Weekly Release
Meet Website

This Week
The UNO Maverick track & field team heads south this weekend to take part in the Varsity Apartments Invitational at Wichita State.  The meet will be held on Friday and Saturday, Feb. 3 and 4 at the Heskett Center in Wichita, Kan.

The Coaches
Steve Smith is in his sixth season as the head coach of the University of Nebraska Omaha track program after more than two decades of success as an assistant at Barton Community College, Nebraska and at UNO. Smith was named the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association Indoor Coach of the Year after guiding the Mavericks to a stunning win in the 2009 MIAA Indoor Championships in March. Smith's team also finished the 2010-11 season 20th by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association. Smith is assisted by Chris Richardson (jumps and pentathalon/heptathalon), Marc Bierbaum (distance) and Rich Emsick (throws).

Last Meet
Last weekend, the Mavericks earned two firsts and several more personal bests at the Jack Jennett Invitational at Northern Iowa.

Junior Sami Spenner posted the third-best pentathlon score in school history with 3,810 points to take second in the event.  That puts her only behind national champion and NCAA record holder Anastasia Kyvelidou and All-American Shannon Moore in UNO history.  She posted a personal best in four of the five events and tied her PR in the 60 meter hurdles.

Spenner also won the triple jump with a personal best score of 39-10 ½.  Teammate Denneil Shaw also posted a personal best in the event (36-8 ¼) to earn fifth place.

Junior Amanda Vorthmann won the 3,000 meters in a personal best time of 10:06.62, her second personal best of the season in the event.  Vorthmann also had a PR in the 800, earning seventh with a time of 2:20.85.

Also in the 3,000 meters, freshmen Kristin Rogers (10:46.52, fourth) and Mikayla Peck (11:33.30, eighth) also set personal bests.

Freshman Lydia Martin had a personal best in the 800 meters with a time of 2:28.24.

UNO finished 2-3 in the long jump with Kathie-Lee Laidley taking second (18-7) and Shaw third (17-5 ¼).

The Mavs were 3-4 in the 1,000 meters with Nicole Behm taking third (3:15.24) and Rogers fourth (3:18.90, PR).

NCAA Championship
As UNO begins its transition to Division I, the Mavericks are unable to compete in the NCAA Championships this season.  Therefore, they are not included in the national indoor qualifier list.

All-Academic Team
Last season, the UNO track & field team earned an All-Academic Team  honor. Overall the athletes acquired a GPA of 3.19 and had 12 student-athletes on the Dean's List for the fall semester and 10 at the end of the spring semester. To earn all-academic honors, the team must accumulate a GPA of at least 3.00. Eight Mavericks also were named USTFCCCA All-Academic honorees for the 2010-11 academic year. The athletes who made the list were: Jody-Ann Coore, Kayla Koepke, Lianne McNaughton, Maja Mihalinec, Heather Minssen, Anja Puc, Celeste Robinson and Sami Spenner.     

Up Next For the Mavericks
Next weekend, the Mavericks stay in-state, competing at the Concordia Indoor Invitational in Seward, Neb. on Saturday, Feb. 11.