Page 8 THE BATTALION
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 26, 1975
National qualifier
Blair vaults to success
By PAUL McGRATH
Staff Sports Writer
After winning the Southwest
Conference last year as a freshman,
one might ask what Texas A&M pole
vaulter Brad Blair could do for an
Well, it didn’t take him very long
to provide an answer. With the
track season about half over Blair
has already qualified for nationals
with a 16-7 vault last weekend. It
was the third time in a row the Aggie
sophomore had cleared 16 feet or
more in meet competition.
In addition to qualifying for Na
tional Collegiate Athletic Associa
tion meet held June 6 at Provo
Utah, Blair’s vault Saturday set a
school record. He topped Harold
McMahan’s old mark by an inch, a
mark that was set in 1971. Blair
came within an inch of putting his
name in the SWC record book as his
jump was just that short from eras
ing Dickie Phillips 16-8 set in 1970.
“Brad is coming along real good,
said A&M Track .Coach Charles
Thomas. “He has a chance to get 17
feet if he keeps working at it. ”
Blair came to A&M from Carth
age high school where he earned six
varsity letters in both football and
track. He began his vaulting career
in the seventh grade and continued
it into high school where his top
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Hitting at .371 clip
Schraeder still consistent
as Aggie secondsacker
By NICK VOINIS
Staff Sports Writer
Ask any Aggie baseball fan,
“Who’s on second?”, and the usual
answer will be, Mike Schraeder.
Schraeder has had a good year so
far. He has 26 hits in 70 times at bat
for a .371 average.
T started off pretty well,’
Schraeder said. “I got off on my
stroke, at Tulane, but I’ve gotten it
back now and I’m hitting well
again.”
The 6 foot 175 pound Houstonian
hopes to be the repeat choice for
All-Southwest Conference second
Mike Schraeder winding up for warmup throw
baseman this year. He hit with a
.408 average last year.
“It’s hard to say, there are a lot ol
good second basemen in our
league,” he said. “If I can continue
my hitting, I think I will have a good
chance.”
Schraeder missed the last 14
games of last season because of a
ruptured spleen he suffered in an
intrasquad game collision. He said
he has completely recovered from
that injury.
Schraeder feels the team to beat
this year will be the University of
Texas, but it will be hard for them to
go undefeated in conference play,
since there are some good teams in
the SWC.
“Texas really doesn’t have as good
a team as they’ve had in the past,
but they always have an excellent
club, ” Schraeder said. “They have a
hell-of-a-pitcher in Jim Gideon.”
Schraeder thinks the Aggies have
a good chance to contend with Texas
if they can win this weekend at
TCU.
“We 11 need to have a good series
against TCU and win at least 2 out of
the 3 games with them,” he said.
The senior finance major would
like to play professional baseball and
was drafted by the American
League Milwaukee Brewers after
his graduation from Sam Houston
High School in Houston.
“Td like to give it a shot, ” he said.
“I have always looked forward to it,
since I’ve played baseball so long.”
Schraeder has not set any per
sonal goals this year, although he
would like to finish the season with a
high batting average, some RBIs
and a little power. With his creden
tials so far he shouldn’t have much
to worry about.
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mark was 15 feet. Last year, as a
frosh, he reached 16 feet for the first
time. Blair was sixth among the
Aggie thinclads in point scoring,
amassing 46Vi tallies for last year’s
SWC second place team.
In the SWC meet last season,
Blair said he “squirreled” into first
place.
“I felt lucky to win it, ” says Blair.
David Shephard of Texas was the
pre-meet favorite but ended up not
even placing in the top six.
Blair admits he was shooting to
break the A&M record last
weekend.
“I guess you could say that was
one of my goals,” he said.
He hopes to top the SWC mark
but “can’t make any predictions. It’s
too unpredictable.”
Thomas feels this year’s winning
vault will be in the high 16’s or in the
17’s. As it stands now, Blair is the
man to beat although Shepard is
right behind him with a recent vault
of 16-6. Blair named Rice’s Mike
McElvin as another top adversary in
the event.
Coach Thomas has only one criti
cism of his scond year letterman.
“Brad might be an 18-footer if he
would stand up on the pole. He
needs to get vertical with the pole
and he hasn’t quite done that yet.
Blair agrees with Thomas and says
he uses films and pictures to help
him correct his mistakes.
Blair uses a 16% foot pole for his
vaults but says that all poles are just
about the same. The approach to the
bar is about 145 feet although Blair
never uses the whole distance to
make his attempt.
“You have to get prepared men
tally. If everything is not right, you
won’t make it, I’ll guarantee you
that,” he said.
Blair will compete this weekend
against some of the top vaulters in
the country as the Aggies partici
pate in the Dallas Invitational.
Teams such as Southern Cal,
UTEP, Kansas State and Oklahoma
State will be providing opposition
for A&M.
“Those guys are probably about
ten times better than I am,” said
Blair.
However, using Blair’s own
words, “you can’t make any predic
tions.”
Wooden says earlier success
will not effect current playoffs
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Coach
John Wooden wants neither the
success nor the failures of earlier
UCLA teams to have any affect on
the new young Bruins who try to
give the school its 10th NCAA bas
ketball title in 11 years this
weekend.
'This is a new group,” Wooden
said of his No. 1-ranked team that
faces Louisville in San Diego Satur
day in the NCAA semifinals.
“We re an almost entirely differ
ent group. Dave Meyers is the only
one who is starting this time,”
Wooden said.
Last season’s team, led by Bill
Walton, was favored to win an
eighth consecutive NCAA title, but
instead lost in double overtime to
North Carolina State in the semifi
nals.
The Bruins won their first NCAA
championship in 1964 and repeated
in 1965. They failed to make it the
following year but in 1967 UCLA
began a dynasty that ruled through
seven straight seasons until 1974.
Wooden said he wants his players
to realize that he doesn’t want them
to try to live up to the accomplish
ments of other teams of other years.
He emphasizes that earlier victories
cannot help now, but they should
not be a burden, and the same goes
for any disappointments that might
have gone before.
“This is a group that is workingfor
it on its own, not because of last
year. They are trying to do it for
their own pride and satisfaction,”
Wooden said.
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