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Friday, February 8, 1991 The Battalion Sports Editor Alan Lehmann 845-2688
Aggie swim coach manufactures winners
RICHARD S. JAMES-The Battalion
Texas A&M swimming team coach Mel Nash discusses swimming style with Aggie swimmer Steve Kitz-
man, while the team tunes up for the upcoming conference swim meet. Nash’s charges are 6-2 in dual
meets this season and are ranked 17th in the nation, despite losing to the top-ranked Texas Longhorns
last week.
The most prominent feature of
Mel Nash’s office is the row of certif
icates lining the walls heralding the
All-American swimmers that he has
coached at Texas A&M.
There are thirty of them.
But the Aggie swim team has not
always enjoyed such success.
“Before 1983, there hadn’t been
an NCAA All-American (from
A&M) since ’59,” said Nash, now in
his twelfth season at the helm of the
Aggie swimming program.
This year he nas put together an
other nationally acclaimed team,
The men’s team finished the dual
meet season with a 6-2 record, which
includes a loss last weekend to
Texas, defending NCAA champions
and currently the top ranked team
in the country.
"I went to Indiana for
five years, but I’d been
here for eleven, so I
was more Aggie than
Hoosier.”
— Mel Nash,
Aggie swimming coach
The Aggies are ranked 17th, and
have been as high as 15th. However,
as Nash states, tne bulk of the season
is yet to come.
“As much as the dual meets are
important, the whole season, in
swimming mentality, depends on
your conference championship meet
and your NCAA championship
meet.”
The Aggies will head to the
Southwest Conference
Championship in Austin loaded with
talent. Leading the team is Steve
Lutz, the defending SWC champion
in the 400 meter individual medley.
“He’s done a great job for us all
year,” Nash said about Lutz. “He’s
given us some sure points in all of
our dual meets.”
Lutz, along with several other Ag
gie swimmers, has a shot at qualify
ing for the NCAA Championships in
Indianapolis.
Senior Todd Bartee could qualify
in the breaststroke and the individ
ual medley.
Two freshman also have a shot.
Robert Fleming, who has only been
swimming for three years, has al
ready qualified for the 1992 U.S.
Olympic Trials and Don Haddow
was on the 1988 Canadian Olympic
team.
Overall, Nash hopes that seven to
nine of his swimmers make the
NCAAs, but he said there are about
15 that have a shot.
Nash harvested a big recruiting
class last year that upped the num
ber of swimmers on the men’s team
to 21.
Recruitment boomed at A&M
when Nash turned down an oppor
tunity to coach at his alma mater, In
diana.
James “Doc” Councilman, one of
the dean’s of collegiate swim
coaches, retired last year and Nash,
who was part of an NCAA title-win-
ning team under Councilman a In
diana, was offered the job.
“They just figured I would go,
you know, everybody always goes
back to their alma mater if they get
the job,” Nash said.“But I wanted to
stay here. My heart was here.
“I mean, I went to Indiana for five
years, but I’d been here for eleven,
so I was more Aggie than I was Hoo
sier.”
1 and No. 2 set
Nash said within 48 hours of his
decision to stay, he received three
commitments from swimmers his
staff had been recruiting.
It would seem that with the stabil
ity of coaching and the success along
with it, grabbing top-notch prospects
would be fairly easy. However, the
A&M swimming program suffers
from one major setback, its pool.
P. L. Downs Natatorium, built in
1932, is described by Nash and oth
ers as “the worst facility in the coun
try.”
It seats roughly 450 people com
pared to Texas’ 2,000-seat natato
rium. The Longhorns’ pool is almost
twice as large as Downs.
However, a new natatorium for
Texas A&M is in the planning
stages. Nash hopes to have it ready
for the 1993 season.
Besides being outdated. Downs is
only 10 feet deep. NCAA regula
tions say that diving pools must be at
least 12 feet deep. Therefore,
A&M’s diving program is nonexis
tent.
“The kids that we have diving
right now do very, very simple di
ves,” Nash said. “They really just
compete to get the points that are
there. There’s no way they could
beat anybody. They’re swimmers
faking diving.”
Since diving is a part of every
meet, A&M concedes vital points in
each meet. Last year, the men’s and
women’s teams had a combined re
cord of 8-7. If the diving points were
not counted, their record would
have been 13-2.
“We start every dual meet down
32-6, and we’re 6-2,” Nash said.
“That’s been difficult for us, but the
kids have done a great job of work
ing around it and through it and
have kept a good attitude.”
An example of their perseverance
was this year’s match against #12
ranked SMU.
The Aggies overcame a 26-point
diving deficit to beat the Ponies, 122-
121. Nash compared it to spotting
Texas’ football team two touch
downs and coming back to win.
As the team gears up for the SWC
meet which starts March 7, expecta
tions are running high for the Ag
gies, but even Nash is quick to point
out that no one will touch the Long
horns.
“It maybe hard for people to un
derstand that going into the meet,
you’d have to almost have a van of
one team wreck on the way to the
pool to change the outcome,” Nash
said.
Yet Nash remains confident. He
has seen the the swim program de
velop from pretender into national
contender, and a new natatorium
seems to be in the future.
Nash might need to make room in
his office for more certificates.
Ags seek
second win
By Scott Wudel
Of Tne Battalion Staff
The Aggies finally got over the
hump.
