KANSAS TENNIS The men's and women's teams will defend their conference titles at the tournament in Kansas City, Mo. Page 3.
SPORTS UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
FRIDAY, APRIL 26, 1996
Softball player glad to be back
SECTION B
Matt Flickner / KANSAN
Extensive surgery doesn't keep Robinson away
Robinson has overcome serious back problems to return to the Jayhawks. She led the team in wins last season.
By Jenni Carlson Kansan sportswriter
The pain constantly knifed into Beth Robinson's back.
There were many times last season when she would lie down at night, and she couldn't get more than four or five hours of sleep. Three bulged disks and one herniated disk left Robinson, a senior pitcher for the Kansas softball team, unable to rest.
When that happened, Robinson would check in the next morning with Carol Jarosky, Kansas assistant athletic trainer. Jarosky would hook Robinson up to the nerve block machine in the Kansas athletic training room, and she would nap for an hour.
"That's really the only way I could sleep," Robinson said. "I can't imagine living that life again. I'm 22 years old, and I felt like I was 90. I didn't even know if I was going to be walking the next day or what."
While Robinson wondered if she was going to be able to walk, she knew she was going to have to pitch last season.
She was the pitcher.
That meant sometimes pitching on back-to-back days. Once, she threw both games of a doubleheader.
She had to use all arm, however. Because of the herniated disk, her sciatic nerve was pinched and she ended up not being able to use her legs half way through a game.
All the while, she struggled at times to even walk across campus.
Despite that, Robinson threw a team-high 163.3 inning, earned 63 percent of Kansas' victories and posted a team-best 2.53 ERA.
"She is a competitor and loves her sport. She probably endured more pain than anyone has realized to continue playing." Jarosky said.
rective surgery on her back. Haack had suffered through a similar injury, and surgery had corrected the problem.
After last season, Jarosky and then Kansas softball coach Kalum Haack tried to talk Robinson into having cor-
No measure of urging or pleading worked on Robinson. She fairly refused.
Robinson said that she didn't want surgery because the idea made her nervous and that she thought she would be able to continue playing through the pain.
And a summer's rest back home in Corona, Calif., didn't help much. Robinson knew she didn't want to play with the pain but also didn't want the surgery.
With those grim prospects and the
"I remember sitting in the kitchen with my brother and sister and my mom's best friend and them saying I'd come too far to not finish," Robinson said. "Everybody back home was pushing me to go through it."
recent death of her grandmother, Rob son almost didn't return to Lawrere last fall.
It wasn't the first time Robinson's family helped her. When Robinson was growing up and learning the game of softball, her father used to catch for her. After Ken Robinson had a stroke during his daughter's senior year of high
school, the duty fell to his son. Rick
That kind of support in a difficult time would be vital for Robinson when she returned to Kansas. She was ordered by Kenneth Wertzberger, Lawrence physician, to have magnetic resonance imaging done on her back.
By her appointment in August, Robinson's entire right leg had gone numb. The MRI confirmed the severity of her injury.
"The first thing I asked was if I didn't have the surgery, would I be able to
See ROBINSON. Page 2.
'Hawks,'Cats part Big Eight ways
By Dan Gelston Kansan sportswriter
After 38 years in the Big Eight Conference, Kansas and Kansas State will play their final regular season conference games this weekend when the teams conclude a five-game series.
The series, which began on Tuesday, reconvenes at 5 p.m. today in Manhattan. Tomorrow's game and Sunday's game will be at Hoglund-Maupin Stadium.
Today's game will be the 287th game between the teams. They split the first two games of the series, with Kansas winning 24-5 on Tuesday, and K-State winning 11-3 on Wednesday.
Both teams are assured of making the Big Eight tournament, May 16-19 in Oklahoma City.
Kansas has a 21-22 overall record and an 11-14 record in the conference,which puts them in fourth place. K-State is in the sixth and final conference spot with an 8-11 conference record and a 24-18 overall record.
But just making the tournament isn't enough for the Jayhawks.
Meadows said that the Jayhawks shouldn't look too far ahead.
"I think this team is good enough to make it to a (NCAA) regional," catcher Ted Meadows said. "We would be selling ourselves short if we were just happy to make the tournament."
"At the same time though, we can't be looking past the tournament or any games. We really have to take it a game at a time even if that's always said."
Kansas first baseman Justin Headley said the Jayhawks were ready for the tournament despite the fact they have been a streaky team this year.
"I wish we were more consistent," Headley said, "but we seem to be back to playing the kind of ball we played early in the year. That's the way this team is capable of playing and, if we play that way, then we should be in good shape."
