Huskers Head to Boulder for Big 12 Championships

<?xml:namespace prefix="st1" ns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags"?>Lincoln ? The Nebraska track and field team hits the road for Boulder, Colo., this weekend as it will compete in the Big 12 Conference Outdoor Track and Field Championships. The meet begins on Friday and runs through Sunday, beginning at 11 a.m. (Central) each day. Since the inception of the Big 12 Conference the Husker men have won four outdoor titles, with its last coming in 2004. The women have won the outdoor crown twice, winning it last in 2005. The Husker men and women each finished runner-up during the 2008 indoor season and will look to compete at the top of the pack this weekend in Boulder.<?xml:namespace prefix="o" ns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office"?>

 

- Wilkinson Searches for Third Title

After returning from injury senior Kayla Wilkinson will try to earn her third Big 12 title in the javelin. After back-to-back victories in 2005 and 2006 Wilkinson sat out the 2007 season with a shoulder injury. This year she has returned at full strength and is in line to regain her title. Entering the meet she holds the top spot in the conference with a throw of 179-7 (54.75). Her closest competition is Amy Backel of Oklahoma who is exactly 12 feet behind her on the conference performance list.

 

- McMillan Leads Talented Foursome

At the Big 12 Championships sophomore Chantae McMillan will lead a pack of four Husker women into the heptathlon. Entering the meet McMillan owns the top score in the Big 12 Conference on the year with 5,226 points, which she earned at the Kansas Relays. McMillan is a rising star for the Big Red as she just picked up the multi-events last summer after the conclusion of the 2007 outdoor season.

 

McMillan will have plenty of competition, from her teammates as she will be joined by Megan Wheatley, Rachel Butler and Erin Hannon. Butler and Hannon each participated in the heptathlon at the Jim Click Shootout while Wheatley is a wildcard as she is yet to compete in the heptathlon this year.    

 

Wheatley finished runner-up at the Big 12 indoor meet and recorded the third-best pentathlon score in Division I going into the NCAA Indoor meet. However, due to injury she did not compete at the national meet where she would have most likely earned All-America honors. Overall the heptathlon group is expected to put a lot of points on the board for the Husker women.

 

In the indoor season senior Kim Shubert joined the group as well and helped the group score 23 of the team’s 95 points. With Shubert the top rated high jumper coming into the meet she will focus on the high jump and try and bring the outdoor high jump title back to Lincoln after Epley Bullock won the indoor high jump title.

 

- Freshmen at Top of Pack

Of the 50 spots where Husker athletes are ranked in the top 10 of an event in the Big 12 Conference, 13 of those spots are held by Husker freshmen. The Husker men have nine freshmen with the potential to score while the women add another four.

 

- Gordon is Dual-Threat Jumper

Freshman Nicholas Gordon has a chance this weekend of scoring in the men’s long jump and triple jump at the Big 12 meet. Entering the meet Gordon is seeded No. 2 in the long jump with a jump of 24-10 (7.57) and No. 8 in the triple jump with a mark of 50-5 1/2 (15.38).  The Kingston, Jamaica, native has been a cornerstone for the Huskers in the jumps during the outdoor season as he has jumped his personal best of 24-10 at three meets. Not counting wind-aided marks, Gordon is only the fifth jumper in Nebraska history since 2000 to clear 50 feet in the triple jump.

 

- Husker Women Know High Jump  

Senior Kim Shubert leads a pack of four Huskers that have qualified for the 2008 NCAA Midwest Regional in the high jump. Going into the Drake Relays on Friday, April 25, Shubert along with sophomores Epley Bullock and Erin Hannon had all cleared 5-8 3/4 (1.75). Shubert rose to the top as she cleard 5-10 1/2 (1.79) and is now tied for the No. 17 spot in Division I and is ranked No. 2 in the Midwest Region. On Sunday, April 27, at the Nebraska Open the group welcomed another Husker to the group as freshman Audrey Svane won the meet with a leap of 5-8 3/4 (1.75).  The Huskers will be supported well at the regional as Bullock, Hannon and Svane join Shubert in the top five of the region with the first three tied for the No. 4 spot.

