Track continues assault on record books

An old saying states that records are meant to be broken. NIU track and field is doing exactly that this year.

At Saturday’s IWU Invitational held in Marion, Ind., the Huskies clocked five first-place performances, including two new school records.

Senior Rasheta Butler, who already set the school record in the 200-meter dash a few weeks back, joined Brittany Smith, Rebecca Cronin and Chanel Kellyman in shattering NIU’s 4×200-meter relay record with a time of 1:43.42. The former mark of 1:49.15 was set in 2006.

Setting the second school record of the afternoon was the 4×800-meter relay team with a time of 9.44.70. The group of Cronin, Nora Ferguson, Sunsea Shaw and Courtney Oldenburg broke the 32-year-old school record by almost two full minutes.

Rounding out the Huskie winners were Oldenburg in the mile run, Butler in the 200-meter dash and freshman Janay Mitchell in the 60-meter dash.

NIU will race next on Feb. 11 at the Iowa State Classic in Ames, Iowa.

Doeren completes football coaching staff

On Thursday, new NIU football coach Dave Doeren announced that former Kent State cornerbacks coach Richard McNutt will fill the same role on the 2011 Huskie football team.

McNutt coached the safety position for the NFL’s Cleveland Browns in 2008, and spent the last two seasons coaching cornerbacks for MAC rival Kent State, where in 2010, the Golden Flashes sported the No. 1 total defense in conference.

Adding to his pedigree, McNutt was a three-year letterwinner at Ohio State University and helped lead the Buckeyes to a National Championship in 2002.

“I am very pleased to complete the Huskie coaching staff with the addition of Richard McNutt,” Doeren said in press release. “A former cornerback at Ohio State, Richard brings in-depth knowledge of the position, coaching experience in the Mid-American Conference, and he has worked on the professional level.”

McNutt will be on hand when Doeren officially inks his first recruits on Feb. 2.

Women’s tennis suffers winless weekend

Losing back-to-back is not the way any team wants to start the year.

During a weekend trip up north to UW-Milwaukee and University of Wisconsin, the Huskies fell in both matches 4-3 and 7-0, respectively.

Saturday night’s 4-3 loss to UW-Milwaukee saw NIU sweep the opening doubles matches, gaining a point in the process. The singles, however, were the downfall of the Huskies, seeing only sophomore Kelly Phillips and freshman Haley Dekkinga win matches.

The next day saw another disappointment, as the Huskies traveled to Madison, Wisc., only to get swept by a powerful Wisconsin team, 7-0.

“It didn’t look like it by the score, but it was the best we’ve ever looked against Wisconsin,” said NIU head coach Ryun Ferrell via press release. “We were just scrappy and kept fighting. They’re just better than we are, and I can live with that.”

The Huskies will throw down again Friday versus Eastern Illinois.

Silas named MAC West POTW… for the fifth time

NIU senior guard Xavier Silas is doing everything he can to carry the Huskies’ men’s basketball team. While in the process, he continues to rack up MAC West Player of the Week awards.

Silas earned the honor for the fifth time this season with a week in which he averaged 29.5 points and 6.5 rebounds in two games against Akron and Buffalo.

The highlight of the week was the Wednesday win over Akron, which saw Silas drop 39 points on 52.9 percent shooting in a 83-74 win.

Only two players have netted multiple 39-or-more point games this year, with Silas being one. BYU’s Jimmer Fredette is the other.