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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 20, 1984)
ports Monday, February 20, 1984/The Battalion/Page 9 Ags finish third at SWC indoor track See page 10 Mahres take gold, silver Photo by DEANSAITO Aggie center Jimmie Gilbert smiles with deter mination as he prepares to shoot against 7-foot SMU center Jon Koncak. The Ags lost 60-58. United Press International SARAJEVO, Yugoslavia — Ski racing twins Phil and Steve Maine of the United States snapped out of their season long slump to outclass the com petition Sunday and win the gold and silver medals in the men’s Olympic slalom. The 26-year-old Mahres, from White Pass, Wash., sud denly regained their form when it counted for their 1-2 victory. Didier Bouvet, 22, a French outsider whose best result be fore was eighth in a World Cup slalom, skied the race of his life to lake the bronze medal. Ironically, it was Steve Mahre who was ahead after the first of the two runs with Phil in third spot — the twins separated by Sweden’s Jonas Nilsson. But Phil staged a blistering second run to place first overall with Steve, skiing that leg more cau tiously, slipping back to second. Bouvet was fifth after the first run but had a fantastic sec ond run to move up to third place overall. The Olympic medals pro duced spectacular ends to the Mahres’ racing careers. They both said they intend to retire shortly. Phil, World Cup cham pion in 1981, 1982 and 1983, and Steve, who has finished 58 times in the top 15 in World Cup races, were having a bad season this year — until Sun day. Phil’s total time in winning the gold at Sarajevo was 1:39.41 minutes — 21-100ths of a sec ond ahead of Steve’s 1:39.62. Bouvet posted 1:40.20 minutes. U.S. men had never won a gold medal in Alpine competi tion, but Bill Johnson broke that slump earlier this week by scoring an upset victory in the downhill and the Mahres added to it with their 1-2 finish Sun day. Phil Mahre’s victory also gave U.S. skiers three of the six Al pine events — Debbie Arms- tong won the women’s giant sla lom, with teammate Christin Cooper taking the silver. But the Mahres — perhaps fortunately — did not have to contend with Swedish star In- gemar Stenmark and Luxem bourg’s Marc Girardelli. Of the seven slalom races contested on the World Cup circuit this sea son, Stenmark and Girardelli had won three apiece. Stenmark was barred from Sarajevo because of semi-pro fessionalism while Girardelli, al though skiing for Luxembourg, is an Austrian national and could not race for Luxembourg because he did not have a pass port from that country. Steve Mahre had what ap peared to be a comfortable lead after the first run, 0.67 seconds ahead of Nilsson and 0.70 faster than his brother. But Phil posted the second fastest time in the second run — 47.86 seconds — to move into the golden slot while Steve clocked a cautious 48.77 sec onds which was the eighth best time in the second leg. Mahre was very relaxed for someone who had just won an Olympic gold medal. In fact he said the slalom at Sarajevo was just another race. “I was confident after four days of good training and felt I could win,” Phil Mahre said. But the emotion showed through three hours later al though for a very different rea son — Phil got the news that he was a father for the second time with his wife Holly having had a baby boy while he was racing. “She was at home doing all the work and I was out here playing,” Phil said, adding that he would have preferred to be with his wife despite the glory of Olympic gold to crown his ca reer. Twin brother Steve, although ‘This is more of an event for the public so it’s a bigger race. So I feel it’s a big victory for everybody — and for myself. ’ — Phil Mahre “kinda disappointed” that he missed the gold, was still happy enough with his silver. “If it’s not me, it better be him,” Steve said. Steve, who had a flawless first run, said, “I was a little disap pointed. I had to have a perfect second run in order to beat Phil.” Bouvet was third fastest in the second run with a time of 48.21 seconds which was enough to move him up to third, just 5-100ths of a second ahead of Nilsson who slipped back to fourth place overall. Top time in the second run went to Italy’s Oswald Toetsch — 47.67 seconds, which moved him up from seventh into fifth place. There were 60 gates in the first run and 58 gates. Both tracks were hard and sometimes icy but conditions for the race were ideal with sunshine and temperatures just below freez ing. An enormous crowd of 55,000 turned out for the race but the mainly Yugoslav specta tors had to be told repeatedly by loudspeaker to stop whistling and booing at non-Yugoslav racers. As it was, the best Yugoslav performance was the seventh place by 27-year-old veteran Bojan Krizaj. Phil was World Gup cham pion three years running, from 1981 to 1983, and was second in the 1980 Lake Placid Olympic slalom. “This is more of an event for the public so it’s a bigger race. So I feel it’s a big victory for ev erybody — and for myself,” he said. “I feel like it was just an other World Gup race. I had two good runs and I was a little lucky a lot of other people made mistakes.” Both Mahres