Green Knocks Down Another Record In Tiger Classic

Columbia, Mo. ? Freshman Jenny Green has made a habit of breaking records early in her collegiate career, as she took down the Hearnes Fieldhouse pole vault record by clearing a height of 13-7 ? in the Tiger Classic Friday night in Columbia, Mo.

Green, a Grand Island, Neb., native, came extremely close to clearing 14 feet, when she knocked the bar down on the descent of her final attempt at the height.

The Huskers swept the top three spots in the pole vault, led by Green. Jessi Graff took second place, clearing 12-11 ?, while Alissa Koerner and Christi Lehman tied for third place with a height of 12-1 ?.

Senior Na’Tassia Vice recorded her first NCAA provisional-qualifying mark in the high jump, clearing 5-10 ? to win the event title. In the men’s high jump, sophomore Aaron Plas tied for first place with a season-best mark of 6-10 ?. Kyle Odvody cleared the same height, but took third place on misses.

"We had some improvements today, which is what we hoped for," Head Coach Gary Pepin said. "I was pleased to see Na’Tassia jump well. She almost had a personal best, but she and several others had seasonal bests."

The Huskers dominated the men’s 60-meter hurdles, taking a 1-2-3-5 finish led by a season-best run of 7.98 by sophomore Courtney Jones for the win. He was followed by Nenad Loncar (8.01) in second, Richard Davidson (8.10) in third, and Aaron Ross (8.31) in fifth place.

Becky Breisch put in another brilliant performance improving her NCAA automatic-qualifying mark for the third time this season in the shot put, launching the shot 55-1 ?.

Sophomore Oliver Williams Jr. took second place in the 60-meter dash, crossing the line in 6.89 in both the preliminaries and finals. Shelldon Simpson finished behind him in fourth-place with a time of 6.96, an improvement of .07 of a second from his preliminary time.

Sophomore Tommy Donlin got the meet moving in the right direction, throwing a personal-best mark of 60-1 ? in the weight throw to win the first event of the day. Tia DeSoto won the silver in the women’s weight throw with a launch of 56-6 ?.

Mark Harrison ran to a second-place finish with a career-best time of 49.39 in his first 400-meter race of the 2004 season.

Junior Eric Rasmussen clocked a personal-best time of 4:19.72 in the men’s mile for a third-place finish. He dropped that time by nearly three seconds in the men’s distance-medley relay where the Huskers finished second with a time of 10:22.25.

In the women’s 800-meter run, Dijana Kojic took third place with a time of 2:17.98. Kim Pancoast sailed to a third-place finish in the 3,000-meter run in 9:55.52.

Justine Roach was the only finalist for the Huskers in the women’s 60-meter hurdles, finishing seventh with a time of 9.07, after running a season-best time of 9.04 in the prelims.

Ashley Selig took fifth place in the women’s long jump with a leap of 18-3 ?, while former Husker Krisztina Kovesi won the event with a leap of 19-4 ?.

Competing as the only Husker in the men’s 200 meters, Nate Probasco ran a time of 23.58 for a sixth-place finish.

"I felt like this meet served several good purposes," Pepin said. "It was good to see another conference school and get in some good competition."

The Huskers return home next weekend to host the first of three consecutive home meets, beginning with the 29th annual Frank Sevigne Husker Invitational. The Husker Invite multi-events will begin on Friday afternoon, and the rest of the meet will take place on Saturday beginning at 10 a.m. with field events.