Relay Club Newsletter - Spring 2007

Husker Men Earn Share of Big 12 Title

Nebraska continued is role as a major force in the Big 12 Conference during the 2007 indoor season, as the Husker men tied Texas for the indoor team championship in Ames, Iowa.

The title race came down to the final event, with the NU men's 4x400-meter relay of Nate Probasco, Daniel Christensen, Scott Wims and Lukas Hulett finishing third to knot the final score between Nebraska and the Longhorns at 93-93. The Husker relay clocked in with a season-best time of 3:07.90 during the race.

The title marked Nebraska's 98th all-time conference track championship between both men's and women's squads. The victory was due to a total team effort featuring big performances by several athletes, none which finished as individual champions. This marked the Huskers' first conference championship team that did not feature an individual event winner.

While NU was unable to collect an individual winner during the weekend, several Huskers finished as high as second, led by Daniel Roper. Roper earned a pair of silver-medal finishes in the long jump and triple jump, while Gable Baldwin and Peter van der Westhuizen added respective second-place efforts in the pole vault and 1,000-meter run.

The Husker women finished the weekend fifth in the team race with 69.5 points. Kim Shubert (pentathlon) and Brysun Stately (pole vault) each grabbed runner-up honors for their specialty events.

Young Huskers Compete at NCAA Meet

Nebraska concluded the indoor track season with eight athletes in competition at the NCAA Indoor Championships. The Husker men finished among the nation's top 25 teams for the sixth straight season with nine team points, while NU athletes also grabbed eight All-America honors.

Dusty Jonas nearly single-handedly kept the top-25 streak alive for the NU men after he finished runner-up in the men's high jump for the second time in three seasons. Jonas' final clearance of 7-4 1/2 marked his best ever in NCAA competition while earning him a fifth career All-America finish in as many chances.

The men's 4x400-meter relay team of senior Nate Probasco and freshmen Scott Wims, Daniel Christensen and Lukas Hulett provided an additional point with an eighth-place finish after clocking in at 3:08.68. NU's relay, which was the lone group among the field featuring as many as three freshmen, was the first Husker relay to earn a point at an NCAA meet since 1996. Each member was crowned an All-American.

Hulett's honor marked his second such accolade of the weekend, as he also finished as the eighth American (11th overall) in the men's open 400-meter competition

Brysun Stately, who finished sixth in the pole vault at the 2006 NCAA outdoor meet as a freshman for USC, registered the lone team scoring of the weekend for the Husker women, as she tied for seventh place in the vault with a height of 13-5 1/4.

NU's other women's athlete in action, freshman Epley Bullock, placed ninth in the high jump after tying her career-best height of 6-0. Bullock helped make the Husker freshmen a near-perfect 5-for-6 in All-America finishes during the weekend. Wims, who did run on NU's 4x400 relay, was the lone Husker freshman not to meet the distinction in his individual event by placing 16th in the men's 200-meter dash.

Pepin Earns Big 12 Coaching Honor

Nebraska track and field coach Gary Pepin was honored as the 2007 Big 12 Men's Indoor Coach of the Year, the conference office announced Friday. The selection marks the eighth time in 11 years that the Huskers' head coach has received the award from his fellow league coaches.

Pepin led the Husker men's team to a tie for this year's Big 12 indoor team championship with league rival Texas last weekend after each squad registered 93 points in Ames, Iowa. Nebraska featured a model team effort during its victory run, as no Huskers were crowned individual champions for the first time in the program's 98 all-time league championship wins.

The conference crown marked the ninth victory in 11 years for the NU men, who now own 33 all-time indoor conference titles and 13 total indoor and outdoor wins in the Big 12 era.

The all-time winningest coach in the history of the Big 12 Conference and the former Big Eight, Pepin is in his 27th season at Nebraska. He has served as the head coach for both the men's and women's teams for each of the last 24 years after spending three seasons guiding only the women's squad. Pepin also has been selected three times as Big 12 Men's Outdoor Coach of the Year. The Pittsburgh, Kan., native has led his teams to 64 of Nebraska's 98 conference team championships since arriving at NU in 1981.