Lawrence High School graduate and K-State baseball player Brad Harker will be honored at tomorrow's game at Hoglund-Maupin Stadium.
Brian Flink / KANSAN
Harker was the victim on a brutal beating in Ohio while playing on a summer baseball team. He was unable to return to baseball
Kansas senior catcher Ted Meadows takes a pitch in a game earlier this season against Oklahoma State. The Jayhawks will wrap up the conference season with three games against Kansas State.
this year, but hopes to play again next year.
Harker will throw the first pitch and will address the crowd
before the game.
The game's gate receipts will be donated to his medical fund.
Tyler Wirken / KANSAN
Kansas decathlete Nathan Prenger completes an attempt at last weekend's Kansas Relays.
Drake Relays awaits Kansas track and field team members
Steeplechase record holder Heeb will join her teammates in Des Moines, Iowa meet
Kansas senior Sarah Heeb set the American record in the women's 3,000-meter steeplechase last weekend at the Mount SAC track meet in Walnut, Calif.
By Adam Herschman
Kansan sportswriter
Besides setting the American record with a 10:34.5 time, Heeb will also go down in the meet's record books as the first winner of the inaugural event.
She will be competing June 23 in an exhibition event at the Olympic trials in Atlanta. The 3,000-meter steeplechase, however, will not be an Olympic event until the year 2000.
Heeb will compete with other members of the track and field team at the Drake Relays in Des Moines, Iowa.
The meet begins at 8 a.m. today, and will finish tomorrow at Drake Uni.
Row at Drake University's Stadium.
Members of the track and field team who are not competing in Des Moines will head east to compete in the Fifth annual Johnson County Relays, which were canceled last year because of rain.
"I'm looking forward to running events I don't normally run."
"Drake is usu-
ally a very big
meet, and you Robble O'Brien
Kansas sophomore hurdler
have to qualify for it," Kansas senior Aldiah Rounds said.
Kansas sophomore Robbie O'Brien will be a member of the 4x800-meter relay team and 4x200-meter relay team.
"I'm looking forward to running events that I don't normally run," said O'Brien, who usually competes in the hurdles.
Kansas sophomore Kendra Kahler, who is also a member of the Kansas volleyball team, will compete in her second outdoor meet.
She competed in one last year.
"I'm very excited to go, because this is my first meet this year," Kahler said.
Rams ignore Phillips' criminal past
Patriots release rights to former teammate with legal problems
ST. LOUIS — The New England Patriots may have backed away from their draft pick from Nebraska with a criminal past, but don't expect the St. Louis Kams to do the same.
The Associated Press
round, the Patriots released their rights to him Wednesday. The team said it had been unaware of Peter's legal problems, which included pleading guilty in 1994 to third-degree assault of a former Miss Nebraska.
Just days after picking defensive lineman Christian Peter in the fifth
The Rams picked Nebraska running back Lawrence Phillips with their first choice in the draft, the sixth pick overall. Phillips is on a year's probation after pleading no contest to charges that he beat a former girlfriend last fall.
unavailable for comment yesterday, but spokesman Rick Smith said the team stood by Phillips.
Rams coach Rich Brooks and general manager Steve Ortmayer were
"We were satisfied that he is dealing with his problems," Smith said. "We don't think he'll have a recurrence, and we'll give him all the support he needs."
As for the Patriots' decision on Peter, Smith said, "We wouldn't have a comment on what another team does."
One difference between the two former Nebraska teammates is that Phillips has no additional litigation pending. Peter is to be sentenced
OSBORNE UPSET: Nebraska's football coach said yesterday that he feels t ad about the situation between Peter and the Patriots. Page 3.
ROWING BRIEF
May 21 for disturbing the peace.
Phillips said the day after the draft that he was learning to control his anger through group counseling sessions.
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Peter also is named, along with the University of Nebraska, in a federal sex discrimination lawsuit filed by a woman who claims Peter raped her twice in 1991.
Rowers head to Wisconsin
Kansas staff report
The Kansas women's rowing team will travel to Madison, Wis., tomorrow for the Midwest Rowing championships.
This year is the 25th consecutive season the Midwest championships have been held in Madison and the first in which the Jayhawks will compete as a varsity level team.
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Heats will begin at 6:30 a.m. tomorrow and will run the rest of the morning. Finals will start at noon. Kansas will race in the novice eight, novice lightweight eight and the varsity lightweight four and eight.
The Jayhawks also will race in either the petite final or the finals of the novice four, novice eight and varisity four.
The petite finals are consolation races for boats that don't qualify for the finals.
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