 

- Freshman Rewrites NU Record Book     

Freshman Lara Crofford took to the track on Saturday, April 5, at the Stanford Invitational and earned a NCAA provisional-qualifying time of 33:56.46 in the 10,000 meters. Crofford’s time moved her into second place all-time at Nebraska in the 10,000 meters. The top spot is held by Sammie Resh Gdowski who ran a time of 32:34.71 in 1990 at a meet in Walnut, Calif.

 

Crofford then followed her performance at the Stanford Invitational with another record-setting performance on April 19, at the Mt. SAC Relays. Crofford finished third in the 5,000-meter run with a time of 16:27.73 at the prestigious meet in Walnut, Calif. Crofford’s time not only qualified her for the Midwest Regional, it also moved her to No. 4 all-time outdoors on the Nebraska top 10 list. She is only three-tenths of a second away from overtaking Anne Shadle for the No. 3 position.

 

Crofford (Newville, Pa.) has been a welcome addition to the Husker distance squad this season as she also ran the fourth-fastest 5,000 meters all-time at Nebraska during the indoor season with a time of 16:43.43, and posted the 11th- fastest 3,000 meters all-time indoors at 9:43.13.

 

- Jonas Jumps to New Heights at Drake

With a jump of 7-6 1/2 (2.30) on Saturday, April 26, at the Drake Relays, senior Dusty Jonas cemented his place atop the Nebraska record book. After clearing 7-7 (2.31) indoors and claiming the top spot all-time at Nebraska, Jonas is now tied with Scott Lavy for the all-time best jump outdoors.

 

With some of the top collegiate and professional jumpers in attendance for the invitational division of the high jump at the 99th annual Drake Relays, Jonas was in a class all his own. After clearing 7-6 1/2, the La Vernia, Texas, native went after the 7-8 (2.33) bar. The jump would have earned him the top jump in the world this year outdoors, but he was unable to clear. Jonas is now ranked No. 3 in the world, trailing professional Andra Mason (7-7 3/4; 2.33) and UTEP’s Mickael Hanany (7-7; 2.31).

 

- Pair of Freshmen Shatter PRs in Manhattan

The freshmen duo of David Adams and Mikel Thomas performed at the top of their game at the Ward Haylett Invitational on Saturday, May 3, as each qualified for the NCAA Midwest Regional meet in the 3,000-meter steeplechase and destroyed their personal-best time. Adams finished in first with a time of 8:57.87, knocking nearly 21 seconds off of his previous best. Thomas then finished right behind Adams in second, shaving an amazing 32 seconds off his personal best. The times currently have the duo ranked No. 9 and 10 in the region, respectively. The pair will join sophomore Brian Parr at the regional meet as Parr’s personal-best time of 8:56.86 at the Drake Relays on Saturday, April 26, currently has him ranked No. 8 in the Midwest Region.

 

- McGruder Earns Spot on Good Works Team

Nebraska track and field sophomore Leandra McGruder was named to the 2008 Big 12 Conference Spring Sports Good Works Team in a release from the Big 12 Conference on Thursday, May 1. A native of Jefferson City, Mo., McGruder was selected by the University of Nebraska as its student-athlete who best exemplifies community service, good academic standing and participation in a Big 12 sponsored sport. McGruder joins Jenny Green as the only Nebraska track and field athletes to be named to the team after Green was honored on the 2007 spring team.

 

McGruder has been involved in the community by being a member of SAAC (Student-Athlete Advisory Committee), participating in the food backpack program and attending the Big 12 Multicultural Leadership Conference.

 

McGruder has also excelled in the classroom as she has been named to the Big 12 Commissioner’s Honor Roll during the spring and fall semesters of 2007.

