Four More NU Records Fall in Last Chance Meets

Ames, Iowa ? The Nebraska Track and Field Team had a phenomenal weekend in the Last Chance Qualifier at Iowa State and the Alex Wilson Invitational at Notre Dame, highlighted by four new Nebraska school records, three new automatic NCAA qualifying marks and six new or improved provisional marks.

 

“It was an outstanding meet for us,” Head Coach Gary Pepin said. “We had a lot of seasonal bests and some automatic qualifiers, so it proved to be very fruitful for us.”

 

Dmitrijs Milkevics led the Huskers as a part of two new Nebraska school records and two NCAA qualifying marks. The redshirt freshman ran a blistering time of 1:47.09 in the 800 meters to set a new NU mark, as well as a new Last Chance Qualifier meet record and moved to third place on the NCAA list.

 

Milkevics came back in a short turnaround time to run the anchor leg on the Husker 4x400-meter relay team that clocked a Nebraska school-record time of 3:07.10. The team was led off by freshman Andrew Pearson, and followed by Danny Hill, Mark Harrison and Milkevics, and will await word on whether they will make the cut for the NCAA Indoor Championships, as their time currently ranks 10th in the NCAA.

 

“That was a great double by Dmitrijs,” Pepin said. “He came back in a short rest period on the relay. We thought all year long that the mile relay could get qualified and set a new school record. With all the other events at the Big 12 Championships, we weren’t able to do it, but they did well today.”

 

Sophomore Oliver Williams Jr. rolled to an NCAA automatic-qualifying mark and an NU school-record tying time of 6.61 in the semifinals of the 60-meter dash. The Central Islip, N.Y., native tied Chris Chandler’s previous record set in 2000 and set a new meet record, as well as improving to fourth in the NCAA this season.

 

“Oliver was ready to run well at the Big 12 Championships and unfortunately was called for a false start after a good preliminary run,” Pepin said. “He just ran really well today.”

 

On Friday night in the Alex Wilson Invitational on the Notre Dame campus, the Nebraska women’s distance medley relay reset the school record in the event for the second consecutive week. The Huskers improved their record from a week ago by more than 16 seconds with a time of 11:17.91.

 

The relay team, made up of Danute Ceika, Maggi Escudero, Anne Shadle and Ann Gaffigan, won the distance medley relay after finishing fourth at the Big 12 Indoor Championships with a time of 11:34.48.

 

Their time currently ranks as the 11th best time in the NCAA this season and will wait to see what happened across the rest of the country on Saturday and the decision of the NCAA track committee to see if they will be awarded a trip to the NCAA Indoor Championships next weekend.

 

On day two of the Alex Wilson Invitational, Becky Breisch won the women’s shot put competition with a throw of 53-6 ?.

 

Aaron Nasers set the school record in the 800 meters earlier in the season before Milkevics tore it down on Saturday at the Last Chance Qualifier, but Nasers had a solid day of his own, running an NCAA automatic-qualifying time of 1:48.10 to finish third and punch his ticket to the national championship meet.

 

Freshman Artur Abolins had the best meet of his young career, leaping 25-6 ? in the long jump to provisionally qualify for the national championships and take second in the meet. His chances look bright as his mark is tied at seventh on the NCAA list.

 

Fellow freshman Angela Dies leaped 20-7 in the women’s long jump to hit her first career NCAA provisional-qualifying mark and is sitting tied at 12th place on the NCAA list and will wait to see if she makes the national meet.

 

Sophomore Courtney Jones improved his personal-best time in the 60-meter hurdles to 7.81 in the preliminaries and is currently tied at 17th in the NCAA and will also wait to see if he is included in the national meet. Teammate Nenad Loncar finished second in the finals of the hurdles with a season-best time of 7.85.

 

At the World Indoor Track and Field Championships in Budapest, Hungary, senior Carl Myerscough qualified for the finals of the shot put competition which will take place on Sunday morning with his throw of 66-11 ? to finish third in Group A and fourth overall.

 

Senior Ineta Radevica was not as fortunate in the long jump, leaping 20-10 ?, for a 10th-place finish in Group B and 20th overall in the World Championships.

 

Senior Na’Tassia Vice won the women’s high jump at the Last Chance Qualifier, clearing 5-9 ?, followed by teammate Ashlee Dickinson in fourth place with a jump of 5-5 ?. On the men’s side, Yoav Shuster had his best meet of the season, clearing 6-10 ?, to lead the Husker high jumpers, but did not qualify for the national championships.

 

Freshman Jenny Green won the women’s pole vault with her jump of 13-3 ?. She was followed by Christi Lehman in third place with the same mark and Alissa Koerner in fourth place with a jump of 12-9 ?. In the men’s pole vault, Brad Teeple cleared 17-6 ? for the second time this season and won silver in the meet.

 

Senior Leann Boerema won the women’s shot put with a toss of 52-2 ? and was followed in fifth place by teammate Jen Steiner (47-4 ?). Tia DeSoto won silver in the weight throw with a career-best mark of 60-10 ?.

 

The Huskers with NCAA provisional-qualifying marks will wait until Monday evening when they find out whether they have qualified for the NCAA Indoor Championships next weekend, March 12-13, in Fayetteville, Ark. At least 10 NU track and field athletes are assured of competing in the national meet.