Husker Women Place Third at NCAA Outdoor Meet

Austin, Texas ? Highlighted by Ineta Radevica’s triple jump national title, the Nebraska women’s track and field team put together a third-place finish in a spectacular run at the NCAA Outdoor Championships, while the men tied for a 13th-place finish behind Carl Myerscough’s NCAA shot put title.

"Our staff and athletes thought we had a really good team and a chance to be in the top four (in the women’s race)," head coach Gary Pepin said. "It was pretty obvious early in the day that LSU and UCLA had an advantage with the number of athletes they had competing. We just didn’t have enough bullets, but up and down the line, people did what they were expected to do. This is a great finish to a great season for the women and men."

UCLA won the women’s race with 69 points, followed by LSU in second (68) and Nebraska. The NU women defeated Big 12 Conference foe Texas for the first time since the indoor conference meet as the Longhorns finished fourth with 58 points. Arkansas won the men’s race with 65.5 points, and Nebraska completed the meet with 20 points for a tie for 13th-place.

Radevica complimented her second-place finish in the long jump on Thursday with her third career NCAA Championship in the triple jump with a leap of 45-6 ? on the first attempt of the finals. The Kraslava, Latvia, native took the lead on her second jump with a mark of 45-2 ? and improved that mark on the first leap of the finals to win the meet.

With her 18 points, Radevica would have finished 12th in the team race and tied for third in the individual point scorers. The senior completed her collegiate career with two NCAA Outdoor titles and one NCAA Indoor title in the triple jump and 11 All-America honors. She became the first Husker since Nicola Martial (1994-95) to win back-to-back national outdoor titles in the triple jump.

"It’s really good (to win the national championship)," Radevica said. "My mark could have been better, but I was really tired. I am pleased with my performanace and the 10 points I brought to my team."

Carl Myerscough easily won his fourth NCAA title (two indoor and two outdoor) in the shot put. Myerscough’s top throw of 67-8 ? on his second attempt of the contest defeated the field by nearly two feet. Three of Myerscough’s five legal throws would have won the national crown.

Myerscough concludes his career with seven All-America honors, four national championships and eight Big 12 titles to his name.

"I really wanted to finish my career with an NCA title," Myerscough said. "I thought I could have thrown farther, but it was a hot and humid day. I didn’t quite put it together like I wanted, but a win is a win."

Junior Becky Breisch won bronze in the women’s shot put with a throw of 58-3 ? behind North Carolina’s Laura Gerraughty (59-11) and Stanford’s Jillian Camarena (59-5). Breisch won gold in the discus on Friday and became the first Husker thrower to win national titles in the shot put (2003) and the discus (2004).

Breisch fouled on her first attempt of the shot put before throwing her best toss of the competition on the final attempt of the preliminaries. The Edwardsburg, Mich., native showed incredible consistency throughout the contest with all of her marks ranging between 54-11 ? and 58-3 ?.

"I’m extremely happy," Breisch said. "Third place is great. This meet was the first time since last year I hit 58 feet, and that is a great way to finish the season."

Senior Eric Eshbach won bronze in the men’s pole vault to cap his collegiate career in his home state. Eshbach cleared 18-4 ? for the third-place finish. The Orangefield, Texas, native cleared the first two bars easily before taking three attempts to clear at 18-4 ?. His best attempt at 18-8 ? was his first, but clipped the bar on his way down.

"It went okay," Eshbach said. "I woudn’t say I am disappointed. I didn’t jump what I thought was possible but it could have gone a lot worse. It’s always nice to compete here where I know people in the stands and the officials on the track."

Ann Gaffigan put on a show in the women’s 3,000-meter steeplechase, dropping her school record from 10:12.46 to 9:59.75 in two days and finishing fifth for the first All-America honors of her career. Teammate Anne Shadle held the school record entering the 2004 season at 10:32.21, which she ran at the 2003 NCAA Outdoor Championships. Gaffigan reset the record at 10:17.92 to win the Big 12 Championship and in all has cut more than 32 seconds off of the NU all-time mark.

"I’m very happy," Gaffigan said. "I knew I was capable of breaking 10 minutes because of the way training was going. I didn’t worry about the time, I just fought it out and dove at the end. After not making it to nationals the first three years, it makes this even sweeter."

Dmitrijs Milkevics took sixth place in the men’s 800-meter run, after getting into a physical race 200 meters into it. Milkevics fought his way back in and looked like he would take a top three finish before he fell off in the end and finished sixth for his second career NCAA All-America honors.

A handful of Huskers will travel to compete in the U.S. Olympic Trials in Sacramento, Calif., July 9-18. Several others will compete in their countries’ trials and a few will go on to compete in the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Greece.