Breisch Sweeps Discus, Shot Put at Stanford

Palo Alto, Calif.?Nebraska senior Becky Breisch won dual titles at the Stanford Track and Field Invitational Saturday, as she swept the top sections for the discus and shot put during the meet’s final day at Cobb Track & Angell Field. In all, four Huskers punched tickets to the NCAA Midwest Regional Championships, which will be held May 26-27 in Austin, Texas.

Breisch led a group of eight Huskers in competition Saturday win her two victories. Her day began with a winning performance in the shot put that featured a toss of 55-8 ? that qualified her for May’s NCAA Midwest Regional Championships. Breisch won the event by more than four feet over Stanford’s Melissa Yunghans (51-0 ?).

The nine-time NCAA All-American then proceeded to record a winning throw of 201-7, the top throw in the nation for the 2006 outdoor season, in the discus. Breisch, who won the USATF discus title last summer, now owns a dominant position on the NCAA performance list with a more than 16-foot lead on the rest of the national field.

Junior teammate Dace Ruskule also posted an outstanding performance in the discus by finishing second place to Breisch with a spin of 185-1 ?. A 2004 Olympian for her home nation of Latvia, Ruskule moved into third place on the national list with the mark in her first competition of the 2006 season.

Senior Courtney Jones competed in the men’s 110-meter hurdles final, clocking a third-place time of 13.85 one day after posting a regional-qualifying mark of 14.23. While Baylor’s Jerome Miller claimed the event title with a time of 13.72, Jones’ performance fell only two-hundredths of a second off his previous personal best.

Another Husker senior, Aaron Plas, also posted a regional qualification with a leap of 6-10 ? to place fourth in the men’s high jump. The reigning Big 12 outdoor champion was far short of his personal best of 7-3 ?, but he still managed to become a regional qualifier for the fourth time in his accomplished career.

Sophomore Keith Lloyd nearly reached the regional-qualifying standard in the men’s shot put by earning third place with a personal-best heave of 55-0 ?. Lloyd shattered his previous career-best outdoor mark of 49-10 ? during the competition.

Other Huskers competing Saturday included senior Tom Donlin, who finished eight in the men’s hammer throw (178-8); senior Jamie Senkbile, the eighth-place finisher (167-2) in the women’s hammer; and sophomore Elizabeth Lange, who placed 15th (2:10.31) among a tough field in the women’s 800-meter run.

The Nebraska track and field team returns to the road next weekend, when it travels to Austin, Texas, for the Texas Relays.