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Huskers Head to Iowa for Nationals
Lincoln - The Nebraska track and field team will
make a short trip to Des Moines, Iowa, for the NCAA
Outdoor Championships, which starts on Wednesday, June 8. The four-day
meet will be held on the blue oval
at Drake Stadium and will start at Noon (CT) on both Wednesday and
Thursday, 3 p.m. on Friday and 11 a.m.
on Saturday. Both ncaa.com and godrakebulldogs.com will provide a live
stream of the meet, while CBS
Sports Network will have live coverage from 6:30-8:30 p.m. on Friday
and CBS will show the meet live from
Noon-2 p.m. on Saturday.
Head Coach Gary Pepin’s squad will be well
represented at the meet with 18 athletes making the trip.
Freshman Mara Griva will compete in both the long and triple jumps,
while senior Adam Dailey and freshman
Miles Ukaoma will run the 400-meter hurdles and are members of the
Huskers’ 4x400-meter relay.
Bjorn Barrefors will open the meet for NU when the two-day men’s
decathlon starts on Wednesday at Noon.
The Huskers will also competed in four field events
on Wednesday as well as the 400-meter hurdle
semifinals. The Huskers are set to compete every day of the four-day
meet and will be looking to make the
men’s 4x400-meter relay finals, which conclude the meet at 1:50
p.m. on Saturday.
Mighty McMillan
Senior Chantae McMillan enters the NCAA Championships with the
nation’s top score of 5,951 points in the
heptathlon this year. McMillan posted the score at the Big 12
Championships and it not only broke a NU
record that had stood since 1992, but it also earned McMillan her
second straight Big 12 title in the event and
the program’s seventh straight event title.
McMillan now looks to win the Huskers’ first-ever national title
in the heptathlon. It would be the Huskers’
second women’s title in the combined events, as Ashley Selig won
the 2005 indoor pentathlon crown.
McMillan is one of four athletes at the national meet that have scored
over 5,800 points this year and is one of
two to top the 5,900-point barrier. West Virginia junior Chelsea
Carrier enters the meet as the No. 2 national
seed with 5,927 points.
Latvian Leaper
Freshman Mara Griva enters the NCAA Championships with the top
collegiate jump this season at 21-11 3/4,
here winning jump from the Big 12 Championships.
The jump was wind-aided due to a 3.6 m/s wind and ranks as the
third-longest wind-aided jump in the world
this season.
Griva, a native of Ventspils, Latvia, will be
looking win just the second outdoor long jump national title for the
Husker women in program history. Angee Henry holds the lone
championships with her win in 1996.
Griva will also compete in the triple jump, which she hold the
third-best jump this season at 45-3 3/4. Dating
back to 1989, the Husker women have had three athletes win five outdoor
triple jump national titles.
Griva swept the Big 12 horizontal jump titles both indoors and outdoors
this year, becoming the third jumper in
conference history to do so. The other two jumpers are also from NU,
including Dalhia Ingram in 2000 and
Ineta Radevica in
2004.
Going for Two
At the NCAA Championships discus thrower Tyler Hitchler will be looking
to achieve a feat that hasn’t been
done in over 15 years at Nebraska. An All-American last season,
Hitchler will try to become the first Husker
on the men’s side to earn consecutive All-America honors in the
discus for the first time since Andy Meyer
earned three straight honors from 1992-94.
Hitchler will be joined in the discus competition at 6 p.m. on
Wednesday by freshman teammate Chad Wright.
One Final Attempt
Thursday, June 9 at 5:35 p.m. will mark the final time senior Nicholas
Gordon will have to capture a second
national title. The 2009 indoor national champion in the long jump,
Gordon is still in search of an outdoor
crown.
A native of Kingston, Jamaica, Gordon enters the meet with the
sixth-best collegiate jump this season at 26-8
1/2 from the Big 12 Outdoor Championships.
Arturs Abolins is the only men’s jumper in NU history to win a
long jump national title both indoors and
outdoors with his sweep of the 2006 titles.
Mid-Distance Miller
Ashley Miller captured her first Big 12 title with a personal-best time
of 4:18.70 in the 1,500 meters. Miller is
the second Husker to win the event in the Big 12 era, joining 2005 Big
12 and national champion Anne
Shadle. Miller will look to join Shadle once more at the NCAA
Championships as Shadle is also the last
Husker on the men’s or women’s side to earn All-America
honors in the 1,500 meters.
Vaulting to New Heights
After earning the first All-America honor of her career last season at
the outdoor championships with a sixthplace
finish, senior Natalie Willer will be looking to end her collegiate
career with another trophy.
Willer enters the meet with the seventh-best collegiate vault this
season at 14-2 1/2. No other women’s
vaulter in NU history has ever earned two straight All-America honors
outdoors or won a national title.
Prestigious Pepin
Nebraska’s Big 12 women’s title during the 2011 indoor
season added to the historic 31-year resume of Head
Coach Gary Pepin, who now holds 67 conference titles dating back to his
first Big Eight win at the 1981
indoor meet. As a member of the Big 12 Conference, Pepin’s
program captured a league-best 23 track and
field titles, which also makes him the second-winningest coach in Big
12 history across all sports. Pepin trails
Colorado’s Mark Wetmore, who has 24 conference titles as the head
coach of the Buffs’ men’s and women’s
cross country and track and field programs.
Leaving on Top
Following a second-place finish from the NU women and fourth-place
finish from the men’s team, the Huskers
will leave the Big 12 Conference as the league’s winningest
program.
The Huskers won 51 Big Eight titles during the conference’s
history from 1974-1996 and Nebraska continued
to dominate the conference after the league changed to the Big 12 in
1997. NU won a league-high 23 team
titles, including the program’s historic 100th conference team
title in 2007.
The Huskers added their 101st and 102nd titles during the 2009 and 2010
outdoor seasons when the men’s
squad became the first men’s team in Big 12 history to win
back-to-back team titles at the outdoor conference
meet.
Indoors, the NU men won a conference-best nine conference titles,
including six straight from 2000 to 2005,
while Texas won four and Oklahoma had one championship. The men also
hold the lead outdoors with six
team titles, while the Longhorns are next in line with four titles.
Including their win during the 2011 indoor season, the NU women won a
conference-best six indoor crowns
and it was their first team win since 2005 when they won a second
straight title.
Head Coach Gary Pepin was also unmatched in the Big 12 as his 23 team
titles more than doubled any other
coach in the conference. Texas’ Bev Kearney is in a distance
second with her 11 trophies as the Longhorn
women’s head coach.
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