McCook alum helps Husker men win Big Ten

ANN ARBOR, Mich. The Nebraska men’s track and field team captured the Big Ten Indoor Championships team title on Saturday at the U-M Indoor Track.

The Husker men entered the day 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 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.

“It was really exciting for the fans and for the kids on this team,” Pepin said. “I don’t know how exciting it was for the coaches because we were really worried, but I felt like that’s a great way to go in at the end to try and win the meet with the mile relay. I knew we had a good mile relay. It was exciting and really a good team effort.”

McCook High School alum Spencer Powell led the Husker men in the pole vault by finishing fifth with a clearance of 17-2 1/4 (5.24m), a new personal best. Kevin Cahoy posted a season-best 16-10 1/4 (5.14m) in the pole vault to finish seventh.

The Husker men won their 67th all-time conference title and 38th indoors.

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.

The Big Red women finished fifth with 68 points.

It was their best indoor conference finish since 2015, when they also finished fifth. Ohio State won the women’s title with 112 points.

Two Huskers won Big Ten individual titles on Saturday, both from the women’s team.

Senior Angela 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. The two-time All-American will cap off her career at the NCAA Indoor Championships in two weeks.

Lakayla Harris won the gold medal in the 60 meters with a personal-best time of 7.26. Her time ranks third in school history and 14th in the NCAA. 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.