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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (March 26, 1979)
THE BATTALION MONDAY, MARCH 26, 1979 Page 9 viewpoint By MARK PATTERSON Battalion Staff Play St. Mary’s today Ags take two from Owls had eekend of fights as a real knockout In its three short years of existence, Sigma Phi Epsilon Fight Night ias finally come of age. Not only has the quality of fighters progressed ith each year of existence, the event has ballooned into one of the ighlights of the spring semester at Texas A&M. Held this year at the Brazos County Pavilion — an excellent facility r holding such an event — 75 contestants and 66 fights were iqueezed into 17 hours of boxing Friday and Saturday. While the blood was flowing inside the ring, in the stands the beer was being nsumed at a record rate. The Sig Eps sold 54 kegs Friday night one and a total of 101 kegs this year, compared to 52 total kegs sold |ast year. For last year’s event the Sig Eps purchased a regulation-size ring in n attempt to upgrade the quality of boxing. This year the fraternity pent $800.00 on equipment for the two-day affair, purchasing a new ad and canvas for the ring. The new equipment was put to good use as there were eight tech- ical knockouts (TKO) and two knockouts (KO) in the tournament. Carl Kickham, fighting in the lightweight open division, once again ame away with the divisional championship, earning a unanimous lecision over Bob Pope in the night’s first championship bout. Kic- ham, fighting this year under the team name of American Amicable ife, had to win fights over Richard Campbell and Kim Thomas to ake it into Saturday’s championship. “I had to train a lot more for this year’s tournament,” Kickham said :er his final fight. “These guys were a lot meaner than the three I d to fight last year. “Because I’m short (standing about 5-foot-5) I have to stay in close, e aggressive and not get hurt. I can’t think about losing. I have to tay positive.” Kickham’s philosophy rubbed off on his teammate, Brian Rice. For he second year in a row, Rice won the open middleweight division town, earning a unanimous decision over Scott Holman. Rice’s and Kickham’s victories were enough to earn the American micable team 6% points and a first-place tie with Puryear Hall, 'uryear was paced by David St. Germain’s victory in the open light eavyweight division and Larry “Buck” Buchanan’s victory in the ipen heavyweight division. St. Germain’s championship came on a first round KO of Kyle anek. Buchanan earned a unanimous decision over Mark Wetzel in he finals of the heavyweight division. In the Greek lightweight division, Eddie Burris, representing Pi appa Alpha, won a unanimous decision over Sig Ep Billy Fisher. Ireg Propst, also of Pi Kappa Alpha, won the Greek middleweight ivision with a unanimous decision over Billy Waddell of Sigma Chi. In the only split decision of the eight championship fights, Dana rams of Sigma Chi, fighting as a light heavyweight, earned a deci- over Ed Simmons of Sigma Phi Epsilon. Confusion followed the inclusion of the bout when it was announced that Simmons was the inner. After conferring with the ringside judges, Grams was ruled winner of the fight. In the night’s last fight, 205-pound Mike Bailey, fighting for Alpha a Omega fraternity, KOed 199-pound Sig Ep Bobby Howell at 1:21 n the first round to win the Greek heavyweight division. For the third year in a row, Sigma Phi Epsilon took team honors in e Greek division with a seven-point total. Sigma Chi and Pi Kappa Ipha tied for second with six points apiece. A unique aspect of this year’s Fight Night was the variety of entertainment offered the spectators. Besides the fighting in the ring Friday night, a few of the spectators were caught up in the action and ecided to mix it up themselves. And it wasn’t restricted to the males the audience as two female fans disagreed to the point of physically abusing each other. Saturday night, sororities participated in pillow fights, pitting two members from two sororities in the ring for two 30-second rounds, with the winner decided by the crowd’s applause. The girls took the fights seriously. In the finals, matching Delta Zeta against Kappa Alpha Theta, a member of Delta Zeta was KOed in the second round and remained unconscious for several minutes. The first annual pillow fight cham pionship was awarded to Kappa Alpha. The Kappa Pickers, members of Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority, supplied musical entertainment for the crowd before Saturday night’s finals began. This is the fourth Fight Night I’ve attended, one at Stephen F. Austin, another at Texas Tech and the last two held here at Texas A&M. Gary Childress, this year’s chairman, and the rest of the mem bers of Sigma Phi Epsilon can be proud of the job done this year. I have never attended such an event that was run so smoothly. Those of you who missed the two-day affair missed not only some good boxing but one heck of a good time as well. .the the By DAVID BOGGAN Battalion Sports Editor Mark Thurmond and Allan Ramirez are possibly the two best pitchers in the Southwest Confer ence. Depending on who you talk to, both have been mentioned as the best man on the mound in the league. Last weekend’s Texas A&M-Rice series in Houston brought Thur mond, the Aggies’ senior left hander, and Ramirez, the Owls’ senior right-hander, together so that baseball fans could make their own comparison. But deciding who is the best still might not be all that easy; both Thurmond and Ramirez won their games in the series. Ramirez was