Big-8 track meet moved to Nebraska
By Darran Fowler
Senior Reporter___
Three weeks of preparation have not hin
dered the Nebraska track coaching staff as it
prepares to stage the Big Eight meet
Nebraska assistant coach and meet coordi
nator Mark Kostek said the Comhuskers will
successfully coordinate the meet even though
they were given short notice.
The location of the meet, which will be
staged Friday through Sunday, was changed
from Norman, Okla., to Nebraska’s Ed Weir
Stadium after Oklahoma officials feared the
renovation of their track would not be com
pleted in time.
“We’re doing in three weeks what should
take a year to complete,’’ Kostek said. “One
thing we’ve been very fortunate in is that we
have gotten great support within the university.
We’ve got this huge task ahead of us and
everyone is asking us, 'What can we do to
help?’
“With the support we have we’re gonna
pull off a great meet. That kind of support
makes my job a lot easier, otherwise it would
be a big headache. I’m just fortunate to be in the
position that lam.’’
Kostck said Nebraska track office secretary
Linda Leupold will have the “headache” job.
He said Leupold will have difficulty because
the Big Eight office will not release the meet’s
entries until Friday morning.
“Linda is under a tremendous amount of
stress,” Kostck said. “They have put her under
a lot of stress because she has to get all that
information in and get it in accurately.”
Kostek said Leupold is a capable performer.
“The Big Eight has asked to hire her to do
all the meets,” he said. “That’s how highly
she’s regarded.”
Sites for the outdoor meet arc determined by
a rotation system among the conference’s eight
schools. Nebraska was expected to hold the
meet in 1991, but now has switched with Okla
homa.
Oklahoma track coach J.D. Martin said he
first wanted to trade dates with Oklahoma
State, which is the site of next year’s meet. He
said he wants to have the meet on the Sooncrs’
refurbished John Jacobs Field next season.
“We’re fortunate that Nebraska is
equipped,” Martin said, “and it’s probably the
best of all the schools to put together the meet
on the spur of the moment.
“We would still like to have it next year if
Oklahoma State would switch with us, because
we’d like to have it on our new facilities.’’
Martin said he was disappointed that the
meet had to be staged elsewhere.
“We wanted to have it even though we’re
not very good right now,’’ he said. “1 think
everyone would like to have it, but things just
didn’t work out.”
John Jacobs Field will still be the site of the
Olympic Festival this summer, Martin said
“We’ve relocated events and it will be
bigger and better,’’ he said. “It will be a totally
new track from the giound up.”
Martin said the Sooners’ $614,000 renova
tion project still may be ready by this weekend,
but officials did not want to take that chance.
‘ ‘They said it would be ready by the time the
meet started but there was no guarantee and we
can’t count on that,” he said. “We couldn’t
wait until the last day with something like the
Big Eight track meet. It may be ready by that
time, but we had to make a decision.”
Marlin said if contractors could have started
on time, the track would have been finished in
September. He said funding delayed the pro
ject’s start until just before the winter season.
Those circumstances have forced the Soon
ers to train indoors and at various high schools,
Martin said.
“It’s not been a good situation,” he said.
Kostek said running the meet is easy. He
said the problems lie in the arrangements be
forehand.
Kostek said it was difficult to find hotel
rooms for all the teams because Nebraska’s
graduation ceremonies are also going to be on
Saturday. Those ceremonies will take place at
the Bob Devaney Sports Center.
“It has been a scramble,” Kostek said.
“We’re gonna use every last second that we
can to see that this meet goes off without a
hitch.”
He said having the meet at home has its
advantages and disadvantages.
‘ ‘The advantage is that hopefully we’ll have
some fan support that is biased to Nebraska,”
Kostek said. “The disadvantage is that all the
other coaches arc going to be very involved
with the running of the meet.
“Our athletes are slighted for the prepara
tion of this meet. They are not going to get the
100 percent attention that they deserve. Prepa
ration of the athlete is difficult.”
Campus rec officials consider changing dunking rules
By Jeff Apel
Senior Editor
A survey will play a key role in
determining whether dunking will be
allowed in all Nebraska intramural
basketball games next year.
Stan Campbell, the director of
Campus Recreation at the University
of Nebraska-Lincoln, said his of
fice’s advisory council will send a
dunking survey to peer institutions
over the summer. He said the survey
will ask schools if they allow dunk
ing, and if it is permitted, the types of
problems that are incurred.
Campbell said the biggest risks
involved with dunking arc injuries
and costs. He said a glass backboard
and a rim cost approximately $900 to
replace.
‘‘That doesn’t even count installa
tion,” Campbell said.
Campbell said the 10-mcmbcr
advisory council wants to allow
dunking because of the effect it has
on players’ attitudes. He said some
players arc upset when they dunk
throughout their high school careers,
then find out they can’t dunk in colle
giate intramurals.
The Office of Campus Recrea
tion’s current policy states that if
someone dunks, the game will be
stopped and that person’s team has to
forfeit.
Campbell said the advisory coun
cil wants to change that policy. He
said the board is considering several
options in the event that a backboard
or rim is damaged.
