Page 14 THE BATTALION
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 6, 1978
the sports
SWC champs prepare for new season
inexpen-
By SEAN PETTY
Battalion Staff
It was a year ago Saturday that the
Texas A&M University track team
started its successful drive for the
Southwest Conference track cham
pionship. It was the first indoor
track meet of the season for the Ag
gies in Baton Rouge, La.
It was also a year ago that coaches
Charles Thomas and Ted Nelson
had no idea what the 1977-78 Aggie
track team would be like because of
the number of young,
enced members.
“We just were not sure how all of
our freshmen would do last year,”
said Nelson, who will take the Ag
gies to Baton Rouge again this
weekend for the first indoor meet of
the new season. “We knew they
could be good but didn’t realize how
good they really were. ”
The first-year men started to
show just how good they were at the
start of the outdoor season, lowering
their times on the track and len
gthening their distances in the field
events. By the end of the season,
the freshmen had firmly established
themselves among the older, ex
perienced members of the team.
In fact, of the top ten scorers on
the 1978 SWC champion team, five
were freshmen.
Freshman quarterback-sprinter-
hurdler Mike Mosley led all Aggies
with 120 points for the season. And
he didn’t even run in all of the
meets because of spring football
training.
Leslie “Snook’’ Kerr came to
Texas A&M having never run the
400-meter dash before, ended up
winning that event at the confer
ence meet with a time of 45.71. He
also battled Texas’ Johnny “Lam”
Jones to the wire in the 1600-meter
relay to give the Aggies the victory
in that event. Kerr was fourth lead
ing scorer.
Pole vaulter Randy Hall brought a
long list of credentials with him to
Texas A&M and proved that he was
worth his scholarship by breaking
the SWC conference record with a
vault of 16 feet 10V4 inches. Hall was
ninth leading score for the Ags.
First-year men Arthur Williams
and Billy Busch were tied for 10th
place in scoring. Williams ran a 45.3
leg on the 1600-meter relay team
and placed second in the 400-meter
dash at the conference meet. Busch
ran the 110- and 400-meter hurdles
all year placing sixth in the 110-
meter hurdles at the conference
meet.
Needless to say, coaches Thomas
and Nelson know where they stand
at the beginning of this season as
they start work towards a second
consecutive conference champion
ship.
“We will have a very competitive
track team,” Nelson said. “We feel a
little better about the team this year
because they are all a little older.
We have a little more confidence in
them.”
But last year’s success was not all
due to the rookies. In fact, it was
senior sprinter Ray Brooks who led
the Aggies to the conference cham
pionship. Brooks scored 18.5 points
by running on the winning 400-
meter relay team, winning the
200-meter dash and placing third in
the 100-meter dash.
“It’s going to be hard to replace
some of the guys who won’t be back
this year,” Nelson said. Manfred
Kohrs, Brooks and Randy Scott
won’t be back.
Scott made a rare decision when
he decided to give up his schol
arship because he said he was not
giving enough time to throwing the
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shot put and felt it was unfair to the
school.
Manfred Kohrs was a solid per
former in the 1500-meter dash for
the Aggies all year. He was third in
total points.
“Manfred is going to be hard to
replace because he would take away
points from teams like Rice who
dominate the long races,” Nelson
said.
“We have a lot of people from last
year’s team coming back and some
more real good freshmen coming
in,” Nelson said, “but the main key
to any teams success anywhere is
the injury situation.
“You are fortunate if yovi can stay
away from injuries and we did all
last year until the NCAA meet when
Brooks was hurt. That really hurt us
because he was running so well at
the end of the season.”
The Aggies had a good recruiting
year with emphasis on 400-meter
dash men.
“We really concentrated on
400-meter men because we want to
have a strong relay team to make up
for any other weaknesses we might
have,” Nelson said. “There will be
five or six people who can make the
1600-meter relay team. I’ve been
real pleased with freshman Steve
Willis who is running the 400 better
now than Kerr was at this time last
year.
“We were pretty good in the
1600-meter relay last year but we
should be good this year,” he said. If
a time of 3:06.13 in the 1600-meter
relay is just "pretty good”, what is
good? The Aggies’ relay team was
among the top ten in the country
last year also.
While the Aggie coaches concen
trated on 400-meter dash men, they
have not forgotten the other areas of
the team in their recruiting.
“We are getting Michael Finley,
who is a fine sprinter from Mesa
Community College in Arizona at
the beginning of next semester,” he
said. “He has run the 220-yard dash
in 20.4 so he should help out our
400-meter relay team.
“We’ve got two freshmen high
jumpers who are jumping very well.
One has cleared 6 feet 8 inches and
the other 6-foot-10.
The coaches are also looking for
improvement out of the older mem
bers on the team.
“Tim Scott has improved so much
already from last year because he
worked very hard on his strength
over the summer,” he said. “He has
already thrown 58 feet in the shot
put and his longest throw last year
was 55 feet. We expect big things
from him in the discus also.
“Tony Wheeler, Joel Vogt and
Tom Glass should come through for
us once again in the 800-meter dash.
Another freshman, Darryl Shoe-
make, should help also. He won the
class A 880-yard dash championship
four years in a row,” he said.
Football players Mosley and Cur
tis Dickey have received the green
light from head football coach Tom
Wilson to run track this spring.
“I think I could afford to lose
some football games,” Wilson said
jokingly, “but if I didn’t let Curtis
run track I could lose my job.”
Dickey made the all-America
team in both indoor and outdoor
track and was the NCAA indoor 60-
yard dash champion.
The meet this Saturday in Baton
Rouge is basically for fun Nelson
said.
"If we do good, fine; if we don’t
that’s fine,” he said. "This is mainly
to get the guys thinking about track
over the holidays and ginj
centive to work hard (fc
break.
"We know they are n)t]i
It wfi
ready to run yet but it nit
know where they stand
The 1978-79 Aggie trad
pears to be even
year’s and as long as tie
mains healthy, they may
er very memorable
May in Austin as
back conference chami
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Battalion photo by t|
Texas A&M’s David Britton goes against Calvin Garrett of
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Oilers receive injury
United Press International
HOUSTON — Wide receiver
Mike Renfro had knee surgery
Tuesday and will miss the remain
der of the season, the Houston Oil
ers announced.
Renfro, a rookie from Texas
Christian, had been starting for the
Oilers because of injuries and was
one of several players hurt in Sun
day’s 13-3 loss to the Pittsburgh
Steelers. Houston now has only
three healthy wide receivers.
Earl Campbell, the N
ing rusher who missed n
game after taking a hard hi
side, suffered a cracked®
expected to play Sunday
New Orleans.
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