Huskers Host Frank Sevigne Husker Invitational

The Nebraska track and field team hosts the 41st annual Frank Sevigne Husker Invitational on Friday and Saturday at the Bob Devaney Sports Center. The meet begins on Friday at 11:30 a.m. and on Saturday at 9:30 a.m. with the combined events. The rest of the track and field action begins on Friday at 4:30 p.m., and Saturday at Noon.

More than 30 schools are expected to compete at this year’s meet. On the men’s side, some of the top teams joining the 15th-ranked Huskers are No. 3 Texas, No. 14 Texas Tech and No. 24 Kansas State. On the women’s side, No. 5 Texas and No. 6 Kansas State are the top-ranked squads.

Saturday’s field events and running events will be recorded by Big Ten Network and will air tape delayed on Saturday, Feb. 13 at Noon. Live results will be available at Huskers.com.

Noting the Husker Men
• Nebraska’s 4x400-relay team of Andy Neal, Mate Koroknai, Drew Wiseman and Oliver Alexandre ran a time of 3:07.54 at the New Mexico Team Invitational, the third-fastest time in NU indoor history. Converted for altitude to 3:07.98, their time ranks seventh in the nation.

• Senior Cody Rush will make his season debut this weekend after an injury setback. Rush, the school-record holder in the 400 meters, is the defending champion of the Frank Sevigne Husker Invitational with his record time of 46.32. He also holds the oversized school record (45.91).

• Ricco Hall and Steven Cahoy are set to compete unattached for the first time this season. Hall, with only one season of outdoor eligibility remaining, will run the 200 and 400 meters unattached. His 20.90 in the 200 ranks second in NU indoor history, and his 46.53 in the 400 ranks third. Cahoy has been battling an injury and will compete unattached in the pole vault, an event in which he earned both Big Ten runner-up finishes in 2015 and is third in NU indoor history (17-11, 5.46m).

• Landon Bartel ranks tied for first in the Big Ten and tied for 11th nationally in the high jump after clearing 7-1 1/2 (2.17m) at the Mark Colligan Memorial.

• Antoine Lloyd has started off 2016 with personal bests in both the 60 meters and 60-meter hurdles. In his best event - the 60-meter hurdles - Lloyd’s 7.78 ranks 11th nationally and second in the Big Ten. It’s a strong event all-around for the Husker men, as Oladapo Akinmoladun (7.82) and Sean Pille (7.87) rank third and fourth, respectively, in the Big Ten.

• Malcolm White ran 21.07 in the 200 meters to win the event at the Mark Colligan Memorial with the sixth-fastest time in NU indoor history. He ranks tied for 11th in the nation and is second in the Big Ten.

Noting the Husker Women
• Tierra Williams is off to a fantastic start to her junior season. A second-team All-America long jumper at last year’s outdoor meet, Williams has entered six events this indoor season and has won five of them. She took up triple jump this season for the first time ever and her personal-best 42-6 (12.95m) ranks tied for 15th nationally and second in the Big Ten. Williams’ long jump of 20-7 3/4 (6.29m) ranks first in the Big Ten and tied for 16th in the nation. She also won a 60-meters title at the Holiday Inn Invite to open the season.

• Paula Andrie cleared a personal-best 13-11 1/4 (4.25m) at the New Mexico Team Invitational and now ranks second in NU indoor history. Andrie’s clearance moved her to No. 14 in the nation and second in the Big Ten.

• Sophomore Reka Czuth, the 2015 Big Ten Outdoor long jump champion, has made her presence known in the high jump this indoor season. Czuth went over 6-0 1/2 (1.84m) at the New Mexico Team Invitational, a PR that moved her into a tie for eighth on the all-time NU indoor chart. She now is the Big Ten leader and ranks tied for seventh in the nation.

• The Husker women are building with a young and talented crop of athletes. On Nebraska’s indoor performance list, 10 of the 15 individual events are led by freshmen or sophomores.

Olympic Year Means Professionals Head to Lincoln
The Bob Devaney Sports Center Indoor Track and the Ed Weir Stadium Track are sure to be popular spots for professional athletes looking to train or qualify for the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil next August. This weekend, a number of professionals are set to compete.

Men
• South Korean high jumper Seunghyun Yun could challenge Dusty Jonas’ Devaney Center all-time record of 7-8 (2.34m), set in 2012. Yun’s all-time best came last September when he cleared 7-7 1/2 (2.32m) outdoors. Former Husker James White, the Big Ten Indoor and Outdoor high jump champion, will also jump this Saturday. He has a lifetime best of 7-5 3/4 (2.27m).

• The men’s long jump will feature some top competitors, including La’Derrick Ward, who jumped 26-8 3/4 (8.14m) with wind assistance last May, the 11th-best wind-aided mark in the world in 2015. Former Husker five-time All-American Nicholas Gordon is also in the field. The Jamaican owns a lifetime best of 26-7 1/4 (8.11m).

