Nebraska Track and Field Athletes Receive Awards

Lincoln - Ten Nebraska track and field athletes were recognized and honored by the NU staff for outstanding performance during the 2002-03 season.

Three-time national champion Carl Myerscough was named the Sam Waugh Outstanding Track and Field Athlete as well as the men's most valuable team performer. Myerscough won the national title in the shot put at the 2003 Indoor and Outdoor NCAA Championships to provide valuable points for his team en route to ninth and fifth-place team finishes, respectively. Myerscough was just shy of setting NCAA records at both events with a throw of 70-6 1/4 indoors and a mark of 71-11 outdoors, but has his eyes set on the records for the 2004 season.

Becky Breisch and Ineta Radevica were co-winners for the Henderson State Bank Women's Outstanding Track and Field Athlete. Both athletes doubled in events throughout the outdoor season, finishing in the top four in both events at the NCAA Outdoor Championships and each bringing home a national championship title in one event. Breisch and Radevica were named Mondo Midwest Regional Female Co-Athletes of the Year after taking two wins each at the regional meet.

Breisch won the NCAA Outdoor title in the shot put with a personal-record throw of 58-3 1/4 to defeat indoor champion Laura Gerraughty of North Carolina. Breisch also won the bronze in the discus at the NCAA Championships with a throw of 179-10. Breisch captured Big 12 crowns in three events in 2003, including shot put at both indoors and outdoors and the discus during the outdoor season. During the NCAA Indoor Championships, Breisch finished sixth in the shot with a throw of 54-4

Radevica also captured an NCAA Outdoor Championship in the triple jump with a leap of 45-8 1/2 for a Nebraska school record. She also finished fourth in the long jump with a jump of 21-3 1/4 at the national meet. In her first season in the Big 12, Radevica brought home four conference titles, one indoors and outdoors in the long and triple jump. At the NCAA Indoor Championships, the Kraslava, Latvia, native won All-America honors in both events with a fourth-place finish in the long and a fifth-place finish in the triple jump. Because her points were so valuable throughout the season, Radevica also received the honor of female most valuable team performer.

Senior David Davis Jr. and sophomore Anne Shadle received the honors of most improved track athletes. Davis came back from frustrating injuries in 2002, to win his first All-America honors at the 2003 NCAA Outdoor Championships, when he finished seventh in the 110-meter hurdles with a lifetime-best time of 13.71. Davis first showed his improvement indoors at the adidas Classic when he clocked a school-record time of 7.76 in the 60-meter hurdles. He came back in the Big 12 Indoor Championships to reset the school record in a time of 7.70 to win his first Big 12 Championship title.

Shadle made her first NCAA appearance as well in 2003, qualifying at the Midwest Regional in the 3,000-meter steeplechase with a school-record time of 10:36.49 and a third-place finish. She improved on that performance at the NCAA Championships, where she again ran a school-record time of 10:32.21 for a 20th-place finish after coming in seeded 27th. During the indoor season, she finished fourth at the Big 12 Championships in the 1,000 meters with a time of 2:52.30, as well as taking fourth as a member of the NU distance-medley relay team.

Chris Richardson and Kriszta Kovesi were named the most improved field athletes for the Huskers. Richardson improved on his ninth-place finish in the decathlon in 2002 at the Big 12 Championships, finishing fifth, with a career-best score of 7,236 in 2003. The score was a provisional qualifier for the NCAA Outdoor Championships and was just shy of making the meet.

While Kovesi was a proven commodity, winning the Big 12 Championship in the triple jump three times in her career, her jumping improved dramatically in her senior season. Kovesi's best performance of the year came at the NCAA Indoor Championships where she won the bronze with a leap of 44-1 1/4 for her first All-America honors. In 2003, Kovesi finished third in the Big 12 indoor and outdoor meets in the triple jump and took sixth and fifth-place finishes, respectively, in the long jump. At the NCAA Outdoor Championships, Kovesi again earned All-America honors with a seventh-place leap of 43-4 1/4 in the triple jump.

Nenad Loncar and Ashley Selig were voted outstanding newcomers for their incredible first-year performances for the Huskers. Loncar joined the Nebraska track and field team in the spring of 2003 and was a vital addition to the team. Loncar almost won the Big 12 title in the 110-meter hurdles, finishing second with a Yugoslavian national-record time of 13.65. The sophomore from Belgrade, Yugoslavia, qualified for the NCAA Outdoor Championships with a second-place finish at the NCAA Midwest Regional meet. Loncar also took a fourth-place finish in the 60-meter hurdles at the 2003 Big 12 Indoor Championships with a time of 8.02.

Selig was nothing short of amazing in her freshman campaign at Nebraska, winning silver at both the Big 12 Indoor and Outdoor Championships in the pentathlon and heptathlon, respectively. The Lincoln, Neb., native was only eight points shy of taking home the pentathlon gold at the indoor championships as a freshman. Selig easily met the NCAA automatic qualifying standard in the heptathlon with her Big 12 score of 5,549. Unfortunately, she was injured in that meet and struggled throughout the NCAA Championships, but still put on a gutsy performance for a 17th-place finish.

Leann Boerema was awarded the Russ White Spirit Award for 2003. The award is presented to a field athlete who demonstrated consistency, dedication, diligence, leadership and courage, the characteristics that Mr. Russ White personified. Boerema came back from elbow surgery in 2002 and endured more pain and illness in 2003. She fought through it all though, never giving up her challenge to be a national competitor. The Clinton, Iowa, native achieved her best NCAA finishes in her career in 2003, finishing 10th at the NCAA Indoor Championships and 14th at the NCAA Outdoor Championships in the shot put. Boerema won the bronze in the shot at the Big 12 Indoor Championships and was fifth outdoors.

All 10 Husker track and field athletes put on phenomenal performances for the NU track and field team in 2003 and are very deserving of the honors their coaches have bestowed upon them.