Huskers Head to Gainesville and Seward

Meet: Tom Jones Memorial (meet schedule - pg. 4 of notes)
Where: Gainesville, Fla. (Percy Beard Track Facility)
When: Saturday, April 16 (11 a.m. CT)
Live Results: www.DeltaTiming.com

Meet: Concordia Invitational (meet schedule - pg. 5 of notes)
Where: Seward, Neb. (Bulldog Stadium)
When: Saturday, April 16 (12:30 p.m.)

Lincoln - The Nebraska track and field team will be both close and far from Lincoln this Saturday when it splits up for the Tom Jones Memorial in Gainesville, Fla., and the Concordia Invitational in Seward, Neb.

The Huskers have competed in scored meets the past two weekends, with a pair of meet titles at Wichita State and two runner-up finishes at Oregon.

Nebraska's throwers, pole vaulters and multi-event athletes will be in competition at Percy Beard Track Facility on the University of Florida's campus. The women's hammer throwers will start the meet at 11 a.m. (CT) and the first track event will be the women's 4x100-meter relay at 2 p.m. The men's 4x400-meter relay will wrap up the meet at 7:25 p.m. Live results for the meet will be available at www.DeltaTiming.com.

Hosted at Bulldog Stadium, the Concordia Invitational will get started at 12:30 p.m. with the women's hammer throw, men's discus, men's and women's long jump as well as the women's pole vault. The running events are set to start at 1:30 p.m. with the preliminaries of the women's 100-meter hurdles. The meet is set to conclude at 6:45 with a combined 10,000-meter race.

Powerful Pinkelman
Luke Pinkelman opened his 2011 outdoor season in dominant form 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 now ranks second in the country, as he trails Buffalo's Robert Golabek (62-7 3/4) by half-an-inch. Pinkelman and Golabek are the only throwers in the country that have topped the 19-meter mark this season.

Pinkelman's throw ranks fifth on NU's all-time performance list.

Over the Pit
Freshman Martina Barinova lived up to her reputation in the steeplechase on Saturday, April 9 at the Pepsi Invitational with a personal-best time of 10:12.45, the third-best performance all-time at Nebraska.

Barinova, who hold the Czech Republic junior record in the steeplechase, ranks fourth in the country this season and holds the top time in the Big 12 this season.

The Huskers own the top two times in the Big 12 as sophomore Jessica Furlan ranks 11th nationally with her time of 10:22.29

Discus Dynamos
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, which currently ranks 11th on the NCAA performance list.

However, Wright's impressive mark  is only good enough to the No. 2 spot at Nebraska as he was passed on Saturday, April 9 by Tyler Hitchler, who tossed a personal best of 191-8 to win the Pepsi Invitational in Eugene, Ore. A 2010 All-American in the discus, Hitchler sits sixth on the NCAA list.

The discus at the Big 12 Outdoor Championships should be one of the most competitive events as six of the nation's top-15 throwers are from Big 12 schools, including national leader Julian Wruck of Texas Tech (203-0).

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 11th nationally in the 400 hurdles (50.92) and 22nd in the 110 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 national top 15 by teammate Adam Dailey, who sits 11th with a time of 50.97.

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).

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.

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.

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 cleared 20-10 on Friday night to win the long jump and then posted a 43-3 ¼ in the triple jump on Saturday.