Huskers Face Pac-10 Powers in Oregon

Meet: Pepsi Invitational (meet schedule - pg. 4 of notes)
Where: Eugene, Ore. (Hayward Field)
When: Saturday, April 9 (1:25 p.m. CT)
Live Results: Huskers.com (via GoDucks.com)
TV: Comcast SportsNet
Web Stream: Huskers.com (subscription required)

Lincoln - The Nebraska track and field team will have its hands full this weekend at the 22nd Pepsi Invitational in Eugene, Ore., at Hayward Field. The team-scored meet will pit Nebraska against three Pac-10 schools, including Oregon, Stanford and Washington.

The men's field will be filled with talent as three of the teams are ranked in the top 10 of the latest USTFCCCA rankings, including No. 8 Stanford, No. 9 Nebraska and No. 10 Oregon. On the women's side, Oregon enters the meet ranked third and Stanford is 16th in the country.

International scoring will be used on Saturday, which  means a maximum of two competitors will be able to score in each event and one relay team can score. Individual event scoring is 9-7-6-5-4-3-2-1. Relays will be 9-7-6-5.

The meet will start at 1:30 p.m. (CT) with the women's javelin and hammer, while the first track event will be the women's 5,000 meters at 1:45 p.m. The 4x400-meter relay is scheduled to end the meet at 4:50 p.m.

The Oregon Sports Network will televise the meet live from 2:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. (CT) on Comcast Sports Net (Comcast 37/737HD). The announcers are Rich Cellini, Tom Jordan, Brad Barquist and Jill Savage.

The meet will also be available live on GoDucks.com, which will be shared with Huskers.com. A HuskersNside subscription will be required to watch the webcast. Live results will also be available on Huskers.com, via GoDucks.com.

It's Been Awhile
This Saturday the Huskers are making their first appearance at the Pepsi Invitational since 1999. In five previous trips to the meet, NU has a total of four team titles. The women's squad won first in 1995 and then again in 1999, while the men's team won in 1996 and added to a sweep of the team titles with a second win in 1999.

Powerful Pinkelman
Luke Pinkelman opened his 2011 outdoor season on dominant fashion with the nation's top shot put throw of 62-7 1/4 at the WSU Classic on Saturday, April 2. The Cozad, Neb., native is the only shot putter in the country to have topped 19 meters this season and the throw ranks fifth on NU's all-time performance list.

The Wright Stuff
Freshman Chad Wright made his presence known in his first collegiate meet, the Stanford Invitational, with a winning throw of 184-4 in the invitational division of the men's discus.

Wright bettered the mark the following week at the WSU Classic with a winning toss of 187-7, moving him into the NCAA top 10.

Wright currently ranks seventh in the NCAA and his mark is tops among freshman this season. On the Big 12 list, Wright sits in the No. 3 spot behind nation leader Julian Wruck of Texas Tech (203-0) and Kansas' Mason Finley (198-0), who is second on the NCAA list.

Hurdling The Competition
With the departure of two-time All-America hurdle Lehann Fourie, senior Eric Lund has taken over as the leader of the Nebraska hurdlers.

A Milford, Neb., native, Lund currently ranks seventh nationally in the 400 hurdles (50.98) and 16th in the 100 hurdles (13.96w).  Both of his marks in the hurdles are personal bests as he entered the season with a wind-aided PR of 14.14 in the 110's and a PR of 51.04 in the 400's.

Lund is joined in the top 10 on the 400 hurdle list by teammate Adam Dailey, who sits 10th with a time of 51.59.

Welcome Back Wheatley
After not being able to compete as a Husker during the indoor season because she was out of eligibility, senior Megan Wheatley was able to put the Husker uniform back on at the WSU Classic on Saturday, April 2.

A three time Big 12 champion, Wheatley trained hard throughout the indoor season and is primed to cap her Husker career on a high note.

Wheatley  won back-to-back Big 12 heptathlon titles in 2008 and 2009 before teammate Chantae McMillan took the crown last season.

Already an All-American in the indoor pentathlon, Wheatley is after her first outdoor All-America honor. She has competed at the previous three NCAA Outdoor Championships in the heptathlon, but has only been able to produce a 10th and two ninth-place finishes.

Home for Heptathletes
The Nebraska women's heptathletes will be in search of their seventh 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, Megan Wheatley was the latest to win with back-to-back titles in 2008 and 2009 before Chantae McMillan took the crown in 2010. 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 seven in the 4x400m (1999-2005), eight in the 400 hurdles (1999-2006) and 10 in 4x100m (1997-2006).

Fantastic Freshman
Mara Griva was voted Big 12 Women's Outstanding Indoor Freshman of the Year after becoming the first jumper to sweep the long and triple jump titles at the conference meet since fellow Latvian and Husker Ineta Radevica achieved the feat in 2004.

A native of Ventspils, Latvia, Griva entered the meet ranked third in the conference in both events, but a pair of personal-best jumps were too much for the competition. She first cleared 20-10 on Friday night to win the long jump and then posted a 43-3 ¼ mark in the triple jump on Saturday.

Make it 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 program, 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 the men's squad 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.

Awards Keep Coming
Nebraska Head Coach Gary Pepin was named Midwest Region Women's Indoor Head Coach of the Year for the second straight year by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) on Monday, March 7.