Huskers Head to Austin for NCAA West Regional

Meet: NCAA West Preliminary Round (meet schedule - pg. 7 of notes)

Where: Austin, Texas (Mike A. Myers Stadium)

When: Thursday, May 27-Saturday, May 29 (Noon/Noon/Noon)

Results: www.texassports.com

Live Video: http://all-access.cbssports.com/player.html?code=ncaa&media
Men’s Heat Sheets: http://web1.ncaa.org/track/eventFiles/d1mht4.txt

Women’s Heat Sheets: http://web1.ncaa.org/track/eventFiles/d1wht4.txt

 

The Road to Eugene

The No. 19 men’s and unranked women’s Nebraska track and field teams will be competing for spots at the NCAA Outdoor Championships in Eugene, Ore., on Thursday, May 27 - Saturday, May 29 in Austin, Texas, at the NCAA West Regional Preliminary Round. This week’s meet will be one of two regional meets, with the East Regional taking place in Greensboro, N.C.

 

The top 48 competitors in each individual event and the top 24 relay squads will work to finish in the top 12 of the West Regional and move onto Eugene.

 

Live results will be available through TexasSports.com at http://www.texassports.com/livestats/m-track/index.htm, and also on Huskers.com. A live video stream will also be available at http://all-access.cbssports.com/player.html.

 

Filling the Field

The Nebraska track and field team will be well represented in Austin, as the men’s team will have a nation-high 32 entries in the meet, while the NU women ranks second in the nation with 29 entries.

 

The Huskers’ large number of entries adds to the Big 12 Conference’s dominance as well, as the conference leads the way in entries on the men’s and women’s sides. At the regional meet, the Big 12 produced 204 entries on the men’s side, 20 entries more than the SEC (186). On the women’s side, the Big 12 again topped the SEC in entries, 191-175.

 

In the Top 12

The Huskers will enter the regional meet with at least one athlete ranked in the top 12 in 10 events, with three male athletes ranked in the top 12 in two events.

 

Dax Danns ranks 10th in the 100 meters and 11th in the 200 meters, while both Nicholas Gordon and Chris Phipps are ranked in the top 12 in the both the long and triple jumps. Gordon ranks sixth in the long and 10th in the triple, while Phipps is ranked 10th in the long and ninth in the triple.

 

Lehann Fourie and Epley Bullock each enter the meet ranked No. 2 in the nation in their event. Fourie broke the school record in the 110-meter hurdles with a time of 13.44 at the Big 12 Outdoor Championships, while Bullock set the outdoor school record in the women’s high jump with a leap of 6-2 3/4 at the Texas Tech/Nebraska Dual in Lubbock.

 

Record Setter

Lehann Fourie continues to break records during his senior season at Nebraska. After setting the 60-meter hurdle record during the indoor season at 7.67, Lehann Fourie has set the NU and Ed Weir Stadium 110-meter hurdle records during the outdoor season.

 

After setting the stadium record with a time of 13.58 at the last home meet of the season on May 8, the Nebraska Open, Fourie took down the school record the following weekend during the finals at the Big 12 Outdoor Championships with a time of 13.44. The time would have been good enough to win at the past six conference championships, but was not enough in 2010, as OU’s Ronnie Ash broke the meet record with a nation-leading time of 13.31.

 

Bullock at Another Level

Five-time All-America high jumper 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. On Saturday, May 1 at the Texas Tech/Nebraska Dual, Bullock took over the 18-year old record with a winning jump of 6-2 3/4.

 

The jump currently ranks her No. 2 in the NCAA, as she trails Hawaii’s Amber Kaufman (6-3 1/4).

 

Wolkins in the Mix

After winning two NJCAA national titles in the javelin while at Cowley Community College, Adams Wolkins will look to earn his first trip to the NCAA Outdoor Championships. Wolkins enters the regional meet ranked seventh in both the West Region and nationally. Overall, the top eight throwers in the country reside in the West Region.

 

The NU junior recently placed second at his first Big 12 Outdoor Championships with a personal-best toss of 240-6, topping his previous best of 233-9, which he set the previous week at the Nebraska Open.

 

If Wolkins can earn a bid to the national meet, he will have the opportunity to become the first Husker on the men’s side to earn All-America honors in the javelin since school-record holder Artur Wszelaki finished fourth in 2002.

 

101 and Counting

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 22 team titles during the Big 12’s 14-year history, including the program’s historic 100th conference team title in 2009 at the Big 12 Outdoor Championships, where the men’s team won in dominant fashion with four individual conference champions.

 

The Huskers followed 2009’s performance with a second straight win in 2010, as the team became the first men’s program in conference history to win back-to-back titles at the outdoor championships. NU also added to their lead in outdoor team titles, as they now have six on the men’s side. Texas is the only other men’s team to win more than one title outdoors, as the Longhorns have four.

 

Home for Heptathletes

The Nebraska women’s heptathletes captured their sixth straight Big 12 heptathlon title at the 2010 Big 12 Outdoor Championships.

 

After winning the pentathlon title during the indoor season, Chantae McMillan completed the sweep of the conference combined events titles with her first career Big 12 outdoor crown.

 

The Huskers have now swept the combined events titles the past two seasons, as Megan Wheatley achieved the feat in 2009.

 

Ashley Selig started the Huskers’ heptathlon run in 2005 and won a second title in 2007, while Sara Jane Baker took top honors in 2006 and Megan Wheatley won 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 4x400m (1999-2005), 400 hurdles (1999-2006) and 4x100m (1997-2006).

 

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.

 

Pepin has been named Big 12 Men’s Outdoor Coach of the Year in 2009 and 2010, was named 2009 USTFCCCA Midwest Regional Men’s Outdoor Head Coach of the Year and was also named 2010 USTFCCCA Midwest Regional Women’s Indoor Head Coach of the Year.

 

17 Decades and Counting

The wealth of coaching knowledge at Nebraska is nearly unmatched as the Husker coaching staff holds a combined 170 years of coaching experience, including 115 seasons of coaching at NU alone.

 

Stability has been key to the success of the track team as four of Head Coach Gary Pepin’s assistants have been with the program for 10 or more years and two for 20 years or longer, including Jay Dirksen (27th season), Mark Colligan (24th season), Billy Maxwell (15th season) and Matt Martin (14th season).