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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 25, 1978)
Sports facilities battle bad weather THE BATTALION Page 13 WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 25. 1978 I By DERRICK GRUBBS ! Construction of two campus ath- etic facilities, both originally meduled to be completed by De- Mnber, has been delayed due to inclimate weather and construction problems. Completion of A&M’s new $710,000 tennis facility, located west of the educational television building, has been set back indefi nitely because of defects in the con struction of the grandstand. A&M officials and representatives of M ar eal Construction, Inc. of Bryan had been conferring for nearly two months devising an acceptable solu tion to the problem. This past Monday John Mer chant, head of the Building Con- VERNON SMITH DAVE GOFF JOEY ROBINSON WILLIE FOREMAN Aggie notes . ty toj in Ft [ round le sloit roman tion, mers i r fishii ion yott slows I' I go :>rrv ght to ad if I n stod hanlt dock bad (»: Defensive ends coach R.C. Slocum had a short stay at Ole Miss, in one day and out the next. “After arriving at Ole Miss and comparing everything there with Texas A&M, I decided I’d be much better of! remaining with the Aggies, Slocum said. “I’m thankful Coach Bel- lard let me come back. Bellard said, “I’m very pleased that Coach Slocum decided to remain on our staff at Texas A&M. Dennis Swilley, reminiscing on his rookie season with the Min nesota Vikings: “Against the Detroit Lions, I was the last man with a chance at tackling their kickoff return man when all of a sudden someone cut my legs from under me. Then I discovered the blocker was ole Aggie teammate Garth TenNapel. It was a weird feeling.’’ SWC football signing date, usually on a Tuesday in the past, comes on Wednesday, February 8, this year. The Aggies are confident they 11 reap another fine crop of high school recruits. Andrea Welch, freshman from Madision, Wise., has a women’s gold scholarship at Texas A&M hut she can always fall back on skiing if her links play falters. On a recent between-semesters skiing trip, the resident pro went down the slalom run in 24 seconds and an nounced that was as fast as anyone could go. Andrea then covered the run in 25 seconds. Texas A&M’s men’s golf team has 13 tournament appearances scheduled for the spring. Included are the Fresno State Classic in California; Deacon Invitational in Winston-Salem, N.C. and Southern Intercollegiate in Athens, Ga. California Angels strikeout king Nolan Ryan will prepare for the 1978 season by working out with the Texas Aggies, starting next week. He’ll also offer aid to Aggie hurlers. Keith Carter, senior Aggie eager from Youngstown, Ohio, lost the battle of the hooks and is scholastically sidelined. He had played in five games and had scored seven points. A&M’s new $700,000 tennis facility won t he com pletely ready for this season. A&M’s 1979 football schedule has been completed with the hook ing of pass-happy Brigham Young into Kyle Field on Sept. 8. The other two non-conference games that season find the Aggies journey ing to Penn State on September 22 and to Memphis State on Sep tember 29. “I’m as proud as I’ve ever been of a team that lost a game,’ Texas A&M coach Shelby Metcalf said after his Aggies had dropped a 79-77 overtime decision to 15th-ranked Texas. Metcalf is hopeful that the full 45-minute effort by his players will signal the beginning of a drive toward a home-court berth for the first round of the SWC Tourna ment. The Aggies are now 1-5 in SWC play with a Wednesday game against TCU in Fort Worth and a Saturday home TV appearance at 3 p.m. against Rice. Two Aggie wins would likely tie them with Baylor and SMU for fifth place at the end of the first round. Then Baylor comes to G. Rollie White Monday to open the cr ucial second round. Starters for A&M will he sophomore Dave Goff at the point, junior Joey Robinson and senior Willie Foreman at the wings, and freshmen Vernon Smith and Rynn Wright at the posts. Robinson had a career high 23 points against Texas while Wright (17) and Smith (12) combined for 29 rebounds. The Texas A&M women’s basketball team pulled a big upset Monday by beating the Texas women 59-52 behind Von Bunn’s 25 points. The