Husker Women Lead NCAA Championships

Austin, Texas ? Becky Breisch got the Huskers off to a spectacular start with a win in the women’s discus throw Friday afternoon and Priscilla Lopes and Jenny Green added to the spectacular day for the Nebraska women’s track and field team, which is leading the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships with one day remaining.

 

Nebraska leads the women’s race with 38 points, followed by UCLA with 34 and Louisiana State with 31. The Husker men’s team has one point from the men’s 4x100-meter relay team and ranks 33rd through six events.

 

Breisch put her title hopes in jeopardy when she threw the discus just left of the sector on her first two attempts for fouls. On attempt number three Breisch came through big with a toss of 191-10 to win the competition. On the first try of the finals she unleashed a mark of 204-5 to improve her lead to 12 feet.

 

“I really wasn’t that worried,” Breisch said. “I have been in the position before. I knew what I had to do, and it was just a matter of getting it done. My form broke down on my first two throws and I wasn’t getting it like I wanted to. It’s exciting to win. The throwers are very good this year and I had fun.”

 

Breisch became the first Husker to ever win NCAA gold in the discus and will try to defend her 2003 NCAA Outdoor title in the shot put on Saturday at 5 p.m. She led the field in preliminaries with a career-best throw of 58-7 ? on Thursday.

 

Lopes won silver in the women’s 100-meter hurdles en route to the fifth-fastest time in collegiate history and the all-time fastest time in Nebraska school history.

 

The NCAA Indoor hurdle champion did not get out strong, but battled her way back into the race, coming on strong over the last half of the race. Texas’ Nichole Denby clocked the second-fastest time in collegiate history with a time of 12.62 to win by two-hundredths of a second.

 

“It was neck-and-neck at the end,” Lopes said. “I look forward to races like this throughout my last three seasons at Nebraska. This was one of my favorite races in my career. I gave it my best and I am pretty pumped. Now I just have to finish top three at the Canadian trials and I will be going to Athens.”

 

Lopes’ record decimated Rhonda Blanford’s record of 12.85 ran in 1985. Blanford was a fourt-time national champion for the Huskers from 1982 to 1985 and is the only Husker to have ever won a national title in the women’s 100-meter hurdles. Lopes has broken it on three other occasions, but none were wind legal.

 

“We had a really good day again today,” head coach Gary Pepin said. “Priscilla ran a marvelous race and broke Rhonda Blanford’s record, who was one of the best atheles Nebraska has ever had. Becky Breisch was also excellent in the discus. Up and down the line we have done pretty well.”

 

Freshman  Jenny Green won bronze for the second time in her brief NCAA career, clearing 13-9 ? in the women’s pole vault. Green also won third place at the NCAA Indoor Championships and claimed both indoor and outdoor Big 12 conference titles as a freshman.

The men’s 4x100-meter relay team earned the first All-America honors in school history, with a team of Shelldon Simpson, Oliver Williams Jr., Nate Probasco and Dusty Stamer. The Huskers ran a time of 39.90, as Stamer and Texas’ Ashton Collins went stride-for-stride down the homestretch, with NU coming up two-hundredths of a second short of the Longhorns.

 

NCAA defending triple jump champion Ineta Radevica finished fourth in the qualifying round with a leap of 44-2 ? and will compete in the finals on Saturday afternoon. Teammate Authea Chambers finished 24th with a mark of 41-7 ? and will not move on to the final round.

 

Senior Na’Tassia Vice wrapped up her collegiate career with a 13th-place showing in the women’s high jump, clearing the bar at 5-10. Vice cleared each bar through the 5-10 mark before going out at 5-11 ?.

 

The women’s team will be represented by Breisch (shot put), Radevica (triple jump) and Ann Gaffigan (3,000-meter steeplechase) on the final day of the NCAA Championships. Four Husker men will compete on the final day including Carl Myerscough (shot put), Eric Eshbach (pole vault), Brad Teeple (pole vault) and Dmitrijs Milkevics (800-meter run).