The Texas A&M basketball
team will look for their second
consecutive win Saturday night
against Texas Christian Univer
sity in Fort Worth. The game will
begin at 7:30.
TCU, 5-4 in the Southwest
Conference and 14-6 overall, lost
to Southern Methodist University
Tuesday.
The Aggies, 6-15 overall,
grabbed their first conference
win Wednesday night against
Texas Tech University, 70-63.
A&M improved its road record
to 3-9 for the season.
The Aggies ended their nine-
game SWC losing streak with the
victory.
A&M coach Kermit Davis Jr.
said the players looked at films of
past games and realized they
were a better team than their re
cord showed.
Davis said he likes the way his
guards have been playing.
Brooks Thompson has been
the most consistent Aggie on the
court lately.
. Thompson has scored a total of
45 points in A&M’s last two
games while shooting 19 for 24.
From the field.
Lynn Suber has also been a
solid contributor in the Aggies’
last two contests, averaging 14
points.
Freddie Ricks scored a season-
high 12 points against the Raid
ers.
Davis said the key to the Ag
gies’ first conference victory was
rebounding, which had been a
problem in their previous close
games.
Rashone Lewis and Shedrick
Anderson continue to play tough
in the middle. Each player is scor
ing in double figures in the last
two games while pulling down a
combined 27 rebounds.
TCU’s key performers are Mi
chael Strickland and Reggie
Smith. The Horned Forgs Mark
Moton contributed 16 points in
TCU’s loss to SMU.
TCU defeated the Aggies Jan.
9 in College Station, 80-72.
The Aggies remain in the con
ference cellar, one game behind
Baylor.
A&M will host SMU next
Wednesday in G. Rollie White
Coliseum.
Lady Aggies
face Frogs
The Lady Aggies hope to end
their three-game losing streak
against TCU.
A&M will play the Saturday
Lady Frogs in Fort Worth. The
game will start at 5:00 p.m.
A&M is 4-6 in SWC play and 9-
11 overall. The Lady Frogs are 2-
7 in the conference, while hold
ing a 5-15 overall record.
The Lady Aggies lost to Texas
Tech, 66-55, Tuesday night.
Sheri Dillard led the team with
16 points.
A&M returns home to face
SMU Tuesday night.
Sunday’s matchup between No
Unbeaten Razor backs gobble up Cougars 81-74
HOUSTON (AP) — The No. 2 Arkansas
Razorbacks minded the table manners coach
Nolan Richardson set out for them and now
they’re ready for the main course.
With a showdown against No. 1 Nevada-
Las Vegas awaiting them on Sunday, Todd
Day scored 30 points and Lee Mayberry high
lighted a 15-0 run that rallied the Razorbacks
to an 81-74 victory over Houston Thursday
night.
“Coach said that Houston is the table setter
and Vegas is the meal,” center Oliver Miller
said. “We had to set the table tonight. All you
hear about is Vegas, Vegas, Vegas.”
“We had to prove a point in the conference
tonight, and now Vegas is the big game.”
Houston held a 67-63 lead with 7:22 to
play but a 15-0 Arkansas run assured the Ra
zorbacks of their 20th consecutive victory.
But Houston went scoreless for 6:48 while
Arkansas ran off 15 straight points.
“The table was set for a big, big upset,”
Richardson said. “Houston played its best
game of the year tonight, I thought.
“I was glad our guys were able to come
back. That was quite a game. We proved we
could get behind and still come back and win
on the road.”
Arkansas (23-1, 10-0) will step outside
Southwest Conference play on Sunday and
host top-ranked and unbeaten UNLV.
Derrick Smith and Alvaro Teheran each
scored 20 points for the Cougars and Oliver
Miller added 16 for the Razorbacks, who
snapped Houston’s 18-game winning streak
at home.
“We were scared to attack when they were
on their run,” Day said. “I told Lee we needed
to attack and he hit the big 3-pointer that
turned it around.”
Mayberry’s basket with 5:23 left in the
game broke a 67-67 tie and helped the Hogs
end Houston’s 18-game home winning
streak.
“Our 1-3-1 defensive zone made the 15-
point run,” Day said. “ With 7 minutes and
down by only four points it was no big deal,
we weren’t out of the ball game.”
Arkansas hit six'of its first seven shots and
took a 32-18 lead over the cold-starting Cou
gars midway through the first half.
But the Cougars outscored the Razorbacks
23-14 over the rest of the half, cutting Arkan
sas’ halftime lead to 46-41.
Houston guard Byron Smith was scoreless,
missing 11 shots from the field.
“I was shooting because I was open, I had
no confidence at all,” Smith said. “It’s defi
nitely a disappointment. This could have
made our season.”
Houston tied the score for the first time
with 15:54 to play when Derrick Smith stole a
pass, dribbled the length of the court and hit
ajumper.
Houston got its first lead of the game, 58-
57, with 12:48 to play on a basket by Teheran.
“Coach said that
Houston is the table
setter and Vegas is
the meal. We had to
set the table tonight.
All you hear about is
Vegas, Vegas,
Vegas.”
— Oliver Miller
Arkansas center
“We had a perfect setting tonight,” Hous
ton coach Pat Foster said. “But when they
went up 78-76, we made four or five bad
plays in a row and they kept their poise and
made the play on the offensive end.”
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