Lincoln to Host 2007 Big 12 Outdoor Meet

The Big 12 Track and Field Championships return to Lincoln in 2007, as the 2007 outdoor conference meet will be held May 11-13 at the University of Nebraska's Ed Weir Stadium for the first time since 1996.

While the Huskers certainly are not strangers to hosting championship meets (the Bob Devaney Sports Center held the Big 12 indoor meet every year from 2001 through 2006), this will be the first time that the Big 12 outdoor meet has come to Lincoln since the league's inception in 1996.

Ed Weir Stadium has benefited from recent facility upgrades in and around Memorial Stadium. The building of the Hawks Championship Center provides an additional warm-up and clerking area for athletes, as well as an extra set of restrooms and concessions area for fans and athletes. A new enclosed press and results area also is now available on the second level concourse of Memorial Stadium that overlooks the southwest corner of the track.

NU Inks 13 to Early Letters of Intent

The Nebraska coaching staff put together one of its largest-ever early fall recruiting classes that resulted in 13 future Huskers signing National Letters of Intent back in November.

"We have a good mix of athletes from Nebraska and the Midwest region in addition to other prospects spread out from around the country," Pepin said during his announcement of the group. "Our class is very indicative of how our recruiting efforts went with the needs we feel our team has. I am pleased with who we were able to have commit to us. They all seem to be outstanding young people, both athletically and academically."

While the signing class covered a wide range of events for NU, distance, hurdles, throws and the high jump were the most represented areas in the group. Four of the 13 athletes, including three of the five men's signees, are slated to compete for assistant head coach Jay Dirksen in distance events and cross country.

Wilkinson to Sit Out 2007 Season

The Nebraska women will be without one of their strongest returnees during the outdoor season, as senior Kayla Wilkinson is expected to redshirt while rehabbing from shoulder surgery she underwent during the winter.

Wilkinson became NU's second-highest finisher ever in the women's javelin at the NCAA Championships by placing runner-up as a junior last season. She additionally broke the school record earlier in the year with a mark of 181-2 at the Nebraska Invitational. While Wilkinson would have been the nation's top returning athlete in the javelin this season, she is expected to be completely healthy for the 2008 outdoor season, when she should vie for a spot on the United States' Olympic team.

73 Huskers Named to Big 12 Honor Roll

Seventy-three members of the Nebraska men's and women's track and field team were named to the Big 12 Commissioner's Fall Honor Roll, the conference office announced earlier this month. Among the group were 13 Huskers who posted perfect 4.0 grade-point averages during the past semester.

Athletes must earn a 3.0 grade-point average to qualify for the award.

Nebraska placed 39 women on the honor roll, including five student-athletes with 4.0 GPA's, while 34 Husker men were recognized, including eight with perfect GPA's. Overall, a total of 270 Nebraska student-athletes earned recognition on the Big 12 Fall Honor Roll, with 33 having a 4.0 semester GPA.

Husker Alumni Tracker

Nebraska has continued its long-standing tradition of turning out world-class athletes, as six former Huskers currently appear in the IAAF World Rankings list for their respective events. All but one of the athletes earned an NCAA Championship while at NU, while each graduated within the last four years.

Dmitrijs Milkevics, currently the world's ninth-ranked male in the 800 meters, is the highest-rated athlete among the group. While he did not run indoors this season, he did have a solid first outdoor campaign as a professional that included a personal-best time of 1:43.67 in a Grand Prix meet in Athens back in July.

Becky Breisch is the lone former Husker to own rankings for multiple events with the 17th and 32nd place respective standings in the women's discus and shot put. She has yet to compete in 2007.

Priscilla Lopes currently is 14th in the women's 100-meter (60 meters indoors) hurdles rankings. She clocked in with a season best of 7.90 during the past indoor season to earn her first victory as a pro in Paris.

Also owning IAAF World Rankings as of early April are former Huskers Ann Gaffigan (36th, women's 3,000-meter steeplechase), Carl Myerscough (36th, men's shot put) and Ineta Radevica (41st, women's long jump). Gaffigan and Radevica each have competed in 2007, while Myerscough is yet to have opened his campaign.