K.T. Woodman Classic Up Next on Husker Schedule

The Nebraska track and field team will travel to Wichita, Kan., on Saturday after making a midweek trip to Concordia, Neb., for the Concordia Invite on Wednesday.

The Huskers are coming off a successful weekend of competition at the 77th annual Texas Relays and are looking forward to their only home meet of the season next Saturday, April 17, at the Ed Weir Track Stadium.

Eric Eshbach and Becky Breisch highlighted the Texas Relays with stellar performances in the pole vault, and the shot put and discus, respectively. Another group of Huskers competed in the Emporia State Relays, but the entire team will compete in the K.T. Woodman Classic.

The meet, hosted by Wichita State, is slated to begin at 10 a.m. with the women’s javelin throw and scheduled to wrap up at 4:45 p.m. with the men’s 4x400-meter relay on Saturday. The meet will feature Penn State, Air Force, UMKC and Wichita State and will be the Huskers only scored meet before the conference championships.

The Huskers will remain in Lincoln next weekend for the Nebraska Quadrangular, their only home meet of the 2004 outdoor season. Nebraska has three weekends of competition remaining before traveling to Norman, Okla., for the Big 12 Outdoor Championships, April 29-May 1.

Home Sweet Home

Nebraska is looking forward to next Saturday when the Huskers play host to Colorado State, Indiana and Missouri in their only home meet of the outdoor season. The Nebraska Quadrangular begins at 2:30 p.m. on April 17 with the men’s javelin and is set to finish at 7:25 p.m. with the 4x400-meter relays.

The track meet is not the only show in town as the Nebraska football team puts on its annual spring game at 12:30 p.m. The softball team is also in action at 3:30 p.m. on Saturday, while the soccer (12 p.m.) and volleyball (7 p.m.) teams each have spring home contests

Eshbach Explodes for Nebraska School Record

Senior Eric Eshbach had a phenomenal day in the pole vault last Saturday at the Texas Relays. Eshbach set a school-record mark of 18-4 1/2 to win the prestigious meet.

The Orangefield, Texas, native tied the nation-leading mark with his leap and was honored as the Big 12 co-male athlete of the week. Eshbach is currently ranked second in the TrackWire Dandy Dozen in the pole vault behind Oregon’s Tommy Skipper, who Eshbach defeated at the Texas Relays. Eshbach’s mark also currently is tied for fifth in the world this year.

Breisch Gets Her Own Poll on TrackShark.com

Junior Becky Breisch has opened the 2004 outdoor season with a bang, notching the two best discus throws in the NCAA this season, as well as the second-best mark in the shot put.

Breisch has been nationally recognized for her success. There is also a poll up on TrackShark.com, that asks "Who has been the top women’s thrower so far this season?" Breisch is currently leading Colorado State’s Loree Smith, Stanford’s Jillian Camarena and Oregon’s Sara Malone.

Breisch was named the USTCA Mondo Athlete of the week on March 23 for her outdoor season debut at the Texas A&M Multis.

Huskers Ranked in Top Six To Open Outdoor Season

The Nebraska track and field teams are receiving respect in the first Trackwire Top 25 rankings of the season.

The Husker women are picked to repeat their indoor performance, with a third-place ranking. The men are ranked sixth in the first outdoor poll, after a 19th-place showing at the 2004 NCAA Indoor Championships.

No Big 12 team is picked to finish higher than the Huskers in the men’s or women’s polls. The Florida Gators are picked to win the men’s race, while Louisiana State is the favorite to repeat on the women’s side.

Track Doing Its Part

The University of Nebraska is ranked 15th in the latest Director’s Cup standings released on April 1with 380 points. The Husker track and field team is responsible for 139 of those points or 37 percent.

The Nebraska women took third place at the NCAA Indoor Championships, the highest finish for a Husker team this season, for 85 points, while the men finished tied for 19th place for 54 Director’s Cup Points.

Selig, Baker Notch Provisional Qualifiers on First Try

Ashley Selig and Sara Jane Baker only had two scheduled opportunities to qualify for the NCAA Outdoor Championships in the heptathlon, and they wasted no time by setting provisional qualifiers at the Texas Relays last weekend.

Selig turned in a second-place finish with 5,316 points, which ranks third in the NCAA this season. The performance is just 184 points off of the automatic-qualifying mark, but could be sufficient enough to qualify on its own.

Baker finished fifth in the Texas Relays heptathlon with 5,100 points and is ranked seventh nationally. The mark was a personal record for Baker.

The two will get one more chance to qualify for the NCAA Championships at the 2004 Big 12 Outdoor Championships, April 29-May1, in Norman, Okla.

High Jumpers Back In Action

After a less-than-stellar indoor season by the men’s high jumpers, Travis Baker and Aaron Plas have both cleared the seven-foot mark in the opening stages of the outdoor season.

Baker cleared 7-0 1/4 at the Holiday Inn Invitational in the second week of the indoor season, and no high jumper had been over the seven-foot bar since until the Jim Click Shoot-Out in Tucson, Ariz.

Plas was the first to clear seven feet during the outdoor season, winning the Jim Click Shoot-Out with a mark of 7-0 1/2. Showing some consistency, Plas topped that same mark at the Texas Relays, but took bronze in the B section due to misses.

Baker took the gold in the B section of the men’s high jump at the Texas Relays, also clearing 7-0 1/2, but never missed a bar until it moved to 7-1 3/4.

Plas and Baker have both qualified for the NCAA Midwest Regional. Kyle Odvody and Yoav Shuster should both qualify for the regional championships as well.

Huskers Have Handle on National Rankings

Becky Breisch leads the Huskers in the national rankings, with the top spot in the discus throw and the second spot on the shot put charts.

Breisch’s throw of 191-6 in the discus at the College Station Relays ranks first in the nation and her mark of 185-4 at the Texas Relays last weekend would rank second only to her own mark, if all marks were listed. Leann Boerema has the 12th best mark in the shot with a toss of 53-3 1/2.

Eric Eshbach is also leading the NCAA after the Texas Relays, with his leap of 18-4 1/2 last weekend in the pole vault.

Jenny Green ranks third in the women’s pole vault with a height of 13-11 1/4.

NCAA Indoor hurdle champion Priscilla Lopes has already made her mark in the national standings, tying for seventh in the 100-meter hurdles and tied at 13th in the 100-meter dash after just one meet.

Sophomore Ashley Selig is ranked third in the women’s heptathlon with 5,316 points, while teammate Sara Jane Baker is seventh with 5,100 points.

Travis Baker and Aaron Plas are tied at ninth on the high jump list. Nenad Loncar is seventh and Courtney Jones is tied at 14th in the 110-meter hurdles. Dusty Stamer is ranked 12th in the 100-meter dash.

The Huskers also return the services of seven All-Americans, including Kyle Odvody (high jump), Na’Tassia Vice (high jump) and Arturs Wszelaki (javelin) in addition to the four national champions.