20 Huskers Head to NCAA Championships

<?xml:namespace prefix="st1" ns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags"?>Lincoln - After only sending six athletes to the NCAA Indoor Championships, the Huskers have responded in the outdoor season by sending 20 athletes to the NCAA Outdoor Championships. The first Husker to punch their ticket for Des Moines, Iowa, was redshirt freshman Megan Wheatley. She posted an automatic-qualifying score of 5,643 point in the women’s heptathlon at the Big 12 Outdoor Championships on her way to her first Big 12 title. Following the regional meet, Wheatley was joined by 14 Huskers who placed in the top five at the meet to earn automatic bids. On Tuesday, June 3, the Big Red then received six at-large selections. Of the 20 athletes, junior Keith Lloyd will pull double duty by competing in the men’s hammer throw and shot put. <?xml:namespace prefix="o" ns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office"?>

Following Tuesday’s at-large selections, the Huskers were due to have 21 athletes make the trip to Des Moines. However, at-large selection Skyler Reising will not be able to compete in the decathlon due to a hamstring injury. The junior from Lincoln earned an at-large selection last year as well.

The national meet will run from Wednesday, June 11 through Saturday, June 14, at Drake Stadium on the campus of DrakeUniversity. The first event scheduled is the 100-meter dash of the men’s decathlon at 10 a.m., which junior Skyler Reising is schedule to participate in. Freshman Austin Braman will kick off the field events for the Huskers by throwing in the preliminaries of the men’s javelin at 11 a.m. on Wednesday. The Huskers’ first running event is scheduled for 6:15 p.m. on Wednesday when freshman Adam Dailey runs in the preliminaries of the 400-meter hurdles.

Live results will be made available on Huskers.com through the DrakeUniversity website, godrakebulldogs.com. A full recap will also be available following the completion of each day’s events.

- Catch the Huskers Live on National Television
For the first time all year, fans will be able to watch the Huskers live on TV. CBS College Sports Network (formerly CSTV) will broadcast from 7-10 p.m. (Central) on Friday, June 13, with CBS broadcasting live from 3-5 p.m. on Saturday, June 14.

- Jonas Chases NCAA Sweep
After winning the 2008 NCAA indoor high jump championship, senior Dusty Jonas will try to cap off his remarkable season with a victory at the outdoor meet. Jonas has been on a roll ever since his victory in Fayetteville in mid March. Over the course of the outdoor season he has won the invitational division of the Drake Relays, the Big 12 outdoor title, Midwest Regional title and posted the top jump in the world during the 2008 season at the Big 12 Championships with a leap of 7-8 3/4 (2.36). Jonas will also be search of his eighth NCAA All-America honor.

- Youth Shines for Big Red
Of the 20 athletes making the trip to nationals, seven of them are true freshmen. The Husker women will send two, Lara Crofford (10,000 meters) and Natalie Willer (pole vault). The men’s team includes five youngsters, Austin Braman (javelin), Adam Dailey (400-meter hurdles), Lehann Fourie (110-meter hurdles), Nicholas Gordon (long jump) and Paul Hamilton (high jump). Gordon, Dailey and Willer all earned automatic selections. Dailey (Wahoo), Willer (Elkhorn) and Hamilton (Sidney) all hail from Nebraska.

- 13 Make First NCAA Outdoor Appearance
Of the 20 Huskers making the trip to Drake Stadium, 13 of them will be making their first appearance at the NCAA Outdoor Championships. Of the 13, only freshman Paul Hamilton has previous NCAA Championship experience, jumping at the 2008 NCAA indoor meet. The future of Nebraska track and field seems bright as all 13 will return next year. Of the 13, there are three juniors, two sophomores, one redshirt freshman and seven true freshmen.

- Dailey Hurdles Expectations
Freshman Adam Dailey continues to be one of the biggest surprises for the Huskers during the 2008 season. The freshman from Wahoo, Neb., was not picked up by the Huskers until after the 2007 Nebraska State Track and Field meet. The former Bishop Neumann Cavalier has made the most of his opportunity, ranking No. 5 in the 400-meter hurdles on the under-20 world list. On his way to earning a trip to the NCAA Outdoor Championships the youngster has shot up to No. 3 all-time outdoors at Nebraska with a time of 50.33. If Dailey can earn NCAA All-America honors, he will be the first Husker on the men’s side to earn the honor since Mark Jackson in 1992.

- Huskers Know High Jump
Head Coach Gary Pepin’s high jump squad will be well represented in Des Moines with two jumpers on the men’s side and three on the women’s side. Seniors Dusty Jonas and Kim Shubert are the veterans of the group, joined by freshman Paul Hamilton and sophomores Erin Hannon and Epley Bullock.

