Weekly Release

This Week
The UNO track & field team will be back in Maryville, Mo. this week for the Jock's Nitch Northwest Open hosted by Northwest Missouri State.  It's the second week in a row the Mavericks have traveled to Northwest after last week's Ashley Nally Heptathlon.

The Coaches
Steve Smith is in his sixth season as the head coach of the University of Nebraska Omaha track program.  He served as an assistant for one year prior to taking the head coach's position.  Smith was named the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association Indoor Coach of the Year in 2009 after guiding the Mavericks to a stunning win in the MIAA Indoor Championships.  He earned the award the next winter, guiding the Mavs to a repeat as MIAA Indoor Champs.   Overall, Smith has guided the Mavericks to three conference championships and three top-five finishes at the NCAA Division II Championship including a fourth-place finish indoors in 2010. Smith is assisted by Chris Richardson (jumps and pentathalon/heptathalon), who was named  the USTFCCCA South Central Regional Assistant Coach of the Year in 2011.  Marc Bierbaum coaches the distance events, and Rich Emsick handles the throws.

Last Meet
Kathie-Lee Laidley tied a school record as the UNO Mavericks set two meet records and earned four wins at the 2012 Wildcat Classic hosted by Wayne State on March 31.

Laidley set the meet record in the long jump, winning the event with a distance of 19-11.  That mark ties the school record set in 2005 by Anastasia Kyvelidou.  Laidley's teammate, Denneil Shaw, took seventh with a distance of 18-02 1/2.

Laidley also won the 100 meter hurdles in a time of 14.56.

Kristin Rogers set the meet record in the 10,000 meters with a time of 40:34.38, the first-ever win for the freshman in the event.

Amanda Vorthmann set a personal best in the 5,000 meters with a time of 17:59.55.  MiKayla Peck, running the event for the first time, took fifth in a time of 19:20.66, the second-best performance by Maverick in the 5K this season.

Terri Armstrong set a personal best in the 200 meters, running a time of 25.40 to place fifth.

Nicole Behm ran a personal best in the 3,000 steeplechase with a time of 11:50.58.  Behm also ran the 400 hurdles for the first time, taking ninth in a time of 1:12.99.

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 qualifier list during the indoor or outdoor season.  However if UNO's indoor marks were included, Sami Spenner's personal best pentathlon score of 3,810 earned at the Jack Jennett Invitational at Northern Iowa on Jan. 27 ranked 40th in the nation.  Outdoors, Vorthmann ranks 25th with her school record time of 10:51.20 in the 3,000 meter steeplechase set on March 24.  Laidley also ranks 27th for her 19-11 season high in the long jump on March 31.

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
UNO competes in two events next week.  The Mavericks will be at the KT Woodman Classic hosted by Wichita State on Saturday, April 14.  On the same day, they also will compete in the Concordia Invitational in Seward, Neb.