Huskers Open Big 12 Outdoor Championships

 

Nebraska Track and Field Meet Day Information

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 2009 Big 12 Outdoor Championships
 Lubbock, Texas (Terry and Linda Fuller Track)
 
 Friday, May 15 - Sunday, May 17
 11 a.m / 10 a.m. / 11 a.m.
 
 Recaps: Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3

 TexasTech.com | Big12Sports.com
 Meet Information | Schedule | Heat Sheets
 Live Results | Facility Records | Big 12 Records
 Parking | Visiting Lubbock | Lubbock Weather

 - all times Central

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This weekend the No. 5 men’s and No. 18 women’s Nebraska track and field teams will travel to Lubbock, Texas, for the 2009 Big 12 Outdoor Championships. This weekend marks the first time the Red Raiders have hosted the conference meet indoors or outdoors. In their 112th year of competition, the Huskers will be in search of their 100th conference title at the Terry and Linda Fuller Track. The Husker men last won the outdoor team title in 2004, while the women’s last championship came in 2005.

 

The meet is set to start on Friday, May 15, at 11 a.m. with the men’s decathlon 100-meter dash. The decathlon will start the meet again on Saturday at 10 a.m. with the 110-meter hurdles. Sunday’s action will begin at 11 a.m. with the men’s javelin, while the meet set to end at 9:35 p.m. with the men’s 4x400-meter relay.

 

Live results of the meet will be available at FlashResults.com, and fans are encouraged to check the Track and Field Blog at Huskers.com for updates throughout the meet. At the completion of each day, a full recap will be posted at Huskers.com.  Fox Sports Network will be taping the meet and will have a condensed showing on May 22 at 11:30 a.m. (Central). Tickets to the meet are still available at TexasTech.com, where a three-day all-session pass is $15.

 

NU Out of the Blocks

(USTFCCCA Ranking: Men - No. 5 / Women - No. 18)

2009 NCAA Midwest Regional Qualifiers: 56

  (34-Men / 22-Women)

2009 NCAA Championship Automatic/Provisional Qualifiers: 4 Provisional

  (2-Men / 2-Women)

2009 Division I Outdoor Leaders: 1

  (0-Men / 1-Women)

2009 Division I Outdoor Top-10: 7

  (5-Men / 2-Women)

2009 Big 12 Athlete of the Week: 4

(2-Men / 2-Women)

 

One for the Thumb

This weekend at the Big 12 Outdoor Championships, the Nebraska multi-event duo of Megan Wheatley and Rachel Butler will look to bring the women’s heptathlon crown back to Lincoln for the fifth-straight year. In the 12-year history of the conference, the Huskers lead the way with five heptathlon crowns, two ahead of Missouri’s three. Katherine Livesey was the first Husker to win the crown in 2002, before the Big Red reeled off four straight wins from 2005-08.

 

Wheatley, the defending conference champion, is the meet favorite as she owns the top score in the conference with 5,360 points at the Jim Click Shootout on April 3. Ranked No. 16 nationally, Wheatley is followed by Missouri’s Kaela Rorvig (5,156) and Butler (4,851).

 

Sky's the Limit

After being named USATF and Big 12 Athlete of the Week on Tuesday, May 12 for breaking her own NU and American junior record of 14-3 1/2 with a vault of 14-4 1/2 at the Concordia Twilight in Seward, Neb., on May 8, Natalie Willer will look to become the first Husker on the women’s side and the first Husker overall since Leonard Kehl in 1951 to sweep in indoor and outdoor conference titles in the pole vault. Other Huskers to achieve the feat are Don Cooper (1947), Howard Debus (1943), Howard Hunt (1940-42) and William Ossian (1930).

 

The NCAA leader in the vault, Willer is the odds-on-favorite to win the meet as her clearance of 14-4 1/2 is over a foot higher than the No. 2 vaulter in the conference, Texas Tech’s Amanda Alley, who has vaulted 13-2 1/2. Willer won the 2009 indoor conference meet with a jump of 13-10, topping teammate Rachel Birtles and Alley, who shared second-place honors with clearances at the 12-7 1/2 bar.

