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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 10, 1979)
Page 16 THE BATTALION MONDAY, DECEMBER 10, 1979 American gymnasts shine in Fort Worth United Press International FORT WORTH — Americans Kurt Thomas and Bart Conner pro duced the greatest day in United States gymnastics history Sunday, winning three titles and six medals between them on the concluding afternoon of the 20th World Cham pionships. Nelli Kim, meanwhile, won two silver medals and a bronze Sunday night after capturing the women’s all-around championship for the Soviet Union the night before. It had been expected as the week began that the highlight of Sunday night’s performance would be Roma nia’s Nadia Comaneci. But she was lying in a hospital bed recovering from surgery on her infected left hand and the No. 1 show, instead, came in the form of a gold-medal winning effort in the floor exercise by Comaneci’s teammate, Emilia Eberle. In addition, Yanhong Ma, a petite youngster from China, brought her country its first gold medal ever at the world championships with a win in the uneven parallel bars. “This is just great,’’ said Thomas, who won two gold and two silver medals out of the six apparatus finals on the last day of the week-long meet. “For so long our flag has been down in a box somewhere. Today, for once, it was up there almost ev ery time.” The United States men won their first world gymnastics medal of any kind at last year’s meet in Stras bourg. This week the men won eight. The only American perform ance in international competition to rival this one came in the 1932 Olym pics at Los Angeles, when the U.S. won six individual medals. But the quality of world gymnas tics in that era nowhere approached today’s caliber and neither Japan nor the Soviet Union was represented at those Games. “To see us grab all those medals is wonderful,” said Conner, who cap tured a gold and a bronze Sunday. “We always wondered if we could do it. When the Russians go home they are going to be watching films of us. God knows I’ve watched lots of films of Russians.” Alexandre Ditiatin, the Soviet who edged Thomas for the all- around title on Friday night, man aged two golds and a silver Sunday, but even that performance was over shadowed by the Americans in gen eral and Thomas in particular. “Naturally,” said Soviet coach Leonid Arkajev, “the United States has progressed tremendously. We were impressed.” The Soviet Union men finished the championships with 11 medals, four of them being gold, and the Un ited States had eight, three of them for first place. No other country — including traditional powerhouse Japan — could manage more than two medals. On Sunday Thomas won first places in the horizontal bar and floor exercise (sharing it with East Ger many’s Roland Bruckner), and pick ed up silver medals in the parallel bars and side horse. Conner was a gold medal winner in the parallel bars and took a bronze medal in the vault. Ditiatin won the rings and vault while the other gold medal went to Zoltan Magyar of Hungary in the side horse. In the women’s events, Dumitrita Turner of Romania won the vault, Vera Cerna of Czechoslovakia took the balance beam and Eberle cap tured the floor exercise gold medal with a 9.95 score in the final per formance of the meet. And on the uneven parallel bars the title was shared by Maxi Gnauck of East Germany and Yanhong Ma of China, whose showing represented one of the major gymnastics events ever for her country. Both the Roma nians and Russians won seven med als overall, but three of the Roma nian medals were gold while the Soviet Union women could win only one first place all week — that being Kim’s triumph in the all-around. “All I wanted to do was win one event,” said Thomas, who will next battle Ditiatin at the Moscow Olym pics in July. “Last year I was the first to win a medal for the United States (a gold in the floor exercise) and now I’m the first to win any kind of medal in the all-around. “It’s important in sports, especial ly where being first is everything and second is nothing.” Concerning the team’s impressive overall performance, Thomas said: “I think that says something for our gymnastics team. For years we’ve needed guys to keep coming back like Bart and myself and now it’s giving us all this international ex perience. “I think for one thing, this (win ning of medals) is going to send us into the Olympics on a positive note. I think we can really do well.” A trend was set early Sunday when Thomas, going into the floor exercise finals deadlocked for the lead with Bruckner, scored a 9.9 to tie Bruckner for first place. Separate medals are awarded in case of ties. Thomas came back in the next event — the side horse — to get second place. Ditiatin won the next two exercises, the rings and the vault, but the Americans, saving their most dramatic for last, electri fied the crowd with back-to-back gold medals. Conner, a sophomore at the Uni versity of Oklahoma, needed a score of 9.9 to win the gold medal in the parallel bars and that is exactly what he got with Thomas equaling the fin al score posted by Tkachev to share the silver medal. MO MORE RATSYS ROM YOU AG- / tO UGH A AD Uni U), No h( ing ;i" (l c awarded OVERCONFIDENT ■ S(>( | t h c /F YOU WANT TO ' , a l izt . 6,ET IN * THE' TOP 10 YOU C-OTfA In her spe< ploiiiats anc 8£Ar THE5C ft, |. 