“We haven’t decided if we would
collect from the individual,’’
Campbell said, “or if wc would incur
the costs ourselves.’’
Campbell said that the last time a
backboard was shattered, the Office
of Campus Recreation billed the stu
dent. He said the student paid $525.
“It was a very expensive lesson,”
Campbell said.
Campbell said the new basketball
courts included in Phase II of the
student recreation center will have
break-away rims. Phase II of the rec
reation center, which includes rac
quetball courts and a renovation of
the swimming pool in the NU Coli
seum, is scheduled to be completed
by the start of the 1989-90 academic
year.
Campbell said the courts in the
Military and Naval Science Building
also have break-away rims. He said
the only areas that don’t have break
away rims arc die courts in the Coli
seum and the courts in Mabel Lee
Hall.
Campbell said break-away rims
could be installed in the Coliseum if
Phase III of the renovation plan is
approved by the Nebraska Legisla
ture. That phase, which includes a
new center for healthy lifestyles, is
scheduled to begin in January 1990.
Sipple: Baltimore’s Olson
has signs of greatness
Rookie Baltimore pitcher Gregg
Olson has a big-time fastball,
and a curvcball that’s baffled
some of baseball’s best hitters.
The Orioles’ No. 1 draft pick last
year, Olson took a 3-0 record and
2.84 earned run average into Sun
day’s game against Seattle. Olson, an
Omaha Northwest product, is show
ing signs of greatness. He’s22, and he
has struck out 14 hitters in 19 innings.
For those who saw the big, burly
right-hander pitch in high school, his
major league success might not be
too surprising. Olson could have
brought Oakland’s Mark McGwire to
his knees with his wicked curve as a
16-year-old, too. OK, maybe not, but
so it seemed.
Olson skipped puberty. He was
always too big, and he was throwing
90 miles per hour in junior high. In
high school, when he was pitching in
ballparks in North Platte, Hastings
and Columbus, he may as well have
been pitching in Yankee Stadium. He
had ‘ ‘ major leagues’ ’ written all over
him.
That doesn’t mean he was likable.
See OLSON on 12
Campus recreation seeks suggestions
The Office of Campus Recreation is seeking input on its televised
coverage of a variety of sporting events.
Craig Christensen, the relations director at the Office of Campus
Recreation, said people who enjoy watching the weekly show should
provide feedback so additional equipment may be purchased. He said
the equipment is necessary if the show is going to improve in quality.
The Office of Campus Recreation can be reached by calling 472
3467. Letters may be addressed to 1740 Vine St., Lincoln, 68588.
(Assistant basketball coach to leave
Steve High, who served as an assistant coach for the Nebraska
women’s basketball team for the past three years, was named the new
coach at Pittsburg (Kan.) University.
The Gorillas are a member of the National Association of Intercol
legiate Athletics.
Bs make Big-8 team
aska softball team were named to this
l-team honors were third baseman Ruth
Ida. Outfielders Jill and Joy Rishel and
vie, first baseman Deanna Mays and
ud honorable-mention honors.
Allen Schaben/Daily Nebraskan
Jeff Rogers, a contract employee of MUSCO, makes final adjustments before putting up
a set of lights at Buck Beltzer Field.
Comhusker baseball team’s season
expected to ‘brighten up’ this weekend
By Jerry Guenther
Senior Reporter
One bright spot for the Nebraska
baseball team could be in place this
weekend when lights arc installed at
Buck Beltzer Field.
John Amend, assistant director of
the physical plant, said that with
cooperative weather and some luck,
the lights will be up and ready to use
when the Comhuskcrs open their fi
nal regularly scheduled series against
Iowa State on Friday.
Amend said eight poles, which
range from 90 to 120 feet in length,
began arriving last weekend.
“We’d like to have them up
within seven days,’’ Amend said.
“The sub-contractor has been work
ing 12-to-16-hour days installing
them.’*
Amend said two of the poles will
be located next to the grandstand.
Five additional poles will be located
around the chain-link fence that sur
rounds the infield and one pole will
be located next to Cook Pavilion.
None of the poles will be located
in the outfield, Amend said, because
the Nebraska football team uses that
area for practice in the fall.
Amend said there will be about
250 lights attached to the eight poles.
That will be bright enough ‘Ho broad
cast night games on color televi
sion,” he said.
The lights arc manufactured by
Musco Lighting of Oskaloosa, Iowa
-- the same company that sets up the
temporary lights used for night foot
ball games at Memorial Stadium.
The total cost of the project was
$298|950t
The lights, which were scheJulcd
to be in place April 7, were delayed
by some planning changes.
Amend said the original design
was donated from a private firm and
had to be adjusted by the physical
plant and Musco Lighting.
Though the planning caused a
delay, Amend said, the wait was
beneficial.
‘‘I think it’s going to be the best
design that we could have hoped
for,” Amend said.
Nebraska baseball coach John
Sanders said he hopes the lights will
be ready Friday, and that no official
dedication has been planned.
Sanders said night baseball should
allow more people to attend games
because they won’t have to miss work
or skip class to attend.
