Husker Track and Field Season-in-Review

The Nebraska track and field program produced another tremendous season in 2006, characterized by numerous outstanding efforts both on the track and in the classroom. Head Coach Gary Pepin’s men’s and women’s squads each added new chapters fitting of the proud history of Husker track and field.

NCAA Championships
Nebraska’s All-America tradition continued in 2006, as 10 Huskers combined to earn a total of 16 national honors at the NCAA Indoor and Outdoor Championships.

Junior Arturs Abolins pieced together the finest season by an NU men’s athlete on the national level since former Husker great Carl Myerscough earned a pair of NCAA titles in 2003. Abolins became only the 10th men’s competitor in NCAA history to claim both indoor and outdoor long jump crowns in the same season, as well as the first male athlete in the history of the Big 12 Conference.

Abolins registered the Husker men’s first-ever NCAA long jump title when he broke the indoor school record for the event at the national meet in Fayetteville, Ark. The Riga, Latvia, native soared 26-7 1/4 on his final jump of the competition to take the lead during his fifth career NCAA meet appearance. Prior to the performance, Abolins had failed to finish among the nation’s top eight during each previous attempt.

Abolins’ indoor national championship proved to be anything but a fluke, as he completed the indoor-outdoor sweep of the NCAA long jump titles in Sacramento, Calif. Trailing once again in the event finals, the Husker junior popped off the runway for another huge mark of 26-3 that outdistanced the second-place finisher by less than one inch.

In their entirety, Abolins’ 2006 NCAA accomplishments amounted to some of the most clutch performances in Nebraska history. Each of his three career 26-foot-plus jumps came during national championship competitions.

In addition to Abolins, two other Huskers helped the men’s team total 19 points for 14th place overall at the NCAA outdoor meet, which marked the squad’s 10th straight national top-20 finish. NU tied for 12th during the indoor season (16 points). Husker high jumper Dusty Joans earned dual top-eight finishes during his sophomore season by placing fifth indoors and fourth outdoors, while fellow jumper Aaron Plas conluded his Nebraska career with one All-America honor (seventh place) during the indoor season. Another Husker senior, Ray Scotten, recorded All-America awards in the indoor (11th place, eighth American) and outdoor (fifth place) pole vault.

Not to be outdone, junior Dace Ruskule added her first NCAA title in the women’s discus while in Sacramento. Also a native of Latvia, Ruskule trailed through much of the competition before taking the lead with a toss of 180-10 on her fifth of six attempts. The Husker claimed a one-foot victory with the spin while joining teammate Becky Breisch as the lone NU women to earn NCAA gold in the discus.

Ruskule, along with the contingent of seniors Sara Jane Baker and Breisch and juniors Priscilla Lopes and Kayla Wilkinson, helped the NU women earn a top-five NCAA team finish for the fourth consecutive year by combining for a fourth-place total of 37 points. Breisch (shot put), Lopes (100-meter hurdles) and Wilkinson (javelin) each garnered runner-up honors in their respective specialty events, while Baker (heptathlon) claimed her first NCAA All-America finish in a combined events competition by placing sixth.

The Husker women tied for 13th place during the indoor season thanks to top-eight finishes from Breisch, Lopes and senior Ashley Selig. Lopes once again earned silver-medal honors in the 60-meter hurdles while breaking her own school-record time with a 7.87 clocking. Though the time was only good for second place in the event finals, it managed to exceed the former NCAA record of 7.90. Breisch registered her ninth career All-America honor with a fourth-place finish in the shot put, and Selig earned fifth place while attempting to defend her 2005 NCAA pentathlon crown.

Big 12 Indoor and Outdoor Championships
Although Nebraska was unable to topple Texas in its quest to sweep each of this year’s conference team championships, several outstanding individual performances helped make the Big 12 Championships successful for the Huskers. NU athletes brought home 16 individual Big 12 titles in 2006, including two each from Breisch, Lopes and junior Daniel Roper.

Lopes continued her conference dominance in the high hurdle events during the 2006 season, as she handily won both the 60- (indoor) and 100-meter hurdle (outdoor) competitions for the second consecutive year. Breisch tied former Husker great Paulette Mitchell’s (1993-96) NU women’s record with nine conference championships in throw events by winning the indoor shot put and outdoor discus crowns. Also making NU history was Roper, who became the first Husker male athlete to sweep the triple jump at both the indoor and outdoor conference championships. He also joined former NU jumper Robert Thomas as Nebraska’s only three-time men’s conference champions for the event.

While NU’s three double winners were busy padding their already impressive resumes, several more Huskers were experiencing the thrill of a conference victory for the first time. Baker (heptathlon) and senior Mark Harrison (400-meter hurdles) each claimed Big 12 crowns in their eighth and final opportunity at the Big 12 Outdoor Championships in Waco, Texas, while another senior, Courtney Jones, landed his first title in the men’s 60-meter hurdles during the indoor championships in Lincoln.

Other Huskers earning individual Big 12 indoor championships included: Abolins in the men’s long jump; Scotten in the men’s pole vault; sophomore Jenny Green in the women’s pole vault; Selig in the women’s pentathlon; and junior Dmitrijs Milkevics in the men’s 800-meter run. Juniors Nate Probasco and Wilkinson added outdoor victories in the men’s 200-meter dash and women’s javelin, respectively.