 

- Dailey Dynamite in Hurdles

Freshman Adam Dailey has made quite the impact during the outdoor season for the Nebraska track and field team as the Wahoo, Neb., native has already regionally qualified in two events. Most recently Dailey ran the opening leg of the 4x400-meter relay team on Saturday, April 12, in Norman, Okla., at the John Jacobs Invitational. Earlier at the Jim Click Shootout in Tucson, Ariz., Daily ran a 51.40 in the 400-meter hurdles, which currently ranks him No. 34 in Division I and No. 11 in the Midwest Region.   

 

Dailey was a three-time Nebraska Class B state champion at BishopNeumannHigh School in Wahoo, Neb. He earned top honors in the 110-meter hurdles, 300-meter hurdles and 400-meter hurdles, also earning the all-class medal in the 300-meter hurdles with a time of 38.17.

 

- Reising and McMillan Post Provisional Multi-Event Score

Senior Skyler Reising and sophomore Chantae McMillan have each provisionally qualified this year for the NCAA Outdoor Championships. Reising currently ranks No. 16 in Division I on the men’s side, while McMillan is ranked No. 23 among the women

 

Reising was unstoppable at the 2008 Jim Click Shootout as he finished with the top collegiate and second overall score with a new personal best of 7,295 points.

 

On day one, Reising climbed the leaderboard as he set new personal bests in three of the five events. He knocked .22 seconds off his 100-meter time to finish at 11.07, increased his shot put by 2-6 1/2 as his best toss landed at 47-6 1/4 (14.48) and improved his high jump by three-quarters of an inch as his highest clearance on the day was the 6-10 ? (2.09) bar.

 

Reising was not done as he set another personal best in the 110-meter hurdles on day number two while on his way to topping his previous best decathlon total. With his score, Reising has provisionally qualified for the NCAA Outdoor Championships on June 11-14 in Des Moines, Iowa.

 

McMillan earned her spot on the NCAA provisional heptathlon list at the Kansas Relays on April 16 and 17. It was the sophomore’s first outdoor heptathlon and first time throwing the javelin in competition. McMillan earned the No. 11 all-time score at Nebraska. During the two-day event McMillan set personal bests in the 100-meter hurdles (14.60w), shot put (38-9; 11.81), 200 meters (25.38w), javelin (121-01; 36.90) and 800 meters (2:30.53).

 

- Ross Runs Down Olympian

Tyrell Ross successfully defended his 110-meter hurdles title with a time of 14.02 at the 81st annual Kansas Relays on Saturday, April 19. He defeated Olympian Tom Pappas (unattached) who ran 14.22. Ross ran the second-fastest time in the preliminaries Saturday morning at 14.19, trailing Pappas’ time of 14.14. Pappas competed for the United States in the decathlon at the Olympic Games in Sidney in 2000 and in Athens in 2004.

 

“Running against an Olympian really gave me an extra boost. He beat me in the prelims, but I knew I had to defend my title in the finals,” Ross said when asked about how it felt to run against an Olympic athlete.

 

- T&F Adds 14 New Huskers

The Nebraska track and field team has announced 14 signees to its 2008 class. The men’s team will welcome five athletes while the women’s team adds nine. The class includes six Nebraska natives, two athletes from Iowa, one from Kansas, two from Canada, two from South Africa and one from Panama. Check out Huskers.com for a full bio on all the signees.

 

Men

- Alonso Edwards (Sprints)
- Adam Mitteis (Distance)

- Matthew Shipp (Middle Distance)

- Pieter Smith (Sprints)

- Adam Wolkins (Javelin)

 

Women

- Blaire Dinsdale (Distance)

- Brooke Dinsdale (Distance)

- Jessica Furlan (Distance)

- Roxi Grizzle (Javelin)

- Erica Hamik (Distance)

- Tara Korshoj (Jumps)

- Nandi Meyer (Distance)

- Katie White (Distance)

- Morgan Wilken (Throws)