have said they intend to retire from racing once the current season is over and Steve would be leaving the international race circuit with almost as many honors as Phil. He is reigning world giant sla lom champion, placing first in that event in Schladming, Aus tria, in 1982, and has been 58 times in the top 15 point scorers at World Gup events. n NISSAN CAR C °CARE PRODUCTsl WITH MUCH MORE SERVICE FOR DATSUN CARS ONLY umm We Will Be Open Thursday Nights Till 8 PM Starting Jan. 5th. BRAKE JOB FRONT DISC BRAKES REPLACE DISC PADS WITH OUR BEST PADS. INSPECT ROTORS. CALIPERS AND LUBRICATE HARDWARE ROAD TEST. $4. A 33 PARTS, LABOR & TAX MUCH MORE PRICE OLD PRICE WAS $60.08 EXPIRES JAN. 20,1984 ■ I 8 to 5 Mon-Fri. j Thurs Till 8PM GALLERY DATSUN ^1214 Texas^ o ^775-1500 8 to 5 Mon-Fri. Thurs Till 8PM rd laces seif- ^ns over tl«| return ered. ess, but tte'i Stewart, ^h, if we ml he’ll ever if ic wild.” avis sinks free throws, Aggies By BOB CASTER Sports Writer rn to nati i ; Texas Aggie head coach vithliveaiisihelby Metcalf admitted after to a feipBteam’s 58-60 loss to SMU months ajfgajt if th e Aggies were to foul ■body Saturday night, it angered spfioukl have been Larry Davis, e a steaffe Poniesjunior forward. Mel- lationall) alfs reasoning: coming into game Davis had been hitting j 44 percent from the free trow line — not necessarily a treat. has declitf to a r federal If birds. I of peof st to see tlitf y,” said M io co-foum r husband iobs its slump midway through, and ap peared to have the game pretty much wrapped up after Winston Crite picked up three points on a reverse layup and the foul shot that followed. Crite sank the free throw and the Aggies went ahead 54-51 with 2:43 left in the game. But with 1:50 left, Davis tied the game up for the Mustangs with a free throw. The Aggies took the rebound played the stall, waiting for the last shot to materialize. That shot came with three seconds left and was taken by Crite and bounced in and back out of the bucket, forcing the game into overtime, lied at 54-54. A last- second foul by Darnell Williams sent Davis to the free-lhrow line for SMU and in that final sec ond, Davis was able to do what the Aggies had attempted all night. Meanwhile, the women de feated SMU 75-61 behind cen ter Michell Tatum’s 26 points and 20 rebounds. Lisa Lan gston, the only other Aggie in double figures, added 13. The women play the Univer sity of Texas tonight in Austin. The Longhorns are the top- ranked team in the nation this year. But Davis shocked the Ag es, connecting on nine of his ■ttempts from the line. More nporlantly, Davis put in his two free throws with one :cond left in overtime to put tawn any hopes for a badly leeded Aggie victory. Surprisingly, the Aggies tepped out in front at the start Hie game and the Mustangs i>9 to $12 id not see the lead for the first said the li-lnd-a-half minutes. When aot some ® did take the lead on a Ke- 4ng officers I'; Lewis free throw, it was resulted ft : i)|t4ived as Kenny Brown put :h one oflifejAggies back in front with a and anothylip. But turnovers gave 'king as piML I a29-28 lead by the half, rds. Thosejjfihe Aggies battled back and ' sparkedBi with SMU for most of the ity claimed 1 Xond half, surviving a scoring entitled tojU .s because J Aggies playing, losing gut-check ballgames -duty jobs. Manager 8 1 lid off-dub :overed bj the new director of 1 , claimed e proposr die assocb 1 injunctioi 1 ’ the city f By DAVE SCOTT Sports Writer “A gut-check.” That’s what head coach Shelby Metcalf termed the Ag gies’ 60-58 loss to SMU Satur day. Metcalf used that termino logy because it Lakes guts, cour age, for players to keep fighting when any mistake could mean responsibility for a loss. Three of the last four games for A&M have been “gut-check ers” and losses. The Aggies lost by one to Rice and by another by a single point to Arkansas. When Metcalf said the close games and gut-checks are good for a team only “Only if you pass them.” He said he likes players who are willing to un dergo a “gut-check”. “I like those people who are willing to take the responsibility of being a hero,” he said. Forward Winston Crite could be one of those people. He took the responsibility of taking the last shot in regulation, which he missed. Trying to be a hero is tough, but being a goat is worse. “We would like to win a few of them,” Crite said. Guard Darnell Williams agreed. “These one point losses hurt.” he said. Williams may have been hurting the most. With one sec ond remaining in overtime, he was called for a foul that gave SMU two game-winning free throw attempts. When the whistle blew and the referee pointed at Williams, his eyes bulged wide in disbe lief, he collapsed to the court and remained face down for several seconds. But Metcalf didn’t blame Wil liams, although he was disap pointed with the outcome of the game. TEXAS A&N JlpEiH ■ ■■■T||l. Learn to fly! Meeting: 7:00 pm Tuesday, Feb. 21 Meet at the clubhouse at the north end of the airport. For further info, call Thomas Graves at 764-7349 Everyone is Welcome! EN GIN’EER.IN’ g & OFFICE SUPPLY Save on Supplies off campus! Redmond Terrace Shopping Center 1418 Texas Ave. S., C.S. (At intersection of Texas Sc Jersey) 693-9583