NU'S Lloyd survives rain, wins 2 events
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BY KEN HAMBLETON / Lincoln Journal Star
Keith Lloyd jokes with his teammates that he needs warm weather.
“I’m an old guy (22) and my bones are creaky and I need it warm and sunny to feel right,” said the Husker junior and former state champion at Millard North.
Well, he didn’t get sunshine Saturday. He didn’t get a “nice spring day.”
He got what everybody else got: rain, gloom, some wind and 54-degree temperatures.
And Lloyd responded with a personal best in the hammer throw (205 feet, 2 inches) and a solid shot put mark of 55-2 to win at the drenched Husker Invite at Ed Weir Track.
Nebraska senior Dusty Jonas won the high jump with a leap of 7-4½, and Kim Shubert, who graduated Saturday morning, tied freshman teammate Epley Bullock for second in the high jump at 5-8¾.
Despite the steady rain, Nebraska had a solid showing in the last meet before the Big 12 Championships next weekend in Boulder, Colo.
“It’s good to get a mark in the hammer that is close to what I’ve been throwing in practice lately,” Lloyd said. “With the Big 12 and then the NCAA regional meet, I needed something like today. I have been practicing really well but haven’t thrown a great one in a meet until today.”
He said increased speed with the 16-pound ball (at the end of a 4-foot wire with a handle) helped him start breaking the 200-foot mark. “My dad officiates a lot of hammer throws and he was telling me I had to work more on speed and less on technique perfection and it turns out he was right,” Lloyd said. “Besides, he and the rest of my family were down here, sitting in the rain watching me, so I had to do something good.”
Jonas had a little easier day in the high jump.
After competing in the long jump outdoors, Jonas and the rest of the high jump competitors, as well as the men’s pole vaulters, moved indoors to the Devaney Sports Center.
Jonas, who is second in the NCAA outdoors this year with a jump of 7-6½, is working on getting back to the 7-7 mark that helped him win the NCAA Indoor meet last March.
He sailed over the bar at 7-2½, tipped the bar on the way down on his first try at 7-4½ and cleared it on the second attempt. He barely tipped the bar with his ankle at 7-6½ and landed with groan on his final attempt.
“I’m sore,” Jonas said. “I kind of twisted my foot in the long jump. Then we warmed up outside in the rain for the high jump. Moved here, warmed up again. Then, I’m jumping and, to be honest, it’s been a tough week of practice. So I’m tired.”
Jonas has switched his routine to prepare for the U.S. Olympic Trials this summer in Eugene, Ore. “We’re on a schedule so I can peak for the trials and still get my first Big 12 title and get the outdoor double to go with the indoor (title).”
NU’s Nicholas Gordon won the long jump with a leap of 24-5, just short of the NCAA regional qualifying mark of 24-10 he achieved earlier in the season. Husker freshman Seth Burney, a Beatrice graduate, won the pole vault at 16-6¾, and Peter van der Westhuizen won the 800-meter run in 1:52.07.
Reach Ken Hambleton at 473-7313 or khambleton@journalstar.com.
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