Gordon, Barrefors Capture All-America Honors

Fayetteville, Ark. ? After battling through rain and a three-hour lightning delay on Wednesday, the No. 9 men’s and No. 19 women’s Nebraska track and field teams arrived at John McDonnell Field to sunny skies for the second day of the 2009 NCAA Outdoor Championships. The Huskers thrived in the 80-degree heat as sophomore Nicholas Gordon and true freshman Bj?rn Barrefors each added the second NCAA All-American honor of their careers with personal-best performances, increasing Nebraska’s overall All-American total to 564.

 

Following the first All-America honor of his career during the 2009 indoor season with his long jump national title, Gordon joined an elite group of Nebraska jumpers on Thursday with a third-place finish. Behind his personal-best leap of 26-2 3/4, Gordon joined Robert Thomas (1995 & 1996), Chris Wright (1998) and Arturs Abolins (2006) as the only male jumpers in NU history to earn All-America honors in the long jump both indoors and outdoors in the same year.

 

The Kingston, Jamaica, native had his work cut out for him as he entered the finals ranked seventh with a leap of 25-9 1/4 during the prelims. With just three jumps remaining, Gordon cleared 25-6 3/4 on his first attempt in the finals. He then unloaded the fourth-best jump in NU history outdoors at 26-2 3/4 on his second attempt and was unable to improve on his final jump.

 

The men’s decathlon turned into a marathon on day two, starting at 1:45 p.m. and lasting over nine hours, as the 1,500 meters was the last event of the night at 11 p.m. Barrefors, who started the day in sixth place, opened with the 110-meter hurdles, running 14.71 to score 885 points and move into fifth-place overall with 4,960 points. Following a toss of 126-5 in the discus, Barrefors cleared a personal best of 16-0 3/4 in the pole vault to score 880 points, moving him to fourth overall with a total of 6,475 points.

 

With two events remaining, the Stockholm, Sweden, native was only able to reach 160-5 in the javelin, dropping him to seventh place with 7,047 points entering the final event, the 1,500 meters. After battling for over nine hours, the true freshman found some fuel in the tank to run a season-best time of 4:46.21, propelling him to sixth-place with a personal-best score of 7,689. His finish is tops in school history at the NCAA Championships, bettering school-record holder Rick Schwieger’s eight-place finish in 1990. The freshman is now No. 2 behind Schwieger in the NU record book, just shy of Schweigers’ record of 7,707.

 

Barrefors was joined in the decathlon by senior teammate Skyler Reising. Reising put together a solid second day to finish in 22nd with 6,576 points, as he set or tied three personal bests on day two. Even with the outstanding second day, that included the top mark in the discus at 152-0, the Lincoln, Neb., native was unable to make up for his three fouls in the long jump on day one, which scored him zero points. Reising ends his Husker career as a four-time All-Big 12 performer, three-time NCAA Championship qualifier and a top-ten all-time scorer in both the heptathlon and decathlon in the Nebraska record book.

 

In the women’s multi, sophomore Megan Wheatley was the first Husker to hit the track on Thursday, starting the two-day women’s heptathlon at 11:15 a.m. Wheatley got off to a slow start, finishing 19th in the 100-meter hurdles with a time of 14.18. The two-time defending Big 12 champion in the heptathlon responded with a season-best tying jump of 5-6 1/2 in the high jump, sliding her up five spots in the overall standings to 14th. Next, she moved to 11th overall after a sixth-place finish in the shot put, tossing 41-8. The Perth, Australia, native ended the day with a time of 25.21 in the 200-meter dash, leaving her with 3,370 total points and in 12th-place overall with one day compete.

 

Kirkland Thornton continued his quest to become the first Husker in school history to earn All-America honors in both the 110- and 400-meter hurdles at the same meet. First at 5:50 p.m., Thornton ran the fourth-fastest time in the 110 prelims with a time of 13.73, then just over one hour later at 7 p.m., he advanced to the 400-hurlde finals with the eighth-fastest time in the semifinals at 50.19. Thornton will now have to double-up again tomorrow, running the 110-hurdle semifinals at 7:05 p.m., followed by the 400-hurdle finals one hour later at 8:05 p.m.

 

Also in the hurdles, junior Tyrell Ross was just four-thousandths of a second off from reaching the 110 semifinals, running a time of 14.159 to finish 19th, while Charlton Rolle of Tennessee ran 14.155 to secure the 18th and final qualifying spot. In the 400-meter hurdles, sophomore Adam Dailey was unable to move past the semifinals for the second straight year. A native of Wahoo, Neb., Dailey finished 14th with a time of 51.01, one spot higher than his 2008 showing.

 

Lara Crofford earned the highest NCAA Championships finish of her career with a 13th-place showing in the women’s 10,000-meter run. The Husker sophomore made a strong move over the last 800 meters to cut down multiple runners. A native of Newville, Pa., Crofford crossed the finish line in 34:48.31.

 

Redshirt freshman Tyler Hitchler wrapped up his first season in the scarlet and cream on Thursday afternoon with a 24th-place finish in the men’s discus. With his first NCAA Championships experience now behind him, Hitchler work to improve even more under Throws Coach Mark Colligan. From 2008 to 2009, Hitchler improved his best in the discus by over 25 feet, topping out with a second-place toss of 187-10 at the Big 12 Outdoor Championships.

 

Now at the halfway point, the Huskers will return to John McDonnell Field tomorrow for the third day of the NCAA Outdoor Championships. Wheatley will once again be the first Husker on the track, continuing the heptathlon at 1:45 p.m. with the long jump. For more information regarding the championships, check the track and field page at Huskers.com.