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.
