Huskers Gear Up for NCAA Indoor Championships

A trio of Nebraska track and field student-athletes will be competing at the NCAA Indoor Championships in Birmingham, Alabama this weekend.

Nebraska’s entries in the meet are Mayson Conner (high jump), Jared Seay (heptathlon) and Angela Mercurio (triple jump). Mercurio is making her second appearance at the NCAA Indoor Championships, while the rest of the Huskers will be competing there for the first time. Mercurio finished 15th in the triple jump last season with a mark of 40-7 1/2 (12.38m) to earn second-team All-America honors.

Cale Wagner also qualified for the NCAA Championships with his PR of 5,565 points in the heptathlon at the Frank Sevigne Husker Invite earlier this season, but will miss the championships with an injury.

The NCAA Indoor Championships begin on Friday, March 8 at the Birmingham CrossPlex in Birmingham, Alabama. The first Husker to compete will be Seay in the heptathlon. Seay will begin with the 60-meter dash at Noon on Friday and will compete in the long jump, shot put and high jump throughout the day. Seay will continue the heptathlon at 11:45 a.m. on Saturday with the 60-meter hurdles, followed by the pole vault and 1,000 meter run. Conner will compete in the high jump at 1 p.m. on Saturday, while Mercurio will compete in the triple jump at 3:30 p.m.

NCAA Indoor Championships Qualifiers

Seed	Student-Athlete	Event	Time/Mark
7	Jared Seay	Heptathlon	5,757
11	Mayson Conner	High Jump	7-3 3/4 (2.23m)
14	Angela Mercurio	Triple Jump	43-6 (13.26m)

 

Huskers’ Event Times

Jared Seay
Friday, Noon - Heptathlon 60m
Friday, 12:40 p.m. - Heptathlon Long Jump
Friday, 1:50 p.m. - Heptathlon Shot Put
Friday, 3 p.m. - Heptathlon High Jump
Saturday, 11:45 a.m. - Heptathlon 60m Hurdles
Saturday, 12:35 p.m. - Heptathlon Pole Vault
Saturday, 4 p.m. - Heptathlon 1,000m

Mayson Conner
Saturday, 1 p.m. - High Jump

Angela Mercurio
Saturday, 3:30 p.m. - Triple Jump

About the Huskers
• Jared Seay is the Huskers’ top entrant with a heptathlon score of 5,757 points that ranks seventh in the nation. Seay was the runner-up in the heptathlon at the Big Ten Championships with his score and will be making his first career NCAA Indoor Championships appearance. His PR ranks third in Nebraska school history.

• Mayson Conner will also compete at the NCAA Indoor Championships for the first time after winning the Big Ten Championship with a PR of 7-3 3/4 (2.23m) in the high jump. His jump tied him for the 11th-best mark in the nation this season.

• Angela Mercurio, the Big Ten Champion in the triple jump, has a personal best this year of 43-6 (13.26m), which ranks 15th in the country and sixth in school history. Mercurio will be making her second career appearance at the indoor national meet. She finished 15th in 2018 and earned second-team All-America accolades. Mercurio has claimed first place in the triple jump in five of six meets this season.

Pepin Named B1G and USTFCCCA Men’s Midwest Region Coach of the Year
Nebraska track and field head coach Gary Pepin was named the Big Ten Men’s Indoor Coach of the Year and the USTFCCCA Midwest Region Coach of the Year.

The Big Ten honor marked Pepin’s sixth selection as Big Ten Coach of the Year since the Huskers joined the conference in 2011-12, and it is his 28th all-time conference coaching accolade. The 2019 Big Ten men’s indoor title was Pepin’s 73rd career conference title and 43rd indoors. He has guided the Husker men to three Big Ten indoor titles in the last five seasons.

Pepin, in his 39th year as head coach at Nebraska, has also been honored as region coach of the year 11 times in the past 15 years. Of his 11 region coaching honors, this is the third time Pepin has been honored as the men’s indoor coach of the year (2005 and 2015).

Four Huskers Win B1G Titles; Men Claim Championship
Angela Mercurio, Lakayla Harris, Mayson Conner and Elijah Lucy all won individual Big Ten indoor titles, and the Nebraska men’s track and field team won the 2019 Big Ten Indoor Championship this season.

The Husker men entered the final day of the Big Ten Championships with an 11-point lead and led the entire day until Indiana took a 90-89 lead with only the 4x400-meter relay remaining. However, the Huskers’ relay team of Givon Washington, Tony Nou, Elijah Lucy and Isaiah Hutchinson ran a season-best of 3:09.12 to finish fifth, while Indiana finished eighth in 3:11.71. The Huskers finished with 93 points, and Indiana had 91, giving NU its first team crown since 2016.

The Husker men won their 67th all-time conference title and 38th indoors with the victory. It was the fifth Big Ten title for the Husker men since joining the conference in 2012. For legendary head coach Gary Pepin, it marked his 73rd career conference title and 43rd indoors.

