McMillan, Pinkelman Named Meet's Most Valuable Performers

Lincoln - The 36th running of the Frank Sevigne Husker Invitational came to a close on Saturday afternoon at the Devaney Center Indoor Track with three meet records and one facility record falling during the two-day meet. Nebraska swept the Most Valuable Performer awards for the first time since 2005, as Chantae McMillan and Luke Pinkelman were honored.

Pinkelman kept his winning streak alive in the men's shot put with a toss of 63-8 ¾. In his four meets this season, Pinkelman has yet to lose and has passed the automatic-qualifying mark of 63-4 at every meet. Pinkelman is the first Husker to win the men's shot put at the Husker Invitational since Bubba Kramer won NU's third-straight title in 2005 following back-to-back wins by Carl Myerscough.

Mara Griva's outstanding freshman campaign continued on Saturday with a personal-best leap of 42-0 ½ in the triple jump. Griva swept the horizontal jumps with a win in the long jump on Friday, earning her the first sweep of both events at the Husker Invitational since Ineta Radevica pulled off the feat in both 2003 and 2004. With marks entering the weekend, Griva is tied for fourth nationally in the long jump and is 11th in the triple jump.

Chris Phipps then matched Griva with a sweep on the men's side. Phipps cleared a personal best of 25-8 ¼ on Friday to win the long jump and then defended his meet title in the triple jump with a leap of 51-9 ¼. Nebraska senior Nicholas Gordon was the last jumper on the men's side to sweep the horizontal jumps with a pair of wins in 2009.

Blaise Rewaka took the men's 600 yards for the third straight year with a personal-best time of 1:09.68, becoming the first athlete to win three straight titles in the event since it was introduced at the Husker Invitational in 1979. Rewaka trailed Oklahoma's Eric Bailey for most of the race, but was able to overtake the Sooner down the home stretch by 19 tenths-of-a-second.

David Adams and Martina Barinova came close to sweeping the invitational section of the mile, as Adams won the men's race in 4:06.23 and Barinova posted to the top collegiate time on the women's side at 4:53.03, but took second-place honors overall.

Nebraska totaled three wins in the sprints on Saturday, starting with Arna Erega's winning time of 8.39 in the 60 hurdles. Erega's teammate Karyn LaCour won last year's race in the same time, but was unable to repeat with a fourth-place time of 8.45. Freshman Miles Ukaoma later added a win in the 400 meters with time of 47.88. Ukaoma is the first Husker on the men's side to win the 400 at the Husker Invitational since Tamas Molar took the crown in 1992. Mara Weekes capped the day with a victory in the 200 meters. The freshman from Bridgetown, Barbados, ran a personal best of 24.21 to become the first Husker to win the event since Angee Henry ran 24.14 in 1007.

Jessica Furlan was one of three runners in the 1,000 meters to break the previous meet record of 2:49.56, set last year by Nebraska's Ashley Miller. However, Furlan finished third in the race with a time of 2:49.25 as Kansas State's Boglarka Bozzay set both the meet and facility records with a winning time of 2:45.91. Missouri's Laura Roxberg placed second at 2:47.54.

Entering the second day of the men's heptathlon in second place, Teran Walford opened with an 8.48 in the 60-meter hurdles, which nearly topped his personal best of 8.47. After Walford and the event leader, Clayton Chaney of Rice, each cleared 13-7 ¼ in the pole vault, the field moved to the final event of the heptathlon, the 1,000 meters. Walford won the 1,000 with a personal best of 2:44.10 to give him a personal-best score of 5,091 points, but it was not enough to overtake Chaney's 5,204 points.

The Huskers will now hit the road next Saturday for the Texas A&M Conference Challenge in College Station, Texas. Nebraska will team with Baylor and Texas A&M for the Big 12 squad that will take on Conference USA (Houston, Rice, UTEP), the Pac-10 (Arizona, Arizona State, USC) and the SEC (Alabama, Mississippi State, Tennessee). The one-day meet starts on Saturday at Noon with both the men's and women's long jumps as well as the women's 60-meter hurdle preliminaries.