Nebraska Men's Track Team Opens Season with Win at the Wildcat Invitational

Manhattan, Kan. - The University of Nebraska men's track and field team won the Wildcat Invitational for the third consecutive time Friday in Manhattan, Kan.  The Huskers won the event with 160.5 points, followed by Kansas State (134.5), Wyoming (118), and Oklahoma State (66).

 

"It's always fun to see the first meet and find out a lot about where we are," head coach Gary Pepin said.  "As with every meet, we had some positives and some negatives.  We had some people do very well in their first meet, and we had some people who were disappointing.  We had the whole spectrum."

 

Shelldon Simpson opened his Nebraska career with two victories, including a winning mark of 6.85 in the 60-meter dash, just .01 shy of his personal best.  Simpson was followed by teammates Oliver Williams in second and Courtney Jones in fourth.  He also took the 200-meter dash title in 22.13.

 

Going 2-3-4 in the 60-meter hurdles, three Nebraska newcomers were led by Jones with a mark of 8.13, followed by Nenad Loncar and Aaron Ross.

 

Mike Kamm ran a strong 8:33.01 in the 3,000 meters, bettering his personal record by 12 seconds, for a second-place finish behind Oklahoma State's Jason Woolhouse.

 

Nebraska finished in the two through five spots in the 600-yard run, with senior P.J. Grosserode racing to a second-place finish in 1:13.69.

 

Lucas Bauman ran the 1,000 meters in 2:29.11 for a runner-up finish to Kansas State's Christian Smith with a time of 2:28.24.

 

In the mile, NU's lone competitor, Tim Williams finished third with a time of 4:15.09.

 

Senior Eric Eshbach won his first pole vault competition of the season going neck-in-neck with Kansas State's Dustin Schmidt, clearing a height of 17-0 1/4. Senior Brad Teeple finished third with a vault of 16-4

3/4.

 

Kyle Odvody tied Kansas State's Kyle Lancaster  for second place in the high jump with a leap of 6-11.

 

Nebraska's 4x400-meter relay won the final track event of the evening, recording a time of 3:20.65.

 

In the shot put, Jess Kirchoff and Phil Lueking finished in third and fourth, respectively, with throws of 51-10 and 51-5 on the evening.

 

In the heptathlon, Casey Thom is in third place with 2,936 points after four events.  Kyle Goerl is currently in sixth with 2,620 points.  The men's heptathlon with conclude Saturday.

 

The only women's competition of the day was the pentathlon, where freshman Ashley Selig led the way, finishing in third for the Huskers with 3,582 points.  She was followed by fellow freshman Sara Jane Baker in fourth place with 3,344 points.

 

The Nebraska women's team will compete Saturday against Kansas State and Wyoming, beginning at noon with the field events.