Texas team was ranked 13th nationally and No. 2 in Texas. The Aggie Ladies are now 11-8 for the season and play Lamar in Beaumont Wednesday, McLennan County in G. Rollie White Col iseum Friday and visit Texas Southern Monday. Dedication ceremonies for Texas A&M’s new 5,000 seat baseball staduim have been set for Mar. 21. The facility has been named for C.E. “Pat” Olsen, class of 1923 and a former major league player with the New York Yankees. The ceremony will be held prior to the baseball game between the defending Southwest Conference champion Texas Aggies and peren nially powerful Southern Cal Trojans. Special guests will include several members of baseball s Hall of Fame along with Commissioner Bowie Kuhn. Texas A&M s men’s track team posted one first and four third places in the LSU indoor meet last weekend in Baton Rouge. The Aggies finished fourth behind Alabama, LSU and Houston. Manfred Khors won the mile in 4:15.22. The thirds came from Pat Ruehle in the pole vault (16-0), Tom Glass in the 1,000-yard run (2:16.83), Billy Busch in the 60-yard high hurdles (7.65) and Lane Mitchell in the three-mile (14:19.76). struction Department of Texas A&M, said that an agreement had been reached with Marcal that called for a 90-day extension of the project contract wherein the stands must be torn down and recon structed. The problems was initiated Oct. 21 when Marcal began pouring con crete for the grandstand risers and support beams. The concrete was pumped into an upright mold through a procedure known as cast-in-place. Three weeks later, the forms were removed and it was discovered that the concrete had not settled properly. X-rays revealed tiny vein-like voids within the base of the structures. “We wanted to be careful not to add too much water to the concrete mixture that would weaken the structures,” Don Martell of Marcal explained. “Instead we had a lack of water and the concrete dried too fast, leaving the voids. Although safety of the structure was the immediate concern of the University officials and Marcal, it became apparent after further exam ination that the longevity of the structure would he primarily af fected. “After we were certain that safety was not so much a factor, we dis cussed the long-term aspects, said Martell. “Originally, we estimated the life of the structure at 30 years. We agreed that if rain got into the voids, it would rust the steel framework of the stands and their longevity would be shortened as much as ten years.” Consulting Engineers on the project, Lockwood, Andrews and Newman (Houston), made proposals for the reconstruction, as did Mar cal, but no solution was reached until late last week. “We’ve agreed to allow Marcal an extension in order to rebuild the stands using the same construction procedure,’ Merchant said Monday. “We would hope that the contractor exercises the proper quality control and workmanship control. It’s a difficult and complex operation and I’m certain Marcal will take all precautions necessary to complete the project as soon as pos sible.” Merchant said the University re quested the project be divided into three parts under the original con tract: — The concrete grandstand struc ture, which will accomodate up to 600 spectators and will include show and dressing room facilities under neath. — Eight varsity tennis courts, constructed for intercollegiate use. — 14 intramural courts, also to be used by the physical education de partment. The facilities included in each part of the contract will be inspected and accepted by the University on a separate basis at their deseretion. Merchant estimates that the eight fin varsity courts should be ready inspection in about a month. . ! The other athletic facility on which construction has been delayed is the $1.5 million baseball stadium lo cated across Welborn Road. The facility, to be dedicated March 21 as C. E. “Pat” Olsen Field, has had its completion date set back indefi nitely due to poor weather. The ' contract for the stadium has been broken down into three parts: — Construction of the main ac cess road to the stadium, to be named Beef Cattle Road. — Parking, which includes two main lots, one south of the stadium and one west. j — The stadium itself, which will seat 5,000. Currently, construction of the