Pawnee City graduate helps make history

LINCOLN - Pawnee City graduate Jed Droge helped Nebraska Wesleyan University make history recently.

Droge was one of three mens track and field athletes from Wesleyan to be named to the ESPN The Magazine Academic All-American Team as selected by the College Sports Information Directors Association.

Wesleyan was the only institution in the nation with three selections to the first team in the mens track and field/cross country category this year.

It is also the first time in Wesleyan school history three student-athletes have made the first team for the same season in the same sport.

A senior long jumper at Wesleyan, Droge was a repeat first-team selection.

Droge graduated this spring with a 3.74 grade-point average and a double major in athletic training and exercise science.

In the long jump, Droge finished his career as a six-time All-American in just six NCAA meet appearances. He was also a three-time Great Plains Athletic Conference champion and a three-time GPAC runner-up in three years of competition at the college level, meaning Droge never placed lower than second in the long jump at an indoor or outdoor conference meet.

With his winning jump of 24-6 3/4 at the 2007 GPAC Outdoor Championships, Droge broke a 22-year-old Wesleyan school record in the event and automatically qualified for the national meet with the second-best jump of the season in Division III.