Huskers Travel to Kansas and California

Meet: KU Relays (meet schedule - pg. 4-5 of notes)

Where: Lawrence, Kan. (Memorial Stadium)

When: Wednesday, April 14 - Saturday, April 17

 

Meet: Mt. SAC Relays (meet schedule - pg. 6-7 of notes)

Where: Walnut, Calif. (Hilmer Lodge Stadium)

When: Thursday, April 15 - Saturday, April 17

 

Huskers Head Back on the Road for Two Meets

The No. 13 men’s and No. 16 women’s Nebraska track and field teams will travel to Lawrence, Kan., for the KU Relays and to Walnut, Calif., for the Mt. SAC Relays this week. The KU Relays are set to run from Wednesday-Saturday, while the Mt. SAC Relays will be competed Thursday-Saturday.

 

Live results from both meets will be available at Huskers.com, as well as a full recap at the completion of each day’s events.

 

Fast Fourie

After being honored as an All-America 60-meter hurdler at the NCAA Indoor Championships with a seventh-place finish, NU’s Lehann Fourie has hit the ground running in the outdoor 110-meter hurdles. One week after the indoor championships, Fourie clocked a time of 13.80 to take first place at the Baldy Castillo Invitational in Tempe, Ariz. Fourie then improved the time at the Spec Towns National Team Invitational in Athens, Ga., with a winning time of 13.67. The Husker senior is tied for sixth in the NCAA with LSU’s Barrett Nugent and rank second in the Big 12 behind Oklahoma’s Ronnie Ash, who leads the NCAA at 13.50.

 

Bullock Bounces to New Heights

Senior Epley Bullock started the 2010 outdoor season on fire with a school-record tying leap of 6-2 1/4 in the high jump at the Jim Click Shootout in Tucson, Ariz., on Saturday, April 3. The mark tied the Allen, Texas, native with Cris Hall for the NU record, with Hall posting the jump in 1992. Bullock cleared the bar on her first attempt and then tried for 6-3 1/2.

 

Suckstorf Continues to Climb

The distance just keeps going growing for hammer thrower Brett Suckstorf, as the senior has broke his personal best at his first two meets of the 2010 outdoor season. Starting the season with a PR of 193-2, Suckstorf first broke his PR at the Stanford Invitational with a toss of 197-4. The Pierce, Neb., native then became the fifth hammer throw in NU history to pass 200 feet with a throw of 201-9 at the Jim Click Shootout.

 

Wheatley’s Winning Ways

Nebraska’s Megan Wheatley will look to not only make NU history this year, but also Big 12 Conference history if she can win her third straight conference title in the women’s heptathlon. The two-time defending champion in the event, Wheatley is just the third combined event athlete in Big 12 history to win the heptathlon twice and only the second heptathlete to win titles in consecutive years. Kansas’ Candy Mason won back-to-back titles in 1998-99 and NU’s Ashley Selig won her two titles in 2005 and 2007.

 

While Wheatley and Selig are the only NU women to win two conference titles in the heptathlon, Nancy Kindig won the pentathlon in 1980 and then was the first women’s athlete to win the heptathlon at the 1981 Big Eight Outdoor Championships when the conference switched from the pentathlon to the heptathlon at the outdoor conference meet.

 

Home for Heptathletes

The Nebraska women’s heptathletes will be in search of their sixth straight Big 12 heptathlon title this season. Ashley Selig started the run in 2005 and won a second title in 2007, while Sara Jane Baker took top honors in 2006 and Megan Wheatley has been the latest to win with back-to-back titles in 2008 and 2009. The Huskers’ current run in the heptathlon is unmatched by any other women’s team in the conference, as only Kansas (1998-99) and Missouri (2003-04) have earned consecutive titles, with each winning back-to-back crowns.

 

Overall on the women’s side, only Texas has won more consecutive championships in a single event, including the 100 meters (2002-06), 4x400m (1999-2005), 400 hurdles (1999-2006) and 4x100m (1997-2006).

 

Adams Opens with Top-Five 5K Time

Following a breakout indoor season, David Adams has continued his success into the outdoor season with a season-opening time of 14:06.38 in the 5,000 meters at the Stanford Invitational. Adams, who opened the 2010 indoor season with a school-record time of 14:12.47 in the 5K at the Holiday Inn Invitational, now ranks fourth on NU’s all-time outdoor list in the 5K. Joe Kirby set the outdoor school record in 1990 with a time of 13:51.35.

 

Jumping Up Javelin Chart

Adam Wolkins produced a strong NU debut at the Stanford Invitational with a toss of 223-4 in the javelin. Wolkins, who transferred to Nebraska from Cowley College prior to the 2008-09 school year, was competing in his first meet as a Huskers after redshirting last season. His toss ranks ninth on NU’s all-time performance list and 21st on the 2010 Division I list.

 

Pepin back for 30th Season

The all-time winningest track and field coach in the history of the Big 12 and the former Big Eight Conference, Nebraska Head Coach Gary Pepin is coaching his historic 30th season at NU. The longest tenured active coach in Cornhusker athletics, Pepin  is in his 27th season as head coach of both the Husker men’s and women’s teams.

 

Last season, Pepin passed Frank Sevigne as the longest-tenured head coach in the history of the Nebraska program, and Pepin is still at the top of his game for coaching athletes to the highest levels of competition. He was named 2009 Big 12 Men’s Outdoor Coach of the Year, 2009 USTFCCCA Midwest Regional Men’s Outdoor Head Coach of the Year and was recently named 2010 USTFCCCA Midwest Regional Women’s Indoor Head Coach of the Year.

 

Atop the Conference

After winning 51 Big Eight titles during the conference’s history from 1974-1996, the Huskers have continued to dominate since moving to the Big 12 Conference for the 1997 season. NU has won a league-high 21 team titles during the Big 12’s 14-year history, including the program’s historic 100th conference team title last season at the Big 12 Outdoor Championships, where the men’s team won in dominant fashion with four individual conference champions.