Huskers Chase NCAA Marks

Meet: ISU NCAA Qualifier (meet schedule - pg. 5 of notes)
Where: Ames, Iowa (Lied Center)
When: Saturday, March 5 (10 a.m.)
Live Results: Cyclones.com

Lincoln - After winning the Big 12 indoor women's title and finishing third in the men's race, the Nebraska track and field team now has its sights set on the NCAA Indoor Championships.

With five athletes already automatically qualified for the meet,  NU will travel to Ames, Iowa, on Saturday for the ISU NCAA Qualifier. The Huskers will be looking to improve their marks on the NCAA list to better their chances of earning a spot at the national meet, which will be held in College Station, Texas, on March 11-12.

The one-day meet at the Lied Center is schedule to start on Saturday morning at 10 a.m. with the women's weight throw. The first running events will be the women's 60-meter hurdle prelims at 11:30 a.m. Live results will be available on Cyclones.com.

Of the 24 Huskers that hold a top-50 mark on the NCAA list, five Huskers are ranked between 15th and 25th in their event. A top-15 spot nearly guarantees an invite to the national meet. The field for the national meet is expected to be released at 6 p.m. (CT) on Monday, March 7.

Make in 103
The Nebraska women's track and field team capped its final Big 12 Indoor Championships in style with a commanding 115.5-101 win over four-time defending champion Texas A&M. The Huskers produced four individual titles during the two-day meet, including a pair of wins in the long and triple jumps from freshman Mara Griva. The NU women now hold a conference-best six indoor crowns and it was their first team win since 2005 when they won a second straight title.

As an overall programs, the Huskers won 51 Big Eight titles during the conference's history from 1974-1996 and Nebraska has continued to dominate the conference since moving to the Big 12 in 1997. NU has now won a league-high 23 team titles, including the program's historic 100th conference team title in 2007.

The Huskers added their 101st and 102nd titles during the 2009 and 2010 outdoor seasons when they became the first men's team in Big 12 history to win back-to-back team titles at the outdoor conference meet.

Indoors, the NU men have won a conference-best nine conference titles, including six straight from 2000 to 2005, while Texas has won four and Oklahoma has one championship.

Prestigious Pepin
Nebraska's Big 12 women's title last weekend added to the historic 31-year resume of Head Coach Gary Pepin, who now holds 67 conference titles dating back to his first Big Eight win at the 1981 indoor meet. As a member of the Big 12 Conference, Pepin's program has captured a league-best 23 track and field titles, which also makes him the second-winningest coach in Big 12 history across all sports. Pepin trails Colorado's Mark Wetmore, who has 24 conference titles as the head coach of the Buffs' men's and women's cross country and track and field programs.

Latvian Leaper
After upsetting defending long jump champion Chantel Malone on day one of the Big 12 Indoor Championships, freshman Mara Griva made her first conference meet even more memorable on day two with a win in the women's triple jump.

The NU newcomer then made her presence known right away in the finals with a jump of 43-3 ¾ on her first attempt. The mark would hold up over the next two rounds of jumping, earning Griva the Huskers' first sweep of the horizontal jumps since fellow Latvian Ineta Radevica won both titles in 2004.

Griva's win also marks the second straight win in the triple jump for the Huskers after Leandra McGruder took the title in 2010 with jump of 43-0 ¼.

NCAA Tickets Punched
Five Huskers have secured a spot a the NCAA Indoor Championships in College Station, Texas, including Natalie Willer, Luke Pinkelman, Nicholas Gordon, Chantae McMillan and Bjorn Barrefors

Willer was the first Husker to put her name in the field with an automatic-qualifying mark of 14-1 1/4 in the pole vault at the Holiday Inn Invitational. Willer has since improved her standing when she broke her own NU record and the Big 12 meet record with a vault of 14-4, which ranks fourth nationally.

Pinkelman also secured his second career trip to the national meet at the Holiday Inn Invitational with a personal-best toss of 63-6 1/4 in the shot put. Pinkelman is ranked second on the NCAA list with Big 12 winning throw of 65-10 1/4.

Gordon added his name to the list with a leap of 26-0 in the long jump at the Razorback Invitational. He then cleared 26-0 3/4 at the Big 12 Championships to move to 9th on the NCAA list.

McMillan locked up a spot with her school-record pentathlon score of 4,378 points at the Frank Sevigne Husker Invitational. The score is second in the country and is the fifth-best score all-time by a collegiate.

Bjorn Barrefors broke his own NU record heptathlon record and won the Big 12 title with a score of 5,816. It was Barrefors first heptathlon of 2011 and ranks him No. 2 in the country.

Undefeated
The men's shot put at the Big 12 championships was a loaded field as it contained Kansas' Mason Finely, who held a nation-leading mark of 67-11 ½ entering the meet and won the 2010 Big 12 title, and Nebraska's Pinkelman, who had not lost in 2011 and ranked third in the country with a throw of 64-0 ¼.

Pinkelman would not let his streak end on his home turf, as he tossed a personal best of 65-10 ¼ on his third throw of the competition. Finley was never able to match Pinkelman, as the Jayhawk sophomore was only able to come up with a mark of 65-5.

Combined Sweep
Chantae McMillan started the Huskers' sweep of the combined events titles at the Big 12 Championships with her second straight win in the pentathlon. It was McMillan third career Big 12 title and she became the fifth pentathlete in conference history to win back-to-back crowns. The win also solidified Nebraska as the only program in Big 12 history to win three straight women's pentathlon titles after Megan Wheatley won the title in 2008.

On the men's side in the heptathlon, Bjorn Barrefors entered day two in second place, as he trailed Kansas State's Mantas Silkauskas by 22 points, 3,301-3,279. The Stockholm, Sweden, native was able to do enough over the final three events to climb into first place and not only win his first Big 12 title, but he also broke his own NU record of 5,795 points. It was Nebraska's first win in the heptathlon since Chris Richardson took the title in 2004 with 5,565 points.

Take It Back
Natalie Willer was the last Husker to win a Big 12 title, as she won the crown in record-setting style. The senior co-captain not only won her second career indoor title, but she broke her own NU record and took back the conference meet record with a winning vault of 14-4. Texas Tech's Shade Weygandt set the record last year with a vault of 14-2 ¼. Willer had previously set the record in 2009 with her vault of 13-10.

Big-Time Jumpers
The Husker women have been arguably the top program in the Big 12 when it comes to the high, long and triple jumps. The Huskers have one at least one title in one of the events at ten of the previous 15 indoor championships and have won the triple jump crown seven times, including five straight wins from 2000 to 2004.

The women pulled off the clean sweep in 2004 when Na'Tassia Vice won the high jump, while Ineta Radevica won the long and triple jumps.