0 |d Hon WHETHER IT’S SOMETHING EXOTIC OR SIMPLE \ > Carl Bussells ~iamond Room HAS IT! EARRINGS BRACELETS RINGS CHAINS STICK PINS PENDANTS 3131 E. 29th (Town & Country Center) m ■McDonald's DRIVE-THRU WINDOW At University Drive Football Champs The All University games have all been played and they were great games. Here are some highlights. The Men’s Class A game was a major defensive battle as Crocker III skinned by the Rutting Bucks 6-0. Jeff Brown scored the only touchdown for Crocker III. This game was a model of good sport smanship and is also the first time in three years a men’s dorm team has taken the All University title. In Men’s Class B the game was as close as a game can come, 13-12, with Dun Chaos topping M. Bom bers. Another fine example of good sportsmanship, the defense was in tense on both sides throughout the game. The game in Men’s Class C was a less equal battle as Moses’ Come , Mesas outran Dom-N-8, 13-8. The scores were close but pentration wise Moses had 3 the first half and 2 the second half to Dom-N-8’s 1 in the second half. The Jokers edged over the Six Packs in Women’s Class A 7-0 with only 1 pentration per team. Debra Takacs made the winning touch down for the Jokers. BSU was on the offense and the Mosher Maggies on the defense throughout the Women’s B cham pionship game. The close score of 6-0 belies the true tale told by penetration tallies; 5 for BSU and none for Mosher. In Co Rec Class A Running Does stampede over J-K Marbles 24-0. The Running Does penetrated 4 times into the Marble’s territory. Running Does scorers included Brent Butler, Randy Ellison, and Mary Myers who each scored 8 points by a touchdown and extra points. The game was closer than close in CoRec B as Dr. J. and Variations tied 6-6 in a pentration decision for Dr. J. Dr. J had 3 penetrations to Variations’ 1 penetrations. Scorers were Clay Wheat for Dr. J. and Jim Richardson for Variations. For CoRec C, Looney Tunes came back in the second half for a 12-6 victory over Byrdie White af ter trailing 0-6 at the half. Ben Ker- gent and John Haldad each scored a touchdown for Looney Tunes. Janet Wilder scored Byrdie White’s only touchdown. Congratulations are in order to all the officials who refereed these games, for they all received top rat ings from the participating teams. The “I Spy” photographer this week selects Cheryl Northam to be eligible for a Be Our Guest card for free food from McDonalds. Cheryl is pictured here ready to return a serve in recent Intramural volleyball action. Attention: Runners Listed are the times and names of area runners who competed in the 10th Annual Dallas White Rock Marathon held Saturday, Decem ber 1, 1979 at 9:00 a.m. The weath er was perfect. Adelaide Bratten 3:12:24 (3rd place age 19 and under); Keith Bratten 2:40:30; Barbara Collins- worth 3:39; John Crompton 2:51:10; Carl Gabbard 2:53:12; Ralph Havens 2:38:30; Walter Kuklinsky 2:56:20; Lane Mitchell 2:38:35; Tinker Murrey 2:34; Mike Timmons 2:56:40; Doug Unger 2:56:30 and Steve Zinkraf 2:53:20. 1st place overall went to former A&M student Kyle Heffner. 4th place woman overall went to for mer A&M student Martha Sartain. — By Road Runner Club MCDONALD’S INTRAMURAL HIGHLIGHTS Flickerball Finishes In Women’s Class A the Musty Ho’s aggressed over the AFC Saints 5-1 in a mainly defensive championship game. Scorers for the Musty Ho’s were Becky Darle, JoBeth Greebon and Cindy Bart lett. De De Breaux tallied the only point for the AFC Saints. Class B Men’s was an exciting game as the Crocker Shuttlecocks faced Only Fun for the All Univer sity title. The game went to Only Fun 17-9 after an intense hour of play. High scorers of the game were Only Fun’s Robert Wallace with 6 points, Crocker’s Jeff Brown with 5 points, and Only Fun’s Mike Mar- guardt and Mike Parker each with 4 points each. Other scorers for Crocker were Jay Lunelschen, reg Thorne and Andy Giles. For Only Fun, other scorers were Mike Larsen and Kevin Kosan. The Men’s Class A Champion ship game was a fairly close battle as the Buffaloes stepped over Spam III 14-10. High scorers for the game were the Buffaloe’s Ross Hunter with 7 points, Spam Ill’s Richard Porter with 5 points, and Spam Ill’s Dale Cornegie and Buf faloes’s David Teague each with 3 points. Arthur Edwards, Scott Lee and Cliff Johnston also scored points for the Buffaloes as did Billy Ellerbrock and Ardell Schaffer for Spam III. The officials in the final games were excellent, receiving high rat ings from the team captains. Football? Rugby? No, it’s Flickerball, one of the more popular Intramural sports on the Your Picture of Fame In The Winner's Circle A recer trengtlu exas A&: the int ity, The Sti lr nponei 1975 as p; e nt and geney 'ID) an >ng to n 'Versiti evelope 'ome, st istrator. A prim creased 'Ivc the eveloprr Anothc ^DCs in: ions so t 'ent flow Acknowledgments This ad is sponsored by your local McDonald Restaurants at Univer sity Drive and Manor East Mall. Stories by Michelle Wolstein, Pic tures by Gary Reyes. Class A, B and C All University Intramural Champions who did not have your picture taken should stop by the Intramural Office and see Pat Fierro this Tuesday or Wednesday between 3 p.m. and 5 p.m. Teams should try to be com plete and doubles partners must both be there, Flag Football Champions: Class A: Corps - B-l; Fish-F-2;^ ma **/ ar r Dorm - Crocker III*; Men’s Independent - Rutting Bucks; Wo® 1 ^ a ' n 11 Dorm - Briggs; Women’s Independent - Jokers*; CoRec - Run' r / 1 i Does*. Class B: Corps - M-l; Fish - 1-1; Men’s Dorm - DunnCfe less L ' t ' 0IK Men’s Independent - SFS; Women’s Dorm - Mosher Mag ^ Women’s Independent - BSU*; CoRec - Dr. J.*. Class C: & igricuhu Mesas*; Women’s - 2 Min. Warning*; CoRec - Looney Tunes* FXLICKERBALL Champions: Class A: Corps - M-l MedsT 3 .urnpon^ A-l; Men’s Dorm - Puryear Players; Men’s Independent - Bufal» irojj rarT1 Women’s Independent - Musty Ho’s*. Class B: Corps- A-lAniiimutio!,,,)- Fish - Sq-3; Men’s Dorm - Crocker Tapa Kegda, Men’s Indepenw s strenm Only Fun*, Jay Hawks. Class C: Men’s - Alpha Gamma Rho * indicates an All University Champion. Mtions t! ,n «hix: