The Nebraska track and field team swept the javelin tiles and won three overall individual events on the final day of the B1G North Florida Invitational in Jacksonville, Florida on Saturday. With all 13 Big Ten programs competing at the meet, some events offered a glimpse of what the Big Ten Outdoor Championships might look like in May.
Mirta Kulisic was the women’s javelin champion. The freshman from Split, Croatia, threw a personal-best 167-6 (51.05m) to win the event with the No. 7 throw in Nebraska school history in just her second competition as a Husker. She followed up a standout performance from Zach Podraza in the men’s javelin throw earlier in the day. Podraza threw an 11-foot personal best of 218-6 (66.60m) to edge Penn State’s Mark Porter by seven inches.
Tyler Loontjer was the Huskers’ other individual champion on Saturday. The senior pole vaulter won his second straight pole vault title of the outdoor season with a clearance of 17-9 (5.41m), beating out 18 other pole vaulters for the gold medal.
Joey Daniels set the tone for a strong day for the Husker men’s 110-meter hurdlers. Daniels posted a new personal-best time of 13.57 to earn runner-up honors. With wind aid, the Princeton transfer recorded the seventh-fastest time in school history. Luke Siedhoff was right behind Daniels in third place. Siedhoff ran a wind-aided time of 13.79. Darius Luff was fifth in a time of 13.99.
Alex Nelson ran a lifetime best of 21.25 in the men’s 200 meters to earn the bronze medal in the 40-man field. With a personal-best time of 2:12.10, Husker distance runner Judi Jones claimed ninth place in the 800 meters.
In other track action, the women’s 4×100-meter relay team of Emma Algarin, Darby Thomas, Lishanna Ilves and Kayla Hugg ran 46.23 to finish sixth. Kerrigan Myers placed seventh in the 100-meter hurdles final with a time of 14.18. Clayton Keys also finished seventh, running the 400-meter hurdles in 56.06. Emma Algarin led the Husker women in the 200 meters with a time of 24.45 to finish eighth out of 47 entries. Karlie Moore was 11th in the 400-meter hurdles in 1:06.31.
In addition to the Huskers’ three gold medals in the field events, Ieva Turke was the silver medalist in the women’s triple jump, leaping 41-8 (12.70m). For the men, Papay Glaywulu earned the bronze at 50-11 /2 (15.53m). Terrol Wilson was fourth with a jump of 50-9 1/2 (15.48m), and Alexander Thompson recorded a sixth-place finish at 48-0 1/2 (14.64m). Ashley McElmurry placed ninth for the NU women in the triple jump at 39-8 3/4 (12.11m).
Matthias Algarin jumped in the open triple jump and set a personal best of 47-6 1/2 (14.49m), the second-best open section mark. For the Husker women, Zionn Pearson showed well in the open triple jump with a personal best of 40-4 3/4 (12.31m) to finish second.
In the Huskers’ tilte-winning events, a number of other Huskers also performed well on the day. Eric Garner threw a season-best 209-11 (64.00m) in the men’s javelin to finish fifth. Maddie Harris took fourth place in the javelin for the Husker women at 156-3 (47.64m), and Madison Lueger was seventh at 154-1 (46.98m). Andy Jacobs and Jessica Gardner cleared 12-9 1/2 (3.90m) to finish sixth and ninth, respectively, for the Huskers. Kevin Cahoy and Garrison Hughes also finished in the top 10 for the NU men. Cahoy cleared 16-5 1/4 (5.01m) and was eighth. Hughes made it over 16-1 1/4 (4.91m) and was 10th overall.
Marika Spencer posted a season best of 161-4 (49.18m) in the open discus to finish fifth. Shelby Brown threw 155-0 (47.24m) to finish eighth in the invitational section. Tyler Brown competed in the men’s invite section of the discus and threw 153-9 (46.86m) to place ninth.
The Huskers return to Bloomington, Indiana next weekend for the Indiana Big Ten Invitational #2.
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