• Latvian Renars Stepins is entered in the 400 and 800 meters. Stepins owns an 800-meter PR of 1:48.08, which ranked 40th indoors in the world in 2015.

• Norfolk, Neb., native Jeremy Scott, the 2009 USA Indoor Championships pole vault winner, owns a personal best of 19-1 1/4 (5.82m) and is believed to be the tallest pole vaulter in history at 6-foot-9.

• Former Husker Luke Pinkelman will compete in the shot put. Pinkelman’s personal best of 65-10 1/4 (20.07m) still ranks No. 2 in NU indoor history. Three-time Husker All-American hurdler Kirkland Thornton will race in the 60-meter hurdles. His top time in 2016 - 7.73 - ranks 21st in the world.

Women
• Recent Husker All-American Marusa Cernjul will compete in the high jump. The Slovenia native has already cleared 6-1 1/4 (1.86m) this indoor season to rank 25th in the world. Also in the event, Canada’s Alyxandria Treasure holds a PR 6-2 1/4 (1.89m).

• In the pole vault, Leslie Brost enters with a lifetime-best 14-9 1/2 (4.51m), which ranked 35th in the world in the 2015 outdoor season.

• In the 400 meters, Ashley Spencer was fifth in the world in 2015 with an indoor time of 51.85, and she holds a personal-best 400m time of 50.28 and 200m time of 22.92. She is expected to compete in both events this weekend.

• Bethany Praska (800 meters) and Laura Thweatt (Mile and 3,000 meters) will also be on hand. Praska holds the Devaney Center 800-meter record of 2:03.59. Thweatt holds the Frank Sevigne meet record in the mile (4:38.26) and also won the 3,000 in 2014 (9:15.87). In November, she was the top American woman at the New York City Marathon with a time of 2:28:23 in her debut.

• Carly Fehringer, a Wayne, Neb., native, enters the women’s weight throw competition with the top seed mark of 71-4 1/4 (21.75m), set on Jan. 31, 2015.

Husker Men Out to Defend Big Ten Title
The Nebraska men ran away with the Big Ten Indoor Championship last year in Geneva, Ohio with 127 points to win the meet by 41 points over Illinois. NU will be looking to defend its title in 2016 with 87 of those 127 points back set to compete this indoor season. The Husker men began the season with a No. 11 ranking in the USTFCCCA Top 25 poll, ahead of Penn State at No. 21 and Purdue at No. 24.

Men’s 4x400 To Feature New Look
The 2015 NCAA Indoor runner-up and school-record holding men’s 4x400 relay team (Jake Bender, Cody Rush, Levi Gipson, Drew Wiseman) will have a new look to it to start this season. Although all four members of the team return from last season, senior Jake Bender will redshirt the season after suffering a knee injury prior to the start of the season. Additionally, Cody Rush has been out for a while with an injury.

Akinmoladun Looking for Three-Peat
Senior Oladapo Akinmoladun will look to add his third straight Big Ten Indoor 60m hurdles title this season. The school-record holder in the event at 7.61 has won the Big Ten title at each of the past two meets and was a first-team All-American in 2015 with a seventh-place finish at the NCAA Indoor Championships. Akinmoladun would be the first Husker male to win three conference indoor titles in the same event since Carl Myerscough won the shot put from 2002 to 2004 in the Big 12.

The Huskers also have senior Sean Pille back in the event. Pille finished third at last year’s Big Ten Indoor Championships. Nebraska also added Miami transfer Christian Cook for hurdles, though he is only eligible to compete in the outdoor season for the Huskers. Cook was the ACC 60m hurdles champion last year and an honorable-mention All-American in the outdoor 110m hurdles, finishing 18th. Finally, Antoine Lloyd is poised to break through in the event at the conference meet after a career-best start to the 2016 season.

Young Huskers Hope to Build off Breakout Seasons
For the Husker men, junior Steven Cahoy and sophomore Landon Bartel are looking to elevate to new heights in 2016. Cahoy was both an NCAA indoor and outdoor second-team All-American in the pole vault in 2015, as well as the Big Ten runner-up at both conference meets. His PR of 17-11 last year at the Frank Sevigne Husker Invitational is third-best in NU indoor history. Cahoy has battled a back injury and is still working his way back into competition form. Meanwhile, Bartel was also the Big Ten runner-up in the high jump twice as a freshman last year and will hope to take over the top spot as two-time champion James White wrapped up his Husker career in 2015. Bartel finished fifth for Team USA at the Pan American Junior Championships in the summer.

