Uljas Earns Second Big 12 Honor of Season

DALLAS, Texas?Nebraska sophomore Egle Uljas was named Big 12 Conference Women’s Track and Field Athlete of the Week Tuesday for the second time this season due to her performance during last weekend’s Prairie Wolf Invitational. She broke the Husker women’s indoor 600-meter run school record with a personal-best time of 1:28.42.

 

Kansas State’s Kyle Lancaster garnered men’s honors from the Big 12 this week.

                             

Uljas shattered NCAA All-American Marcia Tate’s 1984 NU women’s record of 1:33.11 while winning top honors at the Prairie Wolf Invite. In the process, the Tallinn, Estonia, native also notched a new Bob Devaney Sports Center Indoor Track record, breaking Karen Layne’s (Iowa) 1990 facility standard of 1:32.69. Uljas’ time also registered as an all-time Big 12 women’s best performance, surpassing Annette Campbell’s (Oklahoma) 1983 mark of 1:29.91. 

 

A 2004 Olympian in the 400 meters for Estonia, Uljas has now set a pair of school records this season for the Nebraska women. Two weeks ago she was named Big 12 Women’s Track and Field Athlete of the Week after claiming a new NU 800-meter mark of 2:05.30 during the Frank Sevigne Husker Invitational. Uljas has also competed in the 600-yard run this year, and she recorded the Huskers’ No. 2 all-time performance during the adidas Classic on Jan. 21.

 

The sophomore switched her specialty race to the 800 meters midway through the 2005 outdoor campaign, her first season at Nebraska. She reached the 800-meter final at the 2005 NCAA Outdoor Championships, but was disqualified from the race after suffering a fall midway through the final backstretch. The sophomore owns an outdoor career-best mark of 2:02.92, which she set at the Athletissima IAAF Super Grand Prix meet in Lausanne, Switzerland, during the summer of 2005. She already ranks among the Huskers’ all-time top-10 performers for five different events (indoors: 400 meters, 600 yards, 600 meters, 800 meters; outdoors: 800 meters).

 

Ulajs will help lead the Husker women in their bid for a third straight Big 12 indoor championship this weekend at the Devaney Center Indoor Track.