Huskers Begin Season With Graduate Classic

The Nebraska track and field team opens its 2020 campaign by hosting the Graduate Classic at the Bob Devaney Sports Center Indoor Track on Friday and Saturday. The meet will begin on Friday with the combined events at Noon and the rest of the track and field events at 4 p.m. The meet continues on Saturday with combined events at 9:30 a.m. and track and field events at Noon. Live results can be followed at Results.DeltaTiming.com/Nebraska.

The Huskers won 14 event titles at last year's Graduate Classic, the second annual edition of the meet. This year's meet will include Division I foes Drake and Omaha, as well as a number of other Division II, Division III and NAIA schools. 

About the Huskers
• The NU men return 62 points from their 93 points that won the Big Ten Indoor Championship last year in Ann Arbor, Michigan. 
• Sophomore high jumper Mayson Conner was the Big Ten indoor and outdoor champion last year and achieved first-team All-America honors at the NCAA Indoor Championships, finishing seventh. He was named the Big Ten Freshman of the Year both indoors and outdoors, and his indoor PR of 7-3 3/4 (2.23m) has him at No. 9 in school history. He tied for 12th at the NCAA Outdoor Championships to earn second-team All-America honors. 
• Senior Luke Siedhoff was the Big Ten silver medalist in the 60m hurdles, and he ranked 27th in the country at season's end with a PR of 7.83.
• George Kusche scored 11 points at the Big Ten meet last year, finishing third in the 3,000m and fourth in the mile as a freshman. Kusche broke the standard-track indoor school record in the mile last year (3:59.61).
• The women return 24 points from last year's Big Ten indoor team, which finished fifth with 68 total points. 
• Junior Ieva Turke placed third in the triple jump and fourth in the long jump at last year's conference meet. 
• Zionn Pearson was the bronze medalist in the long jump as a freshman, and Andy Jacobs took bronze in the pole vault. She ranks tied for seventh in school history.

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 in 2019. 

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 was 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 40th 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, three are men's indoor coach of the year (2005, 2015, 2019). 

Husker Men Out to Defend Big Ten Indoor Title
The Nebraska men won the 2019 Big Ten Indoor Championship in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Angela Mercurio, Lakayla Harris, Mayson Conner and Elijah Lucy all won individual Big Ten indoor titles for the Big Red. 

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, 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.

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. 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. Conner was the Big Ten Indoor and Outdoor Freshman of the Year. 

Husker Men Tabbed 2019 Indoor Dual Meet Champions
The Nebraska men's track and field team was named the indoor dual meet champions by Track & Field News Magazine for the first time in the program's history in 2019. 

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.