After winning the indoor title and holding the top jump in the world this season, Jonas has the biggest target on his back. On the women’s side Bullock comes in with the strongest resume, earning indoor All-America honors in 2007 and 2008, while also making a trip to the outdoor championships in 2007. After winning the 2008 Big 12 outdoor crown, Shubert will look for her first NCAA All-America honor at her final collegiate track meet. The meet will be Hannon’s first experience at the national level, while Hamilton will compete in his second national meet after placing 12th at the 2008 NCAA Indoor Championships.

- Wheatley Returns in Dominant Fashion
After not competing in the heptathlon in nearly two years, redshirt freshman Megan Wheatley dominated the field at the 2008 Big 12 Championships to win her first Big 12 title and post an NCAA automatic-qualifying score of 5,643 points.

Injuries have hampered Wheatley’s short career at Nebraska, holding her out of the 2007 outdoor season and denying her a chance to compete at the 2008 NCAA Indoor Championships. She finished runner up in the pentathlon at the 2008 Big 12 Indoor Championships, but was unable to attend the national meet due to injury. Following the completion of the indoor season she had recorded the sixth-best score in Division I in the pentathlon. She has returned with a vengeance in the outdoor season, posting the sixth-best score in the country entering the NCAA Championships. If she can stay injury free the future looks very bright for the young Husker from Perth, Australia.

- Wilkinson Gets Last Shot to Spear National Title
With three Big 12 titles under her belt, senior co-captain Kayla Wilkinson will get one last shot at the national title in the javelin at the 2008 NCAA Outdoor Championships. Wilkinson was one of the top javelin throwers in the nation in 2006, when she finished runner up at the national meet. A shoulder injury sidelined Wilkinson in 2007 and it was unclear how she would bounce back.

Following the first meet of the 2008 season, the Jim Click Shootout in Tucson, Ariz., it was clear that she had returned as strong as ever as she won the meet in stride with a new Roy P. Drachman Stadium record of 179-7 (54.75). She stayed strong the rest of the season, winning five of the seven meets in which she competed in, finishing second at the Drake Relays and third at the Midwest Regional. At the Big 12 Outdoor Championships she was on her ?A’ game as she not only recaptured her Big 12 title after winning in 2005 and 2006, but she won the meet by breaking her own school record with a toss of 182-10 (55.73).

- Three Huskers Win Region
Competing in their home stadium, three Huskers came out victorious at the 2008 NCAA Midwest Regional. On Friday, May 30, Nicholas Gordon (long jump), Keith Lloyd (shot put) and Dusty Jonas (high jump) all won their events.

After falling one-quarter of an inch short of winning his first Big 12 title at the 2008 Big 12 Championship in Boulder, Colo., Gordon got his revenge at the Midwest Regional. Losing to fellow freshman Julian Reed of Texas A&M in Boulder, Gordon out jumped the young Aggie by five and one-half inches to record a new personal best and tie the regional record in the long jump.

Lloyd won the men’s shot put in dramatic fashion. With a strong contingency of fans and family behind him, Lloyd unleashed a loud roar and personal-best toss on his final attempt of the day to win the shot put with a mark of 61-5 (18.72).

Four jumps were all Jonas needed to earn the top spot in the men’s high jump. After clearing 7-8 ? in Boulder, Colo., to post the top mark in the world this season and win his first Big 12 title, Jonas stayed clean through the event and cleared 7-7 (2.31) to win the regional. Jonas and Mickael Hanany were the only jumpers to clear 7-4 1/2 (2.25). After Jonas cleared 7-7 on his first attempt, Hanany missed three times to secure Jonas’ victory.

- 38 Huskers Named Academic All-Big 12
With the release of the Academic All-Big 12 Track and Field Team, the Huskers have again shown they excel not only in athletic events but also in the classroom. The Big Red posted the most male and female athletes on the team, with 20 on the men’s side and 18 on the women’s team. Among its 38 selections, the track and field team had four student athletes earn a perfect 4.0 grade-point average. The perfect GPA students on the women’s team included Kim Shubert (biological sciences), Betsy Miller (biological sciences) and Joslyn Dalton (communication studies) while the men’s team added Bryce Somer (nutritional science and dietetics).

- 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. At the Big 12 Outdoor Championships, Crofford was the highest point scorer on the women’s side. She tied for the No. 10 spot in individual points standing with 14.

- 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.

- Track and Field Adds 16 New Huskers
The Nebraska track and field team has announced 16 signees to its 2008 class. The men’s team will welcome seven athletes while the women’s team adds nine. The class includes eight 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
- Jesse Adams (Distance)
- Alonso Edwards (Sprints)
- Adam Mitteis (Distance)
- Jon Ronhovde (Distance)
- Matthew Shipp (Middle Distance)
- Pieter Smith (Sprints)
- Adam Wolkins (Javelin)

Women
- Blair Dinsdale (Distance)
- Brooke Dinsdale (Distance)
- Jessica Furlan (Distance)
- Roxi Grizzle (Javelin)
- Erica Hamik (Distance)
- Tara Korshoj (Jumps)
- Nandi Meyer (Distance)
- Katie White (Distance)
- Morgan Wilkin (Throws)