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Des Moines, Iowa - The Nebraska track and field team returned to Drake Stadium on Friday and came away with three victories. Natalie Willer shined on the day for the Huskers with a win in the women's pole vault for the third straight season.
Willer successfully defended her Drake Relays title in the women's pole vault for the second straight year with a winning vault of 14-1 ¼. She was the only vaulter in the field to clear higher than 13-5 ¼ and ended the meet by trying to break her own NU outdoor record with attempts at 14-5 ¼. Willer won her first title in 2009 when she set both the meet and American Junior records with a vault of 14-3 ½. Last season the event was moved indoor due to weather and Willer cleared 13-5 ¼.
Chris Phipps captured the men's long jump title with a monster leap of 26-2 ¾, but the mark will not count for NCAA qualifying because the wind reading was over 4.0 m/s at 5.5 m/s. However, Phipps also recorded a jump of 25-9 ¼ during the meet that will count towards NCAA qualifying with a wind reading of 2.3 m/s. The jump improved Phipps' previous season best of 25-0 ¾. Bobby Carter joined Phipps in the top three with a personal-best wind-aided leap of 25-2 ½ (3.5 m/s).
The Huskers earned their victory of the day in the men's shot put with a toss of 59-10 ½ from Luke Pinkelman. Pinkelman recorded the mark on his first attempt of the competition and then went onto foul on four of his final five attempts. On the women's side of the shot put, Amanda Latsch produced a season-best mark of 50-4 in the shot put, but the throw was only good enough for sixth place.
Nebraska's 4x800-meter relay teams finished the night with a pair of fourth-place finishes . First, the women's team of Ashley Miller, Ellen Dougherty, Blaire Dinsdale and Brooke Dinsdale took fourth out of 15 teams with a time of 8:38.36. The men that posted a time of 7:28.93 with the squad of Blaise Rewaka, Tommy Brinn, Brett Gooden and Ethan Luebbe.
Huskers Advancing to Saturday Finals
Men's 110 Hurdles
Women's 4x400 Relay
Vierregger, Weekes, Grooters, Butler (3:38.39)
Men's 4x400 Relay
Dailey, Lund, Pauly, Ukaoma (3:09.71)