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
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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
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DEADLINE JANUARY 27
Submissions to MOEBIUS A&M’s student maga
zine of the Arts must be turned in no later than 5:00
p.m. January 27. Poetry and prose entries should
be turned into the English Dept. Office, room 511,
Harrington. Art work and photography should be
submitted to the Secretaries desk, Room 216,
MSC.
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
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Rudder Theater - Jan. 26
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Others $1.00
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