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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 25, 1988)
Sports Injury forces wrestler to have surgery By Chuck Green Senior Reporter It’s often been said that hard work won’t hurt anybody, but Dave Droegemueller might argue. Droegemueller, Nebraska’s top wrestler in the 1 34-pound weight class, cracked a vertebra in his back last summer during off-season condi tioning, blit has Droegemueller compiled a 13-9 record this season despite the injury. The injury occurred when Droegemueller was preparing to move up to the 134-pound class from 126, where he posted a 15-7 mark last season as a freshman. “I knew I was going to move up to 134, so I worked pretty hard,” Droegemueller said. “I lifted weights a lot to adapt to the change.” Evidently, Droegemueller said, he overdid it. When the vertebra was cracked, he said, nobody knew the extent of the injury, but the discomfort kept him from working out. He was placed in a protective brace for five weeks and quickly lost much of his physical conditioning. “After lifting hard this summer, I wasn’t able to lift (weights) for the five weeks I was in the brace,” Droegemueller said. “I lost every thing (physically) that I had built up. I just shrank. “It took all that hard work away.” Droegemueller said the injury slowed his preparation for the transi tion to 134, but said it didn’t affect him “as much as most people would think.” He said he learned he needed sur gery during the semester break, but doctors told him there was no urgency. “They (the doctors) told me to ao whatever I thought,” Droegemuellcr said. “It didn’t bother me as much after a while, so I went ahead and wrestled.” Redshirting this season was dis cussed, Droegemuellcr said, but the idea was abandoned. He said he will undergo the surgery, but he’s not sure when. “I would have had the surgery done over Christmas, but we didn’t know (the severity) of my injury,” Droegemueller said. “When we fi nally found out how bad it was, there was only two weeks left before school started again, so I didn’t get it done. “I have to have it done eventually,” he said, “but it depends on how it feels. I’ll have to have it done when I have time.” Droegemueller is no stranger to injuries. Last season, he suffered tom cartilage in his rib cage, bruised knees and sprained ankles. See DROEGE MUELLER on 9 Nebraska’s Lisa O’Connell leads Drake’s Karla Zylstra midway through the 1,000-meter race Saturday. O’Connell won the race with a time of 2:48.69. Comhusker track teams win first meet of 1988 By Richard Cooper Staff Reporter After seeing his men’s and women’s track teams win their first meet of the season at the Bob Dcvancy Sports Center, Nebraska coach Gary Pepin compared the Comhuskers’ victory to the Nebraska football team’s first victory of the season. “I thought our kids ran well for the first meet of the season,” Pepin said. “We still have a ways to go to get where we want to be, but we won enough events to keep me happy. “This kind of meet is a lot like our football team’s first game,” he said. “They get their shoulder pads on and get things done.” Pepin said Nebraska performed well, but there was little competition from Barton County (Kan.) Commu nity College, Wichita State and Drake in most of the events. ‘This kind of meet is a lot like our football team’s first game. They get their shoulder pads on and get things done.’ —Pepin Nebraska’s men, who were with out sprinters Bob Jclks and Bill Troll, won the meet with 82 points. Barton County finished second with 38 points, Drake and Wichita State fin ished with 23 and IS points. Pepin said Jelks, who was the 1986 Big Eight indoor 300-meter cham pion, didn’t run because of a sore hamstring. He said Troll, who holds the school record in the 60, didn’t run because of enrollment problems. Pepin said he was disappointed that Troll didn’t run. “Trott really needed to compete today — especially in the long jump,” Pepin said. ‘‘He’ll be back next week, but right now he’s kind of in the do * ise.” Husker women, who were led by Karen Kruger’s NCAA-qualifying victories in die 55 and long jump, scored 93 points to defeat second place Barton County and third-place Wichita State. Barton County fin ished with 29 points, Wichita State with 19, and Drake with nine. Kruger set a sports center record in the 55 with a 6.85-sccond clocking. She then leaped 20 feet, 21/4 inches in the long jump. Pepin said he was pleased with Kruger’s performance. He said Kruger has established herself as a national-caliber long jumper in the past year. Pepin said he was also pleased with the performances of Toyia Barnes in the shot put and Tammy Thurman in the high jump. Barnes won the shot put with a throw of 48-9. Pepin said Thurman, who qualified for the NCAA championships with a jumpof5-l 1, is two inches a way from qualifying for the United States Olympic Trials in June. The Nebraska men’s learn set two sports center records and one school record. James Morris, a sophomore from Windsor, N.C., also qualified for the NCAA championships in the triple jump. In the 55, Mark Perry defeated former Nebraska sprinter Phillips George cn route to setting a sports center record with a time of 6.34. Jacques van Rensberg set a sports center record in the 3,000 with a time of8:22.06. Dale Burrage, a transfer from Bar ton County, set a school record in the 400 by edging out former teammate Ronnie Coleman en route to winning with a time of 47.82. Burrage also helped the Huskers win the 4 x 400 relay by coming from behind to register the victory. Nebraska’s relay team trailed the Barton County ‘A’ team entering the fourth leg of the relay, but Barrage won the race in the last 30 meters. Pepin said he knew Burrage would break the school record in the 400 because he recorded similar times in time trials before Christmas. Nebraska’s next meet is Saturday, when the Huskers face Washington, Colorado Slate and Colorado. The meet, which will be at the sports center track complex, begins at noon. UNL to face UNO in basketball for first time in history Probable Starters: UNO (10-6) Bryan Leach G Kevin Avery G Tim Adamck C Bryan Mucllncr F Reggie Mahone F Nebraska (9-8) Eric Johnson G Henry T. Buchanan G Pete Manning C Derrick Vick F Jeff Rckewcg F By Nick Hodge SuffReporter Tonight’s basketball game be tween the Nebraska Comhuskers and the University of Nebraska-Omaha will be the first meeting in the two schools’ history. UNO, a member of the North Central Conference, is the only Divi sion II school on the Huskers’ sched ule. Nebraska basketball coach Danny Nee said Sunday that people are too hung upon the competitive difference between Division I and Division II basketball. “It’s overrated. There arc many basketball players who play on Divi sion I teams who should be playing on Division II teams,” Nee said, “and several players on Division II teams who should be on Division I teams.” Nee said the Huskers arc playing UNO because they needed another game. Nee said the NCAA informed him last summer that the Huskers’ games in the Hawaiian Airlines Maui Classic over Thanksgiving vacation didn’t count towards their 28-game regular season limit. He said he started look ing for another game after he learned of the situation. Nee said he was unable to find* another Division I team who would come to Lincoln. He said he wanted a home game because the Huskers’ al ready had 17 road games on their schedule. Nee said he began looking at Divi sion II schools when he realized he could not get a Division I team. He said he decided on UNO because it was geographically desirable, as well as the first meeting between the two schools. UNO, 10-6, comes into tonight’s game averaging 84.2 points per game. Nee said the Mavericks are a good offensive team. He said the Huskers will try and stop the Mavericks the same way they would Oklahoma. “We’ll play our type of game and do whai we like to do,” he said. ‘‘We’ll go into the game just trying to do certain things offensively, cut down on turnovers, try to control the defen sive boards, and play an up tempo game.” UNO’s starter Tom Thompson, a 6-foot-7 senior forward from Omaha Westside, will not play tonight be cause of a chipped bone in his right wrist that occurred last Thursday in practice. Thompson leads the Maver icks with 8 rebounds per game and is their second leading scorer with 15 points per game. Nee said the Mavericks Bryan Leach, who averages 16 points per game, is a good player.