NU Track Earns Five Academic All-District Honorees

LINCOLN?Five Nebraska track and field athletes were recognized for their success in the classroom and on the track Thursday, as seniors Sara Jane Baker, Aaron Plas and Ashley Selig; junior Nate Probasco; and sophomore Jenny Green each were named to the CoSIDA ESPN the Magazine Academic All-District VII Team. NU’s five honorees tied Missouri State for the district lead.

Plas, Selig, Probasco and Green each were named to the All-District VII first team, while Baker earned second-team honors. The Huskers’ four first-team members now move on to the national ballot, where each will be considered for Academic All-America honors.

Selig and Plas lead Nebraska’s honorees after being named NU’s 2005-06 Female and Male Student-Athletes of the Year. Selig, the 2005 NCAA indoor champion in the pentathlon, graduated last month with a 3.63 grade-point average in exercise science. A five-time All-American from Lincoln, Selig is redshirting during the 2006 outdoor season and will return to competition for her final outdoor campaign in 2007.

Plas, who also sports a 3.63 GPA in business administration, will conclude his athletic career during next week’s NCAA Outdoor Championships in Sacramento, Calif. The McCook, Neb., native is a three-time NCAA All-American in the high jump, and also is a three-time academic All-Big 12 honoree. He won the 2005 Big 12 outdoor high jump title.

Green was named first-team all-district in only her third season at Nebraska after registering a 3.83 GPA in marketing. The Grand Island, Neb., native has won three Big 12 women’s pole vault titles in only four career attempts, and is a two-time NCAA All-American. Green is the vice-president elect of NU’s Student-Athlete Advisory Council, and she also received academic All-Big 12 first team honors this season for the first time.

Probasco is a two-time NCAA All-American and four-time Big 12 champion specializing in the short sprints. A Scribner, Neb., native, the Husker junior has earned a pair of conference titles in the 200-meter dash and 4x100-meter relay, while also earning one national honor in each event. He set the Husker school record in the outdoor 200 last spring as a sophomore. Probasco owns a 3.76 GPA in history and is two-time academic All-Big 12 honoree.

Baker, who has also amassed an All-America career at Nebraska, received second-team academic All-District honors from CoSIDA. She won her first individual Big 12 championship two weeks ago in the women’s heptathlon. A product of Kalamazoo, Mich., Baker will conclude her athletic career at the NCAA Outdoor Championships. She received academic All-Big 12 accolades for the third time this season after compiling a 3.56 GPA in marketing..

Nebraska’s 2006 collegiate outdoor season comes to a close next week, as 15 Huskers travel to Sacramento, Calif., for the NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships. The year’s national championships, which will be held June 7-10 at Sacramento State’s Alex G. Spano Track Complex, are slated to be televised for the first time since 1982. CSTV will air two hours of competition on Friday, June 9, from 7 to 9 p.m. CDT, while CBS will carry the majority of the meet’s track finals on Saturday, June 10, from 2:30 to 5 p.m. CDT.