Willer Caps Huskers? Top-20 Finish

College Station, Texas - The Nebraska track and field team finished the 2011 NCAA Indoor Championships on Saturday night with a total of five All-America awards during the two-day meet. In the team standing the women finished 17th with 13 points and the men tied Auburn for 20th with 11 points each. The women's top-20 finish was their first since 2006 when they tied for 13th and it marked the men's eight top-20 finish in the past ten seasons.

After earning the first All-America honor of her career last season with a sixth-place finish in the outdoor vault, senior Natalie Willer added an indoor pole vault honor Saturday with a third-place finish. Willer was one of the hottest vaulters at the meet as she cleared six straight bars on her first attempt, including 13-1 ½, 13-5 ¼, 13-9 ¼, 13-11 ¼, 14-1 ¼ and 14-3 ¼. With just four competitors left in the field the bar went up to 14-5 ¼, but only eventual champion Tina Sutej of Arkansas and Stanford's Katerina Stefanidi would move on. Willer would take third place over Melissa Gergel of Oregon as Gergel took three attempts to clear 14-3 ¼.

Bjorn Barrefors came up one point shy of placing in the heptathlon with 5,779 points. The Husker junior entered the second day of the heptathlon in sixth place, but fell down the charts following a time of 8.22 in the 60 meters and a leap of 15-9 in the pole vault. Barrefors finished the meet strong with a personal-best time of 2:50.50 in the 1,000 meters, but it was not enough to earn him a top-eight showing as Washington's Jeremy Taiwo took eighth with 5,780 points.

Senior Paul Hamilton came up two spots shy of earning All-America honors for a second straight year with a 10th-place finish in the men's high jump. The Sidney, Neb., native cleared the first two bars of the completion, 6-10 ¾ and 7-0 ½, on his first attempts, but was then able to get over the 7-2 ½ bar.

The Husker triple jumpers added a pair of top-20 finishes as Chris Phipps placed 13th on the men's side (50-11) and freshman Mara Griva finished 16th (41-1 ½) in the women's event. Both jumpers also competed in the long jump on Friday, with Griva placing 11th and Phipps earning All-America honors with a sixth-place showing.

2011 All-Americans
Chantae McMillan - Pentathlon (t-2nd)
Natalie Willer - Pole Vault (3rd)
Nate Polacek - Pole Vault (4th)
Luke Pinkelman - Shot Put (6th)
Chris Phipps - Long Jump (6th)

2011 Second-Team All-Americans
David Adams - 5,000 Meters (13th)
Bjorn Barrefors - Heptathlon (9th)
Nicholas Gordon - Long Jump (11th)
Paul Hamilton - High Jump (10th)
Chris Phipps - Triple Jump (13th)
Mara Griva - Long Jump (11th) & Triple Jump (13th)
Chantae McMillan - Long Jump (14th)