Premium ContentMouse over Home then click on Premium Content for information.LINCOLN — Freshman sprinter Ricco Hall figured he'd be running the second leg of Nebraska's 1,600-meter relay last Saturday.
But shortly before one of the most popular races at the Frank Sevigne Invitational, he found out he'd be running the anchor leg. And there's always, he said, a "love-hate relationship" with that spot. Exhilarating. But pressure-packed.
So Hall walked up to sophomore Miles Ukaoma, also on the relay.
Wanna switch? Hall asked.
You can't switch, coaches told them.
Well, OK, Hall said.
And the Huskers' quartet of sophomore Jodi-Rae Blackwood, Ukaoma, sophomore Dexter McKenzie and Hall went on to win the relay in 3:11.61. Hall ran a fast final leg. And what could eventually be Nebraska's best relay team in years got its start.
"We'd never been in a 4-by-4 before so we didn't know how to face it," Hall said. "But now we kind of have the rhythm of how it's going to go."
Said NU's sprinters coach Billy Maxwell: "We've got the base for a good young sprint team. Now it's about 'How good do you want to be?'"
The Husker sprinters will head to the Iowa State Classic in Ames Friday. Throwers, pole vaulters and some jumpers will head to the more prestigious Tyson Invitational in Fayetteville, Ark.
While the relay teams at Iowa State should be more than decent — Minnesota, one of the Big Ten's best, will be there — the Tyson features some of the nation's best runners, and Arkansas currently has the NCAA's top 1,600 relay team. Why didn't Maxwell want to enter his runners there?
"You want to dip their toes in the water a little bit," he said.
The other factor: Husker sprinters had "run hard" at the Sevigne. Hall, for example, ran five races. He won the 400-meter dash in 46.93 seconds, the fourth-fastest indoor time in Husker history and ninth-fastest in the nation this year. Hall has the fastest 200 (21.33) in the Big Ten, too.
"I had no idea he'd be this good," Maxwell said.
Though Hall is from Kentwood, Mich. — a southern suburb of Grand Rapids — Maxwell said that recruiting him "was one of the easiest jobs I've ever done."
Maxwell knew one of Hall's high school coaches. Heard the kid could run a 48-flat 400. Saw him do it. Invited him to visit Nebraska. Hall loved it. Simple as that.
Hall had to tell home-state schools Michigan and Michigan State — both were recruiting him heavily — that he was heading to a new Big Ten rival.
"I had the awkward phone calls where I had to tell them that I'd chosen somewhere else," he said. "That's always weird. They were more disappointed than surprised."
Hall's twin sister, Rebecca, nearly came to Nebraska, too. But she'd already committed to Western Michigan — which doesn't have a men's track program. Ricco said she might be running in Arkansas this weekend; a trip to the Tyson would have been good.
But NU's focus now is getting that relay time down to 3:08. That's the pace it'll likely take to win a Big Ten title; Penn State leads the league at 3:07.92. Ohio State (3:09.40) and Minnesota (3:09.93) are contenders, too.
"We can get there," Hall said.
»NOTES: Besides Hall, the Huskers have four other men ranked in the NCAA's top 10 in their respective events: Luke Pinkelman (sixth in shot put), Nate Polacek (eighth in pole vault), Chris Phipps (10th in triple jump) and Bjorn Barrefors (10th in heptathlon). No Nebraska women are currently ranked in the top 10.
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402-202-9766, sam.mckewon@owh.com
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