Huskers Total 17 Victories at Holiday Inn Invitational

Lincoln - The Husker track team continued its dominance at the Holiday Inn Invitational on Saturday, as the Huskers won seven more events to bring its two-day total to 17. The Huskers easily won more events then any other school at the two-day invitational at the Devaney Center Track. 

True freshman Paul Hamilton (Sidney, Neb.) was the star on Saturday, setting a personal best and NCAA indoor provisional mark in the high jump with a leap of 2.19m (7-2 1/4) in his first collegiate meet. Hamilton barely beat out fellow Husker Brandon Sheppard for the title, as Sheppard, a redshirt freshman, earned runner-up honors with a jump of 2.09m (6-10 1/4). Both Hamilton and Sheppard were pleased with their performances in the Huskers' first competition of the year.

"I felt great to hit a new PR and make the NCAA provisional mark, and I couldn't be happier with my first performance as a Husker", stated Hamilton.

"It was awesome to finally wear a Husker jersey and compete, we'll be pushing each other the rest of the year so that we're both at nationals," said Sheppard.

As for the rest of the Huskers, both the men's and women's squads won three events on Saturday with the men winning the 60m, 200m and 4x400 relay, while the NU women took home the 60m hurdles, long jump and triple jump titles.

Dax Danns and Scott Wims ran a heated race in the 60m dash as they finished within five-hundredths of a second of each other, as Danns barley beat out his teammate with a time of 6.90. 2007 All-American Dan Christensen continued to dominate the 200m, taking home the victory with a time of 21.96. The meet was capped off with a Husker victory in the 4x400 meter relay, as Tyrell Ross, Lukas Hulett, Andrew Pearson and Christensen combined for a time of 3:13.87.

On the women's side Leandra McGruder carried over her success from Friday's events into Saturday as she won the triple jump title for the Huskers with a jump of 12.48m (40-11 1/2). Sophomore Epley Bullock, an All-American in the high jump last season as a freshman, nearly escaped Husker teammate Audrey Svane in the high jump, as Bullock and Svane each jumped 1.68m (5-6) with Bullock winning the event with fewer misses. The Huskers swept the 60m hurdles, as Karyn LaCour paced the field with a time of 8.56. Arna Erega finished second at 8.67 and Nikita Eades rounded out the Husker pack with a time of 8.69.

Overall Head Coach Gary Pepin was happy with the strong performances in the Huskers' first team competition and definitely saw improvement in many athletes from last year .

"We had some young athletes who came out and really had a strong meet. It was easy to see that many of our athletes have made great improvements from where they were last year at this time," said Pepin.

The Huskers will hit practice hard this week, as they prepare for the Conference Challenge that will be hosted by Nebraska next Saturday Jan. 26th at the Bob Devaney Sports Center Indoor Track. The meet is scheduled to start up at 11 a.m. as Nebraska, Kansas State and Missouri from the Big 12 will match-up against Air Force, Bringham Young and Colorado State from the Mountain West in a special team-scoring meet.

Following the Conference Challenge, Nebraska Weslyan will host the NWU Invite at the Devaney Center starting at 3:30 p.m. Doubling of athletes is allowed, but no athlete will be allowed to compete in the same event in both competitions.