While neither Husker squad earned a share of a Big 12 team championship in 2006, Nebraska continued to further its status as one of the conference’s top dual-squad programs. The men’s team earned runner-up honors during both the indoor and outdoor seasons, while the women finished second indoors and third outdoors. The only other conference program to place its teams in the top five at every Big 12 championship meet was Texas.

USA Championships
Seven members of Nebraska’s 2006 men’s and women’s squads continued their seasons following the outdoor collegiate schedule at the USA Outdoor Championships in Indianapolis, Ind. Two NU athletes earned medal finishes at the national championships, while several others placed among the meet’s top 10.

Breisch, who won the women’s discus at the 2005 USA Championships, garnered the bronze medal during her 2006 repeat bid, while Wilkinson added another third-place finish in the women’s javelin.

Other Nebraska athletes competing in Indianapolis included Jonas, who tied for seventh in the men’s high jump, and Baker, the 11th-place finisher in the women’s heptathlon. Freshmen Robert Rands (fifth place) and Sam Ogden (ninth place) participated in the respective USA junior men’s long jump and pole vault contests.

Record Breakers
The 2006 season saw many of Nebraska’s school records eclipsed by members of the current NU squads.

Two Husker women made the most noise, as Lopes and former NU standout Egle Uljas each broke a pair of Nebraska event standards. Uljas erased two long-standing middle-distance marks during a three-week span during the indoor season when she clocked respective times of 1:28.42 for the 600-meter run and 2:05.30 for the 800-meter run. The 800-meter record held by Lisa Darley Graham (2:06.93) had stood since 1991, while former Husker Marcia Tate registered the former 600-meter mark of 1:33.11 back in 1984.

Lopes had no one to surpass but herself entering the season, as she already owned Nebraska record times for her specialty events in the high hurdles. She managed to shatter her former 60-meter hurdle mark of 7.96 twice during the indoor season, including her blazing mark of 7.87 that earned silver-medal honors at the NCAA Championships. The Whitby, Ontario, native also nudged past her own 100-meter hurdle record during the NCAA outdoor final.

The final Husker female to etch her name in the NU record books was Wilkinson, who bettered the former school standard in the women’s javelin with a new mark of 181-2 during the outdoor season. Wilkinson’s mark exceeded the previous record mark of 181-0 held by Cassi Morelock (2000).

Two Huskers also recorded Nebraska men’s indoor records in 2006. Abolins, while surpassing his previous personal best by nearly a foot with a leap of 26-7 1/4 in the men’s long jump at the NCAA indoor meet, also edged out former Husker Joe Laster’s distance of 26-3 ? set in 1997. Meanwhile, Milkevics easily surpassed his own 800-meter school record by one and one-half seconds with a nation-leading time of 1:46.46 in his final race as a Husker at the Big 12 indoor meet.

Academics
In addition to being a success on the track, the 2006 season also proved to be another banner year for the Nebraska track and field program in the classroom. More than half of NU’s entire 100-plus athlete roster was honored in some way for their academic achievements, lead by a quartet of academic All-Americans.

Selig, Plas, Probasco and Green each added to the strong academic tradition of Nebraska athletics by earning ESPN The Magazine Academic All-America honors from the College Sports Information Directors of America. Only the fifth female Husker track athlete to be named to the CoSIDA Academic All-America first team, Selig also earned the Nebraska Female Student-Athlete of the Year Award. Plas, who was named NU’s Male Student-Athlete of the Year, garnered second-team honors from CoSIDA, along with teammate Probasco. Green, a third-team selection, became the first-ever Husker women’s sophomore recognized as an academic All-American.

Baker, who did not advance through the district competition to CoSIDA’s national ballot, was recognized on the second-team list for NU’s district.

Several more Huskers received attention from the Big 12 Conference this year for their academic achievements. Thirty-three NU athletes, including 29 first-team selections, earned academic All-Big 12 status from the conference office for maintaining an above 3.0 grade-point average. Second-team honorees are those individuals with GPAs of 3.20 or above. Senior Tom Donlin was the lone four-time nominee from Nebraska this year, but numerous others added their third consecutive honors. The NU women’s 22 selections paced all Big 12 men’s and women’s squads.

The largest number of NU athletes receiving academic recognition in 2006 was provided through the Big 12 Commissioner’s Honor Roll, which requires individuals to earn at least a 3.0 GPA during the previous semester. Sixty-six Huskers, or more than half of the squad, placed their names on the honor roll, including a staggering 14 with perfect 4.0 GPAs.

Looking Ahead
The year 2007 already appears to hold a promising season for the Nebraska track and field program. While the two squads bid farewell to a strong senior class of 15 Husker student-athletes this summer, next year’s roster seems to be set up for another successful campaign. A very deep core of athletes featuring 10 returning All-Americans and four individual NCAA champions will return, while a talented group of nearly 40 newcomers including some of the top prospects both in the nation and worldwide will be added. The mixture should help boost NU in its quest to reclaim its position atop the Big 12 Conference, while also aiming for continued NCAA-level excellenc