NU Track and Field Team Collect Wins at Holiday Inn Invitational

Lincoln, Neb. -- Chris Burns, James Bowler, and Vesna Kostic all won events for the University of Nebraska track and field team Friday night in the Holiday Inn Invitational at the Bob Devaney Sports Center Track in front of 1,579 spectators.

 

"It looks like we are getting a lot better," head coach Gary Pepin said.  "If your not NCAA champions, you have to be getting better and we showed a lot of improvement tonight.  We worked pretty hard this week, and we still had some areas that we improved on."

 

Kostic set the Huskers' first NCAA provisional qualifying mark of the season in the women's seeded long jump with a mark of 20 feet 7 1/4 inches for the victory.  She was followed by teammates Ineta Radevica (19-8), Authea Chambers (19-8), and Krisztina Kovesi (19-0) for second, third, and fourth places, respectively.

 

"Vesna had a big jump," Pepin said.  "That puts in her in the top-six all-time jumps at Nebraska."

 

Burns led a trio of Huskers who swept the top three spots in the men's 800-meter run.  Burns took the gold with a time of 1:52.36, followed by Lucas Bauman (1:52.69) and Tim Williams (1:53.39).

 

Bowler won the 3,000 meters, clocking a time of 8:19.61, which improved his personal-best time by over 10 seconds.

 

The Nebraska men's 4x400-meter relay came up second behind BartonCounty in a time of 3:14.21.  The relay was made up John Kelley, Danny Hill, Andy Nelson, and Josh Leonard.

 

On the women's side, Anne Shadle ran to a silver finish in the mile with a mark of 4:52.20, improving her career-best time by 13 seconds in just the second meet of the season. Ann Gaffigan was behind her in fourth place in 5:07.28.

 

The women's 4x400-meter relay made up of Ashley Selig, Maggi Elias, Sara Jane Baker, and Cheryl Harmon, finished in third with a time of 3:45.74.

 

"Both mile relays had really good improvements," Pepin said. "I was really happy with the way they ran."

 

Senior Ali Jones ran to a second-place finish in the women's 800 meters with a personal record time (2:15.38) by two seconds.

 

Going the distance in the 5,000 meters, Kayte Tranel finished in the top six with a time of 17:49.66.  In the men's 5,000 meters, Eric Rasmussen and Mike Kamm led the way for NU, finishing seventh and eight.

 

In the field events, freshman Ashley Selig leaped to second place in the unseeded long jump, only missing the winning mark by three-quarters of an inch.

 

Former Husker Melissa Price won the women's seeded weight throw with a mark of 60 feet one inch.  Current Huskers Tia DeSoto, Amanda Moreley, and Vicki Janovec followed her in fifth, sixth, and seventh place, respectively.

 

The Holiday Inn Invitational will wrap up Saturday at the Bob Devaney Center Track, beginning with the 60-meter hurdles at noon and concluding with the 200-meters scheduled to begin at 5:15 p.m.  The field events kick off at noon as well, featuring the high jump, the shot put, triple jump and the pole vault.