Mercurio earned the triple jump crown for the first time in her career, posting a jump of 42-7 (12.98m) on her fourth attempt to win the event for her third-career Big Ten medal. Mercurio took first place in the triple jump in five of six meets this season.

Harris won the gold medal in the 60 meters with a personal-best time of 7.26. Her time ranked third in school history. Harris was the runner-up last year but topped her personal best by .12 seconds to take the title as a senior. She became the first Husker women’s track athlete to win a Big Ten championship in a running event since 2013. She followed that with the bronze medal in the 200 meters later in the afternoon after posting a personal-best time of 23.54, the third-fastest time in school history.

Conner was crowned the high jump champion after clearing a personal-best 7-3 3/4 (2.23m), which put him in a tie for ninth in school history and No. 11 in the nation this season. Conner had the competition locked up as the only jumper to clear 7-2 1/4 (2.19m), and he was perfect through that height. The McCool Junction native went on to achieve a new personal best and give the Husker men the Big Ten indoor high jump title for the fifth time in the last six years.

Lucy earned the gold medal in the long jump for the first time in his career after finishing fourth at each of the three previous Big Ten indoor meets. Lucy jumped a personal-best 25-2 (7.67m) on his final attempt, though he didn’t need it as four of his jumps on the day would have won the competition. He finished on top by more than one foot.

Nebraska’s Big Ten Indoor Champions
Mayson Conner, High Jump
Elijah Lucy, Long Jump
Angela Mercurio, Triple Jump
Lakayla Harris, 60 Meters

New Nebraska Top-10 Marks
The Huskers have achieved a handful of all-time top-10 indoor marks in school history so far this indoor season:

• George Kusche - Mile (No. 1, 3:59.61)
• George Kusche - 3,000m (No. 1, 7:57.16*)
• Jared Seay - Heptathlon (No. 3, 5,757)
• Lakayla Harris - 60m (No. 3, 7.26)
• Lakayla Harris - 200m (No. 4, 23.54)
• George Kusche - 3,000m (No. 5, 8:08.89)
• Cale Wagner - Heptathlon (No. 5t, 5,565)
• Burger Lambrechts - Shot Put (No. 6, 62-1 1/4, 18.93m)
• Angela Mercurio - Triple Jump (No. 6, 43-6, 13.26m)
• George Kusche - 5,000m (No. 6, 14:22.75)
• Isaiah Hutchinson - 200m (No. 7, 21.18)
• Jessi Smith - 600m (No. 7, 1:31.88)
• Tony Nou - 600m (No. 8, 1:18.29)
• Judi Jones - 5,000m (No. 8, 16:34.08*)
• Chanel Freeman - 60m Hurdles (No. 8, 8.38)
• Ty Moss - 600m (No. 9, 1:18.32)
• Jordan De Spong, Bryce Barrett, Ty Moss, George Kusche - Men’s DMR (No. 9, 9:47.07)
• Michaela Peskova - 600m (No. 9, 1:32.21)
• Mayson Conner - High Jump (No. 9t, 7-3 3/4, 2.23m)
• Tyler Loontjer - Pole Vault (No. 10, 17-5 1/2, 5.32m)
• Garrison Hughes - Pole Vault (No. 10, 17-5 1/2, 5.32m)
• Deja Ingram - 60m (No. 10, 7.50)
• Grady Leonard - Shot Put (No. 10, 60-6 3/4, 18.46m)
*oversized track

Huskers Well Represented in USTFCCCA #EventSquad Rankings
The Nebraska track and field team has several event groups ranked highly in the USTFCCCA #EventSquad Rankings, which uses the best qualifying marks from a team’s top-four ranked athletes in that event.

• #2 - Men’s High Jump
• #2 - Women’s Triple Jump
• #2 - Women’s Long Jump
• #4 - Men’s Shot Put
• #5 - Men’s Pole Vault
• #6 - Men’s 60m Hurdles
• #8 - Men’s Long Jump
• #10 - Women’s 60m Hurdles

Husker Men Tabbed Indoor Dual Meet Champions
The Nebraska men’s track and field team has been named the indoor dual meet champions by Track & Field News Magazine for the first time in the program’s history.

Following a strong performance at the Mark Colligan Memorial, where the Huskers scored 172 points to sweep the meet, the Huskers surged from No. 4 to No. 1 in the final rankings of the indoor season. The Huskers posted a 3-0 record in dual meets to top Indiana (1-0) and Texas A&M (2-0) for the top spot. The NU women came in at No. 4 in the final women’s rankings.

To be ranked, a team must compete in one or more dual meets (defined as a scored meet between four or fewer teams) during the indoor season. Teams are ranked on wins and losses, marks, and strength and depth of dual meet schedule. Teams are rewarded for taking dual meet competition seriously.

The Nebraska men won the absolute - indoor and outdoor combined - dual meet championship in 2017. This year’s NU men’s squad is the top-ranked team in the USTFCCA Midwest Region and has several event groups that rank among the best in the nation. The men’s high jump is the No. 1 unit in the nation, while the 60-meter hurdles is ranked third, the shot put is ranked fourth, long jump is seventh and pole vault is ranked ninth.