Huskers Announce Award Winners

Lincoln - Carl Myerscough, Becky Breisch and Ineta Radevica were three of 10 Huskers honored for their contributions this past year to the Nebraska track and field program. Myerscough was named the Sam Waugh Men’s Outstanding Track and Field Athlete, while Breisch and Radevica were named co-recipients of the Henderson State Bank Women’s Outstanding Track and Field Athlete award, as voted on by the NU track and field staff.

Myerscough was the NCAA Outdoor Champion in the shot put and finished second in the shot put at the NCAA Indoor Championships. Myerscough took home three Big 12 titles and earned two All-America honors in 2004.

Breisch and Radevica each made significant contributions to NU’s third-place finish at the NCAA Women’s Outdoor Championships. Breisch, who will be competing in the finals of the discus competition at the U.S. Olympic Trials later Monday, won gold in the discus and bronze in the shot put at the NCAA Outdoor Championships, earning 16 points for NU.

Radevica claimed both the indoor and outdoor titles in the triple jump and finished third and second, respectively, in the long jump at the NCAA Indoor and Outdoor Championships.

Myerscough, Breisch and Radevica were also named the men’s and women’s Most Valuable Team Performers.

Most Improved Track Athlete honors went to Dusty Stamer and Ann Gaffigan. Stamer was a member of the Huskers’ 4x100-meter Big 12 championship relay team and finished second in the 60-meter dash at the Big 12 Championships. In his first year with the track program, the Grand Island native also recorded a 12th-place finish at the NCAA Indoor Championships (60-meters) and helped lead the 4x100-meter relay team to an eighth-place finish at the NCAA Outdoor Championships.

Gaffigan, the 2004 Nebraska Student-Athlete of the Year, entered the season with six top-10 finishes at the Big 12 Championships in her first three years at Nebraska. Showing dramatic improvement, Gaffigan recorded five top-10 finishes during the 2004 season, highlighted by a gold-medal performance in the 3,000-meter steeplechase at the Big 12 Championships, where she ran a school-record time of 10:17.92. She finished fifth in the event at the NCAA Outdoor Championships, earning four points for the third-place Huskers.

Brad Teeple and Sara Jane Baker were tabbed as the Most Improved Field Athletes. In his final year of competition, Teeple improved his outdoor pole vault mark by more than eight inches. He qualified for the NCAA Championships for the first time in his career, finishing eighth at the Indoor Championships and 12th at the Outdoor Championships.

Baker also qualified for nationals for the first time in her career. She added 150 points to her pentathlon total and finished 10th at the NCAA Indoor Championships. At the Outdoor Championships she finished ninth in the heptathlon with a total of 5,263 points. In 2004, she improved her heptathlon score by 230 points. Baker also recorded four top-five finishes at the Big 12 Championships, finishing fourth in the pentathlon, fifth in the high jump (indoor), third in the heptathlon and sixth in the high jump (outdoor).

Dmitrijs Milkevics and Priscilla Lopes each made immediate impacts as newcomers on the 2004 squad. For their efforts, each was named Outstanding Newcomer.

Milkevics took gold in the 800-meter run at the Big 12 Indoor Championships and finished second at the Big 12 Outdoor Championships. The school record holder in the indoor 600-yard run, Milkevics placed sixth in the 800-meter run at both the NCAA Indoor and Outdoor Championships as a freshman.

Lopes earned a national championship in her first year as a Husker. She claimed the 60-meter hurdles title at the NCAA Indoor Championships with a school-record time of 7.96 seconds and finished second in the 100-meter hurdles at the Outdoor Championships. A Whitby, Ontario, native, Lopes recently qualified for the Olympics and will represent Canada at the games later next month.

High jumper Na’Tassia Vice was also honored with the Russ White Spirit Award. Vice swept the Big 12 Championships in 2004, winning both the indoor and outdoor high jump competitions. She finished eighth at the NCAA Indoor Championships and ended her career with a 13th-place finish at the Outdoor Championships.