Huskers Open 34th Frank Sevigne Husker Invitational

Lincoln - The No. 16 Nebraska men’s and No. 20 Nebraska women’s track and field team kicked off the 34th Annual Frank Sevigne Husker Invitational in front of 1,278 fans on Friday afternoon at the Devaney Center Indoor Track.

 

The two-day meet attracts teams from all over the country, including Division I schools Michigan, UTEP, Rice, Arizona, UCLA, Saint Louis, Colorado State, Iowa State, Drake, Appalachian State, Kansas State, Missouri and Kansas. Track and Field News has recognized the Frank Sevigne Husker Invitational as one of the top collegiate track and field meets in the United States. The meet annually attracts more than 7,300 spectators and athletes over two days.

 

The meet started at Noon with the first four events of the men’s heptathlon, including the 60-meter dash, long jump, shot put and high jump. Nebraska’s own Skyler Reising leads after the completion of day one with 3,178 points. The 60-meter hurdles, pole vault and 1,000-meter run await Reising and the rest of the field on Saturday.

 

Reising cruised through the 60-meter dash (7.23) and long jump (22-5 1/4), before unleashing a personal-best throw of 50-1 1/4 in the shot put, breaking his previous best of 48-11 3/4 by over a foot. Reising is joined in the top five by fellow senior co-captain Pat Burke, who sits fourth with 2,873 points and redshirt freshman Derrell Bradford, who is fifth with 2,728 points.

 

Later in the hurdles, Kirkland Thornton broke out in the men’s 60-meter hurdles with a personal-best and NCAA provisional-qualifying time of 7.78. Thornton, who ran a then personal-best time of 7.80 at last weekend’s adidas Classic, moves from No. 6 in Division I to a tie for the No. 4 spot with teammate Lehann Fourie. Both Huskers will run in tomorrow 60-meter hurdle final at 4:21 p.m.

 

Lisa Minnick made a big splash in the women’s weight throw with a personal-best toss of 58-4 3/4, shattering her previous best of 55-5 3/4 by almost three feet. Minnick finished runner-up to Loren Groves of Kansas State, who posted the No. 1 mark in Division I with an NCAA automatic-qualifying toss of 70-0 1/4.

 

The Big Red continued its dominance later in the long jump, with Leandra McGruder and Nicholas Gordon posting the top collegiate marks. First, McGruder finished the women’s long jump with a leap of 20-2 1/2, finishing second overall to Amy Woodman (20-8 1/2), who was competing unattached. The mark was a personal best for McGruder and NCAA provisional-qualifying mark, tying her for No. 17 in Division I. Later in the men’s long jump, Gordon won the event with jump of 24-10, provisional-qualifying the Kingston, Jamaica native for the NCAA Indoor Championships. Gordon has now provisionally qualified in the long jump and triple jump.

 

Junior Seth Burney capped the Huskers’ night with a personal-best vault of 17-6 1/2 in the men’s pole vault, finishing third. The mark was an improvement on his previous NCAA provisional-qualifying mark of 17-4 1/2, moving Burney into a tie for the No. 7 spot on the Division I list with Luke Schoen of Albany.

 

On other action, Rice’s Jason Colwick set the Frank Sevigne Husker Invitational meet record with a leap of 18-4 1/2 in the men’s pole vault.

 

Action will start up on Saturday morning at 9:30 a.m. with the women’s pentathlon 60-meter hurdles. The field events are set to start at 3:15 with the women’s shot put, while the running events will begin at 1:50 p.m. with the running of the women’s mile.