 

Flash Gordon

With his first Big 12 Championship coming during the 2009 indoor season, sophomore Nicholas Gordon will look to add another championship this weekend, as his long jump of 25-6 3/4 at the John McDonnell Invitational on April 18 leads the conference. Along with trying to become the first Husker since 2002 (Frank Tolen) to win the outdoor crown, Gordon will have a shot at joining Chris Wright (1998) as the only Husker male in the Big 12 era to sweep in indoor and outdoor long jump titles. Ineta Radevica (2003-04) and Dalhia Ingram (1999-2000) each swept the conference titles twice on the women’s side.

 

The Quest for 19 Meters

Along with chasing the 19-meter mark (62-4) in the shot put, junior Trey Jordan will also be in search of his first Big 12 title this weekend in Lubbock, Texas. A native of Troy, Texas, Jordan enters the meet with the top throw in the conference at 60-8 3/4, seven inches farther than Harrison Benjamin (60-1 3/4), who will be throwing on his home ring. Jordan, who has cleared 60 feet twice this season, will look to become the first Husker to win the shot put outdoors since Carl Myerscough in 2004. If Jordan can reach the 19-meter mark, he will be just the sixth Husker in school history to do so.

 

Hurdling the Competition

The Nebraska men’s hurdle squad is one of the deepest and most talented in the country, as the group has three hurdlers ranked in the top 25 in both the 110- and 400-meter hurdles nationally. At the conference level, the Huskers hold the top three spots and five of the top eight spots in the 400 hurdles.

 

Senior Kirkland Thornton leads on the way on both lists, ranked No. 3 in the 110 hurdles (13.50) and No. 14 in the 400 hurdles (50.63) nationally. Thornton is joined in the 110’s by No. 5 ranked Lehann Fourie (13.57) and Tyrell Ross (13.87), who is tied for the No. 19 spot. In 400’s, Thornton is followed by 18th-ranked Adam Dailey (50.82) and 21st-ranked Nick Makukutu (50.99). Overall, the Huskers have seven hurdles regionally qualified the 400-meter hurdles and four qualified in the 110 hurdles.

 

Swedish Sensation

True freshman and Stockholm, Sweden, native Bj?rn Barrefors enters the Big 12 Outdoor Championship with the conference lead in the decathlon. Barrefors’ score of 7,448 early in the outdoor season on April 3 at the Jim Click Shootout in Tucson, Ariz., has held up all year, just ahead of Manta Silkanuskas of Kansas State, who has scored 7,414 points on April 17.

 

Barrefors, who finished third at the indoor conference meet in the heptathlon and third at the NCAA Indoor Championships with a school-record score of 5,795 points, will look to become the first Husker since Aaron Henrichs in 1998 to win the conference decathlon title.

 

Stretched Thin

Some may think the Nebraska track and field team has two athletes with the name Kirkland Thornton. This is because Thornton has become one of the most diverse track athletes in the nation this season, as he has qualified for the NCAA Midwest Regional meet in an unheard of six events. Thornton has not only qualified in the events, but had put up impressive times, ranking in the top 30 in three individual events, while also running the second leg of the No. 11-ranked 4x100-meter relay and the second leg of the No. 13 4x400-meter relay.

 

Thornton’s 2009 Regional Times and National Rank

100-Meter Dash (10.51 | t-71st)

200-Meter Dash (20.84 | t-30th)

110-Meter Hurdles (13.50 | 3rd)

400-Meter Hurdles (50.78 | 14th)

4x100-Meter Relay (39.80 | 13th)

4x400-Meter Relay (3:06.74 | 13th)

 

High Jumpin’ Huskers

Junior Epley Bullock and sophomore Paul Hamilton have been hitting their strides as of late in the high jump, as Bullock ranks No. 2 in the country with a jump of 6-1 1/4 on the women’s side, while Hamilton is tied for the top spot in the conference and seventh nationally with a leap of 7-2 1/2.

 

Bullock exploded with a personal-best jump of 6-1 1/4 to win the Penn Relays on Friday, April 24, breaking her previous best of 6-0.  Hamilton then tied Kansas State’s Scott Sellers for the conference lead in the men’s high jump on Friday, May 2 at the Concordia Twilight with a clearance at the 7-2 1/2 bar.

 

Last season at the conference meet Bullock finished runner-up to teammate Kim Shubert, while Hamilton finished third to teammate and meet champion Dusty Jonas and runner-up Sellers.