west parking lot is being held up due to the poor weather last week and the first part of this week. Be cause of the overall contract agree ment, the baseball team cannot use the facility until the entire project is * completed. “Well have to play our first few home games somewhere else like old Kyle Field or Travis Park in Bryan, said A&M baseball coach Tom Chandler. "Right now we re shooting to be in the stadium for our first Southw'est Conference series against the University of Houston in early March. The Aggies are scheduled to open the 1978 season on Feb. 17 at home ; against LSU, 7 The Battalion Classified 845-2611 Pre-Law Society Meeting Wednesday January 25 7:30 p.m. Rm. 402 Rudder Vrestling team defeats op-rated Richland 45-10 > quiet id’s voi By MICHAEL KITKOSK1 were the Texas A&M wrestling team lacks’ My defeated highly rated Rich- h1 the P College Tuesday night after the twasf^ ies were awarded five forfeit nan ad F'hes due to injured Richland f no li: se, w it in' ■ussedt Top 20 jlam Points ‘ " 1. Kentucky (41) 14-0 410 ’ll ] sf |2. Marquette 14-1 357 3. North Carolina 15-2 278 irtl 4, Arkansas 16-1 201 as 5. UCLA 13-2 171 ll!6. Kansas 15-2 148 nver i 7 Michigan St. 14-1 147 u„ 7*. Notre Dame 11-3 130 9 Louisville 11-3 68 10. Providence 15-1 60 cle .11 Syracuse 13-2 55 12. New Mexico 13-2 37 13. Indiana St. 12-2 31 \ M. Georgetown 13-2 27 T 15. San Francisco 12-4 26 H 16. Florida St. 14-2 21 > IT. Texas 13-2 13 H 18. Colorado St. 12-3 12 H 19. DePaul 14-2 11 H j20 Duke 14-3 10 players. It was the second time this season that the Aggies had beaten Richland, this time by a point total of 45-10. In the heavyweight division, Cur tis Templet pinned Joe Grudza in just over a minute to seal the Aggies victory. Other Aggie wins included Larry Johnson with a 7-4 decision over David Traver, John Sweatt with a 31 second fall over Scott McIntyre, and Bob Santini with a six minute fall over Bill Watton. Richland victories included a 17-4 decision over Andy Cotes by Boh Hurst, and a 12-3 match with Ron Zeno defeating previously unbeaten Blake Purrell. Texas A&M wrestling coach Larry Cannel said that Purrell was wrestl ing in a weight class higher than his listed weight in order to place a formidable opponent against the highly rated Zeno. Purrell wrestled in the 190 class against Zeno, up two classes from his accustomed 167. “We weren’t very worried about Richland because they’ve had quite a few problems with injuries, Can nel said. “Richland is the second best team in the state, but we’ve got three new kids on our team this semester that should make our team a lot stronger. Bill Kelvey, Zane Smith, Billy Schlittler and Mel Mehrtens all posted forfeit victories last night due to injured Richland wrestlers. The Aggies move on to Texas Tech this weekend where they will participate in an invitational tour nament, and then on to Missouri for a match on the weekend of Feb ruary 3-4. Tvpfnamba "■V Eddie Dominguez ’66 Joe Arciniega ’74 If you want the real thing, not frozen or cmned ... We call It "Mexican Food Supreme.” Dallas location: 3071 Northwest Hwy 352.8570 % GET YOUR CAREER OFF TO A FLYING START It takes four years to get a college degree. How long will it take you to get a good job? 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For further information call the Arts Committee at 845-1515 or come by Room 216 MSC. Submissions to the Arts Committee Poetry and Fiction Contest must be turned in no later than 5:00 p.m. January 27. Entries should be submitted to the English Dept. Office, Room 511 Harrington. DEADLINE JANUARY 27 Something Special ■ Monterey jilt \ iJiririEli • ft.. JRjmA GREAT ISSUES PRESENTS Tom McCall former governor of Oregon environmentalist speaking on: THE FUTURE OF MAN’S ENVIRONMENT Rudder Theater - Jan. 26 8:00 p.m. Students 50c Others $1.00 Wednesday Only Do What you’ve Always Wanted To Do: Fly An Airplane! And Do It Now With Our Special DISCOVERY FLIGHT... $10.00 Pays For Everything! If you’re one of the countless numbers who have always wanted to fly an airplane, do it now! This ad and $10.00 will put you in the pilot's seat of a Cessna. You'll actually fly the airplane with the assistance of a professional CFC flight instructor. 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