conference Challenge and the adidas Classic. The always high-profile Frank Sevigne Husker Invitational will conclude the stretch Feb. 2-3.

Outdoors, the Huskers will host three meets for the first time since 2003, all during a three-week period. The Nebraska Open will be held on Sunday, April 29, the same weekend as the Drake and Penn Relays, with the Nebraska Invitational the following week. The Big 12 Outdoor Championships come to Ed Weir Stadium for the first time in the conference’s 11-year existence the weekend of May 11-13.