 

Loaded in the Vault

Sophomore Seth Burney leads five men’s pole vaulters on the regional-qualifying list, with Burney ranked second in the Big 12 and tied for eighth nationally with a vault of 17-9. Burney is joined by true freshman Nate Polacek (16-10), as well as seniors Zac Holoch (16-8 3/4) and Pat Burke (16-6 3/4) and redshirt freshman Luke Franssen (16-6 3/4).

 

The five Huskers have flooded the Big 12 list, with Burney tied for the No. 2 spot, Polacek ranked No. 5, Holoch tied for No. 6 and the other two tied for eighth.

 

Distance Double Dipper

For the second straight year, sophomore Lara Crofford will take on the daunting task of running both the 10,000- and 5,000-meter runs at the conference meet. Crofford, who enters the meet ranked No. 3 in the conference in each event, will first run the 10K on Friday at 8:15 p.m., before returning just over 48 hours later to run the 5K at 8:40 p.m. on Sunday.

 

As a true freshman in 2008, Crofford finished second in the 10K to Iowa State’s Lisa Koll and then third in the 5K to champion Sally Kipyego and Koll. Crofford scored the most points of any Husker on the women’s side with 14, the 10th-best individual score among the women’s competitors.

 

Awesome Adams

David Adams was arguably the top performer for the Huskers on Saturday, May 2 at the Payton Jordan Invitational in Palo Alto, Calif., as the sophomore took nearly four seconds off his previous-best 3,000-meter steeplechase time of 8:47.07 with a time of 8:43.79. Adams finished 15th overall and second among collegiate runners in a section filled with professionals, including two Olympians. The time ranks Adams No. 9 in Division I, as the Big 12 now has three of the top-10 steeplechasers in the country. Texas’ Jake Morse ran the No. 1 time in the county with an 8:34.57 in the same heat as Adams, while Iowa State’s Hillary Bor owns the No. 7 time, with an 8:43.27 on April 16.

 

Busting Out the Broom

The Nebraska track and field teams capped the 2009 home slate on Saturday, May 2 at Ed Weir Stadium with the Nebraska Quad. A team-scored meet, the Huskers battled Kansas State, Wichita State and Northern Iowa, with the Huskers sweeping the team titles. On the men’s side, Nebraska scored 225 points to down Northern Iowa (149), Wichita State (138.5) and Kansas State (126.5). The Husker women battled with Wichita State all afternoon, getting the best of the Shockers 208-196.5, while Kansas State (123.5) finished third and Northern Iowa (85) fourth.

 

Movin’ on Up

Four-time All-American Lukas Hulett improved his season-best and regional ranking in the 400-meter dash with a first-place time of 46.14 at the Nebraska Quad on Saturday, May 2. Saturday marked only the second time in 2009 that Hulett ran the 400 meters, with the first coming at the opening meet of the outdoor season, where he ran 46.87 at the Jim Click Shootout. The Bellevue, Neb., native’s time Saturday moved him from No. 43 in Division I to a tie for the No. 20 spot.

 

Going the Distance

Junior Leandra McGruder continued her quest to return to the NCAA Outdoor Championships at the Nebraska Quad on Saturday, May 2, as she posted the 13th-best triple jump mark in the country with a wind-aided leap of 42-8 1/4. The Jefferson City, Mo., native qualified in the long jump as a true freshman in 2007, but battled injuries in 2008 and was unable to make it back to the national meet. McGruder has been solid all season in ?09, clearing the regional standard of 40-5 at all five meets she has jumped in, clearing no less than 40-11 1/2.

 

Rewriting the Books at Penn

Tyrell Ross, Lehann Fourie, Eric Lund and Kirkland Thornton combined to set the Big 12 and NU record in the men’s 4x110-shuttle hurdle relay with a time of 54.90 at the Penn Relays on Friday, April 24, finishing second to Florida’s time of 54.30. The four Huskers, who have all regionally qualified in the open 110 hurdles, broke the previous school record of 55.12, set by Richard Davidson Jr., Courtney Jones, Nenad Loncar and Tyrell’s older brother, Aaron, at the Penn Relays in 2005.

 

Thornton then returned less than 30 minutes later to tie a 12-year old school record in the 110-meter hurdles, posting a time of 13.50 in the preliminaries. Thornton’s time placed him runner-up in the prelims to South Carolina’s Jason Richardson, who posted a time of 13.44.