NU Leads Big 12 to Victory in Conference Challenge

LINCOLN?The Nebraska men’s and women’s track and field teams led Team Big 12 to an impressive victory Saturday over Team Mountain West in the inaugural Conference Challenge meet at the Devaney Center Indoor Track. Huskers won exactly half of the 34 events contested while pacing the trio of NU, <?xml:namespace prefix="st1" ns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags"?>KansasState and Missouri to a 223-144 decision over the MWC pairing of Air Force and ColoradoState.<?xml:namespace prefix="o" ns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office"?>

 

The unique team-scored affair allowed only two entries per team for each event, with a 5-3-2-1 scoring system utilized (5-3 scoring for relays). Each conference was allowed a maximum of two scoring places per event. Since the Big 12 squad consisted of one more team, a wild card was randomly selected for each event to help level the playing field, making either Nebraska, KansasState or Missouri exempt from scoring for that respective event.

 

Nebraska was led by three individuals who earned their first NCAA qualifying marks of the young season, including a pair of freshmen in pole vaulter Seth Burney and high jumper Epley Bullock.

 

Burney out-dueled All-American senior teammate Gable Baldwin in the men’s pole vault with a winning clearance of 17-0 ? that placed him among the early provisional qualifiers for March’s NCAA Indoor Championships. The vault marked a career-best effort for the Nebraska prep record holder, who also became the 12th men’s athlete all-time at NU to break the 17-foot barrier in the pole vault indoors. Baldwin, who met the provisional standard during last week’s Holiday Inn Invitational, finished with a height of 16-8 ?.

 

While Bullock was unable to claim victory in the women’s high jump, she did put together an outstanding performance culminating in a final clearance of 5-11 ?. Like Burney, Bullock also earned an NCAA provisional qualification in addition to moving into a tie for 10th place on the Huskers’ all-time indoor high jump chart.

 

Nebraska’s final NCAA qualifying performance came from a seasoned veteran in senior Issar Yazhbin. The Israeli national record holder in the men’s 35-pound weight throw, Yazhbin set a new lifetime best with his winning spin of 64-1 ?. It marked his first career provisional-qualifying performance, as well as the second consecutive week that he recorded a personal-best effort.

 

The Huskers dominated several other areas during the competition by taking the top two positions in three events. Peter van der Westhuizen continued the early success to his junior season by winning the men’s 1,000-meter run in a blistering career-low time of 2:23.41, while freshman Ethan Luebbe followed close behind with a personal-best clocking of 2:27.18.

 

Sophomore Brysun Stately (12-9 ?) and junior Jenny Green (12-5 ?) also went 1-2 in the women’s pole vault, and sophomore Zarinah Suluki-Drakes (40-5 ?)and freshman Leandra McGruder (40-4) earned the top two spots in the women’s triple jump. McGruder, who registered a personal best in the event, also won the long jump and fell just short of a provisional qualification by leaping to a lifetime-best distance of 19-9 ?.

 

Two additional Husker women?sophomore Jennifer Pancoast and freshman Nikita Eades?used career-best performances to grab respective event titles in the mile and 60-meter hurdles. Pancoast cut more than 10 full seconds off her previous best and was only six seconds shy of earning her first career national qualifying mark. Eades posted a time of 8.64 to better the 8.67 clocking she ran during her Husker debut last week.

 

Adding event victories for the Nebraska women’s team were: senior Jeni Steiner (49-6 ?) in the shot put; senior Sheryl Morgan (55.45) in the 400-meter dash; and freshman Ari Goldstein (17:31.22) in the 5,000 meters.

 

Husker men adding event titles were: senior Nate Probasco (21.27) in the 200-meter dash; junior Dusty Jonas (6-9 ?) in the high jump; sophomore Robert Rands (23-0 ?) in the long jump; redshirt freshman Tyrell Ross (8.22) in the 60-meter hurdles; and freshman Scott Wims (6.89) in the 60-meter dash. The 4x400-meter quartet of freshman Tim Grier, Probasco, redshirt freshman Dan Christensen and freshman Lukas Hulett capped an outstanding Nebraska team effort with a winning time of 3:11.30, which was only 0.90 seconds off the NCAA provisional standard.

 

Following the Conference Challenge, several Huskers took part in the Nebraska Wesleyan Invitational, also held at the DevaneyCenter. The same five schools participated, in addition to the Prairie Wolves.

 

Husker winners at the NWU Invite included: freshman Nick Makukutu (49.65) in the men’s 400-meter dash; van der Westhuizen (1:51.45) in the men’s 800 meters; junior Gyorgi Farkas (18-11 ?) in the women’s long jump; Rands (45-9 ?) in the men’s triple jump; Bullock (5-7) in the women’s high jump; and the Nebraska men’s 4x400-meter relay (3:20.57) team of sophomore Ben Schutter, Makukutu, junior Andrew Pearson and freshman Andras Licsak.

 

Nebraska continues its early-season run of home indoor meets by hosting the annual adidas Classic next Saturday, Jan. 27, at the Devaney Center Track. Competition is scheduled to begin at 1 p.m.