Huskers Turn in Strong Effort at NCAAs

Austin, Texas ? After a dreadful day one of the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships with storms postponing most of the meet, the Huskers bounced back for a stellar day two in Austin, Texas.
 
 “We’ve had a real good day today,” head coach Gary Pepin said. “Priscilla Lopes ran a tremendous time and Ineta was very strong and got beat by a great heptathlete in the long jump. It was also a fantastic performance by Ashey Selig.”
 
 Senior Ineta Radevica won silver in the women’s long jump, behind Georgia’s Hyleas Fountain. Radevica jumped 21-6 to take second place on her first leap of the competition and clinched the best finish of her career in the long jump.
 
 “I was stable with my marks which was good,” Radevica said. “I wanted to improve my PR (personal record) but I showed that I can do that this summer and I just want to stay positive for the triple jump.”
 
 Sophomore Ashley Selig won bronze in the women’s heptathlon with a career-best 5,587 points, just one point ahead of the fourth-place finisher.

Selig finished off the first day of the heptathlon in stellar fashion just before 1 a.m. Thursday and returned to begin day two with the long jump 13 hours later. The Lincoln Lutheran graduate was a half an inch short of a personal best in the high jump on Wednesday night with a height of 5-7 ?, and completed the day with a career-best time of 25.45 to finish in 10th place. She showed no effect of the late night, opening day two with an outstanding leap of 19-6 ? in the long jump to move into fifth place. She improved to fourth with a career mark of 126-11  in the javelin before closing out the competition  with a second-place finish in the 800 meters in  2:16.82.
 
 “I am happy,” Selig said. “The outdoor season has been rough with bad weather and injuries. This was a good time to put a good meet together. It just fell together for me.”
 
 Teammate Sara Jane made an impressive jump from 21st to ninth place from day one to day two. Baker closed  the first day of the heptathlon in 21st place and remained there after the long jump, where she went  18-2 ?. In the first day, she finished off with a solid showing in the 200 meters with a time of  25.63. She went 18-2 ? in the long jump, threw the javelin 127-4, and won the 800 meters in 2:16.50 on Thursday.
 
 The men’s 4x100-meter relay team exploded for a  school-record time of 39.41 to finish fourth in heat  two and was the eighth team to qualify for the  finals. The team, made up of Shelldon Simpson, Oliver Williams Jr., Nate Probasco and Dusty Stamer,  broke the 10-year old school record and will compete in the finals at 7:10 p.m. Friday.
 
 “We still had some problems on the handoff from Oliver to me and the guy outside me was really far inside his lane and I was on the inside of mine, but those are both things we can improve on for the finals,” Probasco said. “All we had to do was make the finals. It was not about the time today. In the finals we can try and do something big.”
 
 Stamer and Williams both competed in the open 100-meter dash and neither advanced to the finals. Stamer finished 13th overall with a career-best time of 10.24. Williams ran to a 19th-place finish in a wind-aided best time of 10.30.
 
Ann Gaffigan also set a new Nebraska record in the 3,000-meter steeplechase with a time of 10:12.46 to finish second in the first heat and second overall to qualify for the finals on Saturday. Gaffigan  improved her school record by more than five seconds, after setting it at the Big 12 Championships on May 1.
 
 Carl Myerscough was one of three Huskers to lead the competition in their respective events after the preliminaries. Myerscough only needed one throw of 68-7 ? to set an automatic-qualifying mark for finals and take the lead in the shot put.
 
Defending NCAA Outdoor shot put champion Becky Breisch threw a career-best mark to lead all competitors in the preliminaries of the women’s shot put with a toss of 58-7 ? to automatically move on with her last attempt of the day. Senior Leann Boerema finished 19th with a throw of 51-5 on her first attempt and failed to move on to the finals.
 
 NCAA Indoor hurdle champion Priscilla Lopes posted the best time of the meet in the 100-meter hurdles, clocking a time of 12.75 with a 3.1 tailwind to automatically advance to the finals. Lopes defeated Texas’ Raasin McIntosh by nearly a tenth of a second in the second heat.
 
 Freshman Arturs Abolins made the finals in the men’s long jump with a leap of 25-1 ? on his first attempt to put him in the finals, where he finished ninth with his initial mark.
 
 Nenad Loncar crossed the line in 13.79 for a 15th-place showing in the preliminaries of the 110-meter hurdles. Because of the shortened format due to bad weather on Wednesday, the semifinals were eliminated and Loncar will not advance to the finals.
 
 The Husker pole vaulters started the day off right,  with Eric Eshbach and Brad Teeple each qualifying  for the finals on Saturday. Eshbach easily cleared  the bar at 16-4 ?, 16-10 ? and 17-4 ? on his first attempt at each height. Teeple passed on the first  bar and got over on his third attempt at 16-10 ? and on his second try at the third height.
 
 Dmitrijs Milkevics moved on to the finals in the 800-meter run, with a personal-best time of 1:47.04 which was the fourth best on the day. Milkevics was the first qualifier to finals by time after  finishing third in his heat. Danute Ceika finished 26th in the women’s 800 in 2:11.52.
 
 The 2004 NCAA Outdoor Championships will continue through Saturday evening at the Mike A. Myers Stadium in Austin, Texas.