credited with the 2-0 victory in the series opener Friday afternoon and Thurmond won Saturday’s first game 18-5. The most interesting game of the series, however, came with Ramirez’s arm still sore from his work the previous day and with Thurmond applying ice to his left shoulder. In the hitters’ duel that was Saturday’s nightcap, Texas A&M’s freshman, Bobby Taylor, was cred ited with the Aggies’ 11-8 victory. Before the final out, the Aggies had collected 14 hits off of Rice pitching. Texas A&M’s clean-up batter Kyle Hawthorne set the scoreboard in action in the first inning with a 380-foot grand slam homerun. The Aggies scored two more runs in the first, and after a half inning of play. Rice fans were already starting to leave. But the Owls maintained faith in themselves and scored four runs off of six hits in the first inning. Rice continued to chase the Aggies, col lecting 11 hits off of Aggie pitching, but the Owls could get no closer than an 8-7 deficit in the third in- ning. “In that last game we just had some breakdowns on defense out there,’’ Texas A&M coach Tom Chandler said. “But it did seem to make things interesting.” Hawthorne, who along with des ignated hitter Rodney Hodde had two homeruns Saturday afternoon, said that the Aggies’ fast start might have had something to do with Rice’s comeback. “Maybe we relaxed a little after the first inning and let them come back,” Hawthorne said. “Overall, Rice is not a good team. But they’re a proud team. They don’t want to lose just like anybody else doesn’t want to lose.” In Friday’s game, Texas A&M’s Mark Ross gave up only six hits, but the Aggies could not score any runs off Ramirez. “We just weren’t hitting,” Chan dler said. “And I think that we might have been overmatched by Ramirez.” Ramirez scattered five hits and Jim Michalek drove in two runs with a double in Friday’s contest. Ramirez was never in serious trouble in going the distance for the Owls to pick up his third win of the season. It was the first SWC loss fpr LOOKS LIKE Mt WAS K MISTAKE SHUT HIM OUT OM fft I MY / piSWP 1 ' Ip 1979 Aggie notes Ags place second the Aggies this season. The Rice runs came in the third inning with Kenny Baldwin and Mike McGee on base. Michalek came up and drove the ball safely into the outfield for a double that brought in both runners. Saturday’s opener was highligh ted by a seven-run second inning for the Aggies. Thurmond had a three- inning shut-out before the Owls scored twice in the fourth and fifth innings. The Aggies went on to win the contest, scoring three of their last four runs on a homerun by Hodde. The Aggies are 5-1 in SWC games and 15-7 for the season. The Owls dropped to 3-9 and 8-14. The Aggies travel to San Antonio today to play St. Mary’s University. Texas A&M 000 000 000 — 0 5 0 Rice 002 000 OOx — 2 6 1 Ross and Turner; Ramirez and Michalek. W—Ramirez (3-3). L—Ross (8-2). Texas A&M 070 331 4 — 18 20 1 Rice 000 220 1 — 5 10 3 Thurmond and Turner, Elmendorf. Williams, Isgitt (3), Johnson (6) and Michalek. WP — Thurmond (5-0). LP — Williams (2-4). HR — Rice: Burnell, Baldwin. Texas A&M: War- riner, Hawthorne, Hodde. Texas A&M 620 010 200 — 11 14 4 Rice 412 001 000 — 8 11 1 Pockrus, Taylor (3), McDonald (7) and Turner. Watson, Williams (6) and Michalek. WP — Taylor. LP — Watson. HR — Rice: Baldwin. Texas A&M: Hawthorne, McMath, McMath, Hodde. The Texas A&M softball team finished second in the Sooner In vitational in Norman, Okla., last weekend. The Aggies lost their opening game to Southwest Missouri, then defeated Northwestern, Kansas State, Minnesota, UT-Arlington and Oklahoma State before losing to Texas Women’s University in the fi nals, 2-0. The Aggies, who will host Indiana at 6 p.m. Wednesday at Travis Park, have a season record of 8-5. Track The Texas A&M women’s track team finished first in its own meet Saturday at Bryan Stadium. The Aggies had eight first-place finishers; javilin, Donna Branch, 147-18; long jump, Linda Waltman, 18-3%; discus, Vickilee Cobern, 138-9%; 100-meter hurdles, Waltman, 14.0; 880-meter run, Waltman, 2:15.4; 400-meter hur dles, Cindy Bartlett, 1:03.6; two- mile run, Lorie Scott, 11:00.29; mile-relay team, 3:58.3. Team points in the meet: Texas A&M, 174; Houston, 86; North Texas State, 72; Texas Southern, 62; Oklahoma State, 45; Sam Houston State, 40; Stephen F. Austin, 28; Lamar, 20; Texas Women’s Univer sity, 15; Texas A&I, 15; Baylor, 9; East Texas State, 9; UT-Arlington, 6; West Texas State, 5; Rice, 1. Handball Richard Harrison, a freshman management major, has been in vited to compete in the national handball championships in Coral Gables, Fla., May 5-12. Harrison, a member of the Texas A&M handball club, received the invitation after he won the South west United States Handball As sociation divisional championship (novice division) in Austin March 4. ¥ ¥ { ¥ ¥, ^Holleman at Anderson 693-658!, +++frit ft left fr frit it'toft ft HATE DOING LAUNDRY? Let Frannie's do it for you Aunt Frannies Laundromat England Dan & John Ford Coley Presented by TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY MSC TOWN HALL Qorioc At+ra/"* FRIDAY, APRIL 6, 8:00 P.M. G. ROLLIE WHITE COLISEUM A&M Student/Date Non A&M Student Date General Public General Admission FREE w/ticket $3.00 $4.00 Reserved $4.00/4.50 $4.00/4.50 $6.00/6.50 Tickets & info MSC Box Office 845-2916 INTERNATIONAL STUDENT ASSOCIATION General Meeting points to discuss (1) Elections | (2) budget approval (3) Constitutional Amendments (4) International week | March 26 at 7:30 p.m. Room 601 Rudder Tower i "rii if liiwr" rwn ~ ~ tw • ~ ~ rwirr^ rwy~ rwr •• n»