Nebraska Men, K-State Women Capture Titles at Wildcat Invitational :: The Wildcat men's and women's combine to win 11 titles at the two-day invitational

The Wildcat men's and women's combine to win 11 titles at the two-day invitational

Jan. 20, 2002

The Nebraska men posted five first-place finishes and totaled 192 points, while the Kansas State women tallied seven first-place finishes and 148 points, as each claimed the team title at the Wildcat Invitational track and field meet held Sunday at Ahearn Field House.

Nebraska claimed titles in the 60-meters, 60-meter hurdles, 200 meters, 400 meters and 3,000 meters to outdistance itself from Kansas State (153), Wichita State (150) and Oklahoma State (58) in the men's competition. Kansas State, who entered the day with 12 points from the 1-2 finishes of Austra Skujyte and Carmen Wright in the pentathlon on Saturday, posted wins in the weight throw, high jump, shot put, 600-yard run, 800 meters and 3,000 meters to earn the women's title over Nebraska (123) and Wichita State (93).

The meet featured seven meet records, three automatic NCAA qualifiers and six provisional qualifiers. Three athletes earned two titles each in the meet, as Wichita State's Randy Lewis and Ineta Radevich won the men's and women's long jump and triple jump and Nebraska' Shelly Ann Brown earned the women's 60-meter dash and 60-meter hurdles titles.

Kansas State's most impressive performance of the day came from Rebekah Green and Austra Skujyte, who both automatically qualified for the NCAA meet in the women's shot put. Green edged Skujyte, 53-11 1/4 to 53-10 1/2, as the duo finished 1-2 in the event. Leslie Mikos won the women's weight throw with a season-best toss of 57-7, as she led four Wildcats, including Green (54-2 3/4 - third), in the top six of the event. Morgan High captured the women's high jump title with a season-best and provisionally-qualifying mark of 5-10. Gaven Jones won the 600-yard run with a time of 1:26.20, while Amy Mortimer won the 800 meters with a time of 2:13.28 and Trisha Culbertson captured the women's 3,000 meters with a time of 10:24.56. The Kansas State women also got second-place finishes in the long jump (Carmen Wright, 18-11 1/4), 60-meter hurdles (Teena Clincy, 8.63), 60 meters (Queeneth Evurunobi, 7.77), 200 meters (Queeneth Evurunobi, 25.87) and 4x400-meter relay (3:53.73).

On the men's side, Kansas State won four events and saw its 4x400-meter relay team break the Wildcat Invitational meet record of 3:16.92 with a time of 3:15.57. Tarl Vetter and Adam Walker each 1-2 in the men's weight throw, as Vetter recorded a toss of 60-10 3/4 and Walker a mark of 58-1 3/4. The Wildcats also went 1-2 in the 1,000 meters as Erik Sproll posted a time of 2:27.09 to edge teammate Shadrack Kimeli's time of 2:27.20. Dustin Schmidt won the pole vault with a jump of 15-7.

In a conclusion of Saturday's heptathlon, Miami's Aaron Moser claimed the title with 5,513 points, just edging unattached participant Jeff Sander, who finished second with 5,483 points. Kansas State's junior Josef Karas and senior Pat Pyle finished in third and fourth place with totals of 5,265 and 5,193 points, respectively, while freshman Dylan Schmidt was 11th with 4,345 points. Schmidt earned his first career title in the pole vault by tying Miami's Jabari Ennis with a mark of 15-7.

Kansas State returns to action on Saturday, Jan. 26, when the Wildcats host the annual Kansas State-Kansas-Missouri Triangular at Ahearn Field House.