Huskers Send Seven Athletes to the Next Round at the NCAA Championships

Sacramento, Calif. - The Nebraska track and field team had a very strong showing in the first day of the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships, qualifying seven athletes for the next round of competition at Hornet Stadium in Sacramento, Calif.

Sophomore Becky Breisch led the Huskers in the right direction in the opening event of the 2003 championships. Breisch leads the discus competition after the qualifying round, throwing a mark of 184-10 on her second attempt of the day. The mark automatically qualified her for the finals, scheduled for 4 p.m. CST on Friday, and she passed on her final attempt.

Four-time All-American Carl Myerscough stepped into the shot put ring and immediately threw an automatic-qualifying mark of 64-10 3/4 for the finals. The Hambleton, England, native did not continue to throw after hitting the qualifying mark, and his first mark finished third in the qualifying round.

Senior Chris Burns got the day on the track off to a good start, making the semifinals in the 800 meters with a time of 1:49.49 in the preliminaries. The time was good for third place in Burn's heat and automatically qualified him for the semifinals, scheduled for 1:25 p.m. CST on Thursday.

Nenad Loncar and David Davis Jr. advanced to the semifinals of the 110-meter hurdles on Thursday. Loncar automatically qualified, finishing second in his heat with a time of 13.82. His time was the seventh-best time of the day. Davis qualified on time, running a time of 14.03 and finishing fourth in his heat. The senior got off to a great start, but struggled over the final hurdles but did enough to make the semifinals.

Senior Eric Eshbach sailed over the first two heights of the qualifying round in the pole vault and punched his ticket to the finals on Friday evening. The competition opened at 16-4 3/4 and Eshbach cleared it on the first attempt with no problem. The bar moved to 16-10 3/4, which became the qualifying mark for the finals and Eshbach cleared it on his second attempt.

"We really had a good morning," head coach Gary Pepin said. "We've got quite a few people in the semifinals and finals after this morning, but we have some more work to do. Nenad Loncar had a nice race, and so did Chris Burns. Eric made the finals, which we were hoping for, so that was good as well."

Junior Ineta Radevica made the finals in the long jump, leaping 20-11 3/4, to finish second overall in the qualifying round. Radevica came into the long jump ranked fifth in the nation, and improved her position to No. 2 on the first day of the NCAA Championships.

Senior Vesna Kostic's career came to end late Wednesday evening, as she finished 18th with a leap of 20-2 1/4 in the qualifying round of the long jump. Kostic and Radevica both competed on the 4x100-meter relay earlier in the evening.

In the decathlon, senior Casey Thom is currently in 14th place, after finishing the first five events with 3,746 points. Thom ran a time of 11.45 in the 100-meter dash, the opening event of the competition, for 763 points. He moved on to the long jump, where he continued to struggle, finishing 20th with a leap of 21-8 3/4 on his final attempt for 725 points. In the shot put, Thom finished 19th, with a throw of 38-8 1/4. The mark was good for 594 points. In the high jump, Thom made up some ground, clearing 6-6 1/4 and finishing tied for fifth place. He ran an incredible 400-meter dash in a time of 48.22 for a second-place finish and 899 points in the final event of the day.

Shelley-Ann Brown had a disappointing day in her final NCAA Championship experience, failing to qualify for the semifinals in the 100-meter hurdles. Brown clocked a time of 13.74 in the preliminaries Wednesday morning and finished fifth in her heat, short of a semifinal berth.

Artur Wszelaki just missed out on making the finals in the javelin, throwing it 218-8 on his first attempt of the meet to finish 14th and two spots shy of the finals. The Kotobrezeg, Poland, native has struggled towards the end of the 2003 season, qualifying for the NCAA Championships by way of an early-season mark. Wszelaki was an All-American in 2002, finishing fourth at the NCAA Outdoor Championships with a throw of 243-4.

"We had a few disappointments, with Shelley-Ann and Artur not making the finals," Pepin said. Just like every meet, we've had some ups and downs. We would have liked them to go a little further, but we've got some more chances to get it done tomorrow."

Anne Shadle improved her previous school record by over four seconds in the 3,000-meter steeplechase, running a time of 10:32.21. Shadle finished in 20th-place, after coming in seeded 27th.

The Nebraska 4x100-meter relay did not advance past the preliminaries, running a time of 45.04. The Huskers made a good effort with Brown coming on strong as the anchor, but couldn't make up the time, finishing 16th.

The Huskers will begin again Thursday at Noon CST, with senior Amanda Moreley in the women's hammer throw.