Huskers Carry Big 12 Squad to Victory

Lincoln ? For the third straight year the Big 12 Conference showed its dominance over the Mountain West Conference with a 249-118 win at the Big 12 vs. Mountain West ? Conference Challenge. The Huskers ran well on their home track, winning 19 of the 34 events, contributing a meet high 146 points to the Big 12 squad of Nebraska, Kansas State and Missouri. The Mountain West team of Air Force, Colorado State and Wyoming was unable to stop the Big 12 from winning its third straight meeting between the two conferences. The Big 12 has won the only other two meetings between the two conferences by scores of 223-144 in 2007 and 224-145 in 2008.

 

For the second straight week, Nebraska sophomore Natalie Willer stole the show at the Devaney Center Indoor Track. After breaking the NU indoor school record in the pole vault at last weekend’s Holiday Inn Invitational by one-half inch with a vault of 13-9 3/4, the Elkhorn, Neb., native took the record two and one-quarter inches higher with a vault of 14-0. Willer then went after the Big 12 record of 14-1 1/4, held by Amy Linnen (Kansas - 2005), Breanna Eveland (Kansas State ? 2006) and Kate Sultanova (Kansas 2007). Willer looked to be the sole record holder by raising the bar to 14-3, but recorded misses on all three attempts. Willer’s school-record vault moves her to No. 2 in Division I, trailing Minnesota junior Alicia Rue, who has cleared 14-4.

 

“I started one bar higher (than last week),” Willer said. “Today I just tried to be more aggressive at the lower bars and clear on my first attempt. My goal today was 4.27 meters (14-0).”

 

Along with Willer, Epley Bullock and Chantae McMillan led a strong Husker attack in the women’s field events. Bullock improved her NCAA provisional-qualifying mark in the women’s high jump with a winning clearance of 5-10 3/4, three-quarters of an inch higher than her winning jump of 5-10 last weekend. McMillan paced the Big 12 and Nebraska to a 1-2 finish in the women’s long jump with an indoor personal-best leap of 19-3 1/4. Leandra McGruder finished second to McMillan with a jump of 18-11 3/4.

 

In the men’s field events, Nicholas Gordon (long jump), Paul Hamilton (high jump), Keith Lloyd (shot put), Seth Burney (pole vault) and Chris Phipps (triple jump) combined to add 25 points to the Big 12 total with event wins, with Burney and Phipps both producing NCAA provisional-qualifying marks. Burney clearing 17-1 3/4 in the pole vault, while Phipps cleared a lifetime best of 50-10 in the triple jump, moving to No. 5 on the Big 12 performance list.

 

The Husker hurdlers led the Big 12 to victory in the women’s and men’s 60-meter hurdles, with sophomores Arna Erega and Lehann Fourie posting NCAA provisional-qualifying times. Erega was able to beat out sophomore teammate Karyn LaCour in the women’s race, as Erega posted the No. 1 time in the Big 12 Conference at 8.40. Fourie improved his Big 12 leading time to 7.79, dropping one-tenth of a second off his winning time from last weekend, while improving his personal best by one-hundredth of a second. Following the 60-meter hurdles, the Big 12 was out to a commanding lead of 74-36.

 

In the sprints, Husker All-Americans Scott Wims and Lukas Hulett successfully defended their Conference Challenge titles in the 60 and 400 meters. In his first race of the year, Wims clocked a time 6.83 in the 60, while Hulett recorded a NCAA provisional time of 47.17 in the 400. Following the completion of the sprints, the Big 12 opened up a booming lead of 149-72.

 

Just like the field events and sprints, the Huskers were dominant in the distance events, sweeping the 1,000, 3,000 and 5,000 meters.

 

Nebraska initiated the Big 12’s path to victory with wins in the first running events of the day, the men’s and women’s 5,000-meter runs. Junior Rachel Carrizales, who was competing in her first indoor 5K, stayed in the pack for the first 22 laps of the women’s race, before making her move in the final 600 meters. The Morrill, Neb., native crossed the finish line with a 25-meter lead and personal-best time of 17:22.81. Husker sophomore Anthony Oberle followed with a win in the men’s race, creating an early 14-8 Big 12 lead.

 

After winning the 3,000 meters last weekend, Natalja Callahan posted the top time in the women’s 1,000 meters with a personal best of 2:49.52. Ethan Luebbe followed Callahan’s victory with a win of his own in the men’s race, running 2:27.94.

 

Senior Joslyn Dalton and junior Kyle Custer finished off the Huskers’ distance attack with wins in the 3,000 meters. Dalton sprinted to victory in the women’s race with a time of 10:05.86, while Custer cut over 21 seconds off his personal-best time to win with a time of 8:21.01.

 

The Huskers finished off the Conference Challenge with a victory in the men’s 4x400-meter relay, bettering Missouri’s time of 3:13.37 with a 3:12.58.

 

The meet used a special dual-meet scoring system where only the top two athletes from each conference were able to score in the individual events, with the scoring as follows: 1st - 5 points, 2nd - 3 points, 3rd - 2 points, 4th - 1 point. In the relays, only two teams earned points. The top team from one conference earned 5 points and the top team from the other conference earned 3 points. Each school was able to enter a maximum of two athletes in each event, creating a six-athlete team for each conference.

 

The Huskers will now prepare for next weekend’s adidas Classic at the Devaney Center Indoor Track. The Huskers will host Kansas, Wichita State, Alabama (women), Illinois (men) and Florida State in a team-scored meet. The one-day meet is scheduled to start at 11 a.m. Tickets can be purchased online at Huskers.com, by calling 1-800-8BIGRED, in person at the Nebraska Athletic Ticket Office or at the door. A reserved ticket is $7, while an adult general admission ticket is $5 and a youth general admission ticket is $3. Live results will be provided at Huskers.com.