Huskers Set for NWU Spring Open, Drake Relays

The Nebraska track and field team competes at two meets this week. Some members of the team will compete at the Nebraska Wesleyan Spring Open on Thursday at Woody Greeno Track in Lincoln. Most of the team will head to Des Moines, Iowa for the Drake Relays Thursday through Saturday.

Live results links for both meets can be found at Huskers.com. The Nebraska Wesleyan Spring Open begins at 2 p.m. on Thursday. The Drake Relays begins at 5:05 p.m. Thursday with the Huskers entered in three distance races. Friday’s start time is 9:30 a.m. and Saturday’s is 8:30 a.m.

Many schools are set to compete at the Drake Relays, including Baylor, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Purdue, Ohio State, TCU, Texas and Texas Tech.

The Huskers swept the team titles at the Kansas Relays quadrangular last Saturday at Rock Chalk Park. The Husker women scored 206 points to beat out Kansas (191). The men totaled 226 points to edge Kansas (219) by seven points. Kaiwan Culmer posted an all-time best triple jump of 52-2 3/4 to win the event. His mark ranks No. 12 nationally and puts him at No. 9 in NU history. Seth Derr threw 227-4 to place second in the javelin. His mark ranks fifth in NU history. Cody Walton won the decathlon with 7,327 points, the sixth-most in school history. For the women, Sarah Firestone won the javelin with her best throw of the season - 181-9 - to move to No. 8 in the country.

Husker Women Crack USTFCCCA Top 25 Rankings
The Nebraska women’s track and field team is ranked No. 23 in this week’s USTFCCCA Top 25 rankings.The ranking marks the first of the season for the Husker women. NU is coming off the Kansas Relays quadrangular team title over Kansas, Colorado State and Rice over the weekend.The Husker women have five athletes ranked in the top 25 nationally in individual events, led by Tierra Williams’ No. 3 ranking in the triple jump and Sarah Firestone and Reka Czuth at No. 8 in the javelin and high jump, respectively. All three lead the Big Ten in their events.

Husker Men Looking for Indoor-Outdoor Sweep
The Nebraska men’s track and field team repeated as Big Ten Indoor champions in 2016 and will now look to win their first conference outdoor team title since 2013. The Husker men haven’t swept indoor and outdoor conference titles since 2004 in the Big 12 Conference. At last year’s conference outdoor meet, Nebraska finished second with 108 points. A total of 85 of those points return this outdoor season, and the Huskers add pole vaulter Craig Driver back into the mix after redshirting last year.

Husker Women Seeking Strong Outdoor Season
With runner-up finishes in five of the last six outdoor conference meets, the Nebraska women will look to get over the hump and win their first conference title since the 2012 indoor season. The Husker women return Big Ten javelin champion Sarah Firestone and long jump champion Reka Czuth. Additionally, Tierra Williams is coming off an indoor double, as the long and triple jump champion is poised to continue her strong junior season outdoors. The Husker women scored 97 team points at last year’s Big Ten Outdoor Championships and have 62 of those points returning.