Jumpers Lead Young Husker Women’s Team
The Nebraska women’s team will feature plenty of new and young talent in 2016. Forty-seven of the 69 athletes on the roster (68 percent) are freshmen and sophomores. The Huskers return their most experience in the long jump and triple jump, though it was in the outdoor season when the Huskers really hit their stride to help the team to a second-place finish at the Big Ten Outdoor Championships. Junior Tierra Williams returns as a second-team All-America long jumper with a ninth-place finish at last year’s NCAA Outdoor Championships (20-10 1/2), while sophomore Reka Czuth won the Big Ten Outdoor title last season and junior Jazmin McCoy was an honorable-mention All-American. In the triple jump, senior Mollie Gribbin was an outdoor second-team All-American and junior Danielle Jones returns after honorable-mention All-America honors, while sophomore Angela Mercurio won the Canadian Junior Triple Jump Championship in the summer.

Huskers Hold Record Dual-Meet Win Streak
The Husker men’s team has won 15 consecutive dual/tri/quad meets dating back to 2001, the longest streak in the NCAA per DailyRelay.com. In that span, the Huskers have defeated 38 opponents.

Big Ten Outdoor Championships Coming to Lincoln
For the first time, Nebraska’s Ed Weir Stadium will host the Big Ten Outdoor Track & Field Championships when the event comes to Lincoln May 13-15. The Huskers hosted the Big Ten Indoor Championships at the Bob Devaney Sports Center in 2012 in their first Big Ten season. The women won the title at that meet, while the men finished third. The last time the Huskers hosted a conference outdoor meet was the Big 12 Championships in 2007.

Huskers Name 13 Team Captains
The Nebraska track and field program has named 13 team captains for the 2016 indoor and outdoor seasons. Five Huskers were captains on last year’s squad and will resume their leadership roles in 2016: seniors Craig Driver (pole vault), Cody Rush (sprints), Kari Heck (jumps), Tristen Sharp (throws) and junior Sarah Firestone (javelin). The Huskers will have eight new captains in the upcoming season. On the men’s side, seniors Jake Bender (sprints), Christian Sanderfer (pole vault), Ricco Hall (sprints) and sophomore Landon Bartel (high jump) will serve as captains. For the women, senior Paula Andrie (pole vault) and three juniors - Anna Peer (distance), Brena Andrews (sprints) and Dani Jones (jumps) - are the new additions.

Maxwell Inducted into USTFCCCA Hall of Fame
Nebraska track and field assistant coach Billy Maxwell was inducted into the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association Hall of Fame in December. A nationally renowned sprints/hurdles/relays coach, Maxwell completed his 20th season at Nebraska in 2015. He has been a critical element to the success of the Husker track and field program over the last two decades. Maxwell is a four-time Midwest Region Assistant Coach of the Year, including both indoor and outdoor in 2014. He joined head coach and friend Gary Pepin, who was inducted in 2008, in the hall.

About Frank Sevigne
The Husker Invitational is named in honor of former University of Nebraska coach Frank Sevigne, who fought a gallant battle against cancer prior to his death on Jan. 29, 1985. Sevigne was posthumously inducted into the United States Track Coaches Association Hall of Fame on Dec. 4, 2004, in Portland, Ore.

Sevigne brought a wealth of success to Nebraska athletics. He oversaw a total of 11 national champions, 42 All-Americans and 103 individual conference champions. One of his former athletes, sprinter Charlie Greene, added an Olympic gold medal in the 4x100-meter relay at the 1968 Games.

Sevigne was an outstanding coach who had the foresight to introduce one of the top collegiate indoor track meets in the nation, the Husker Invitational, which has been renamed the Frank Sevigne Husker Invitational in his honor.

With the advent of the Bob Devaney Sports Center, Sevigne had a dream. He was proud of this new facility, and he was dedicated to establishing an indoor meet in this area that would bring honor to the university and the sport he loved.

“They didn’t build this place for Frank Sevigne. This place will be here long after I’m gone, so we should be thinking of the athletes and the fans to come and really build a tradition they can enjoy through the years,” Sevigne said.

That’s how the idea of a Husker Invitational sprouted. Sevigne’s career was spawned in the East, where he cut his coaching teeth on the excitement of the Millrose Games at Madison Square Garden and similar glamour events.

“This isn’t Madison Square Garden, that’s for sure, but we’ve got a great place and we can bring in some really outstanding teams and individuals,” he said. “If we do the job right, they’ll all want to come to our meet, and we can give the fans a real treat, as well as the athletes some great competition.”

Coach Sevigne did the job right and the Husker Invitational grew in size and stature. Top college teams did hear about the meet and do want to compete here, and this year’s field bears glowing testimony. Current coach Gary Pepin and his staff picked up the challenge left to them by Frank Sevigne and have continued to build the Husker Invitational into one of the nation’s most respected winter track and field events.

Although the University of Nebraska lost an excellent coach, Husker fans can see that Frank Sevigne’s dream did come true and that for years to come many, many people—athletes and fans—will be thrilled by the action at the Frank Sevigne Husker Invitational.