The Battalion • Page 5 SPORTS Swimming and diving team finishes fourth The Texas A&M men’s swimming and diving team just missed finishing in the top three this weekend at the Southwest Conference Championships in Austin. The team finished two points behind Texas Christian. The University of Texas finished first, followed by Southern Methodist. Sophomore Wade Diederich finished sixth in the platform finals for A&M with a score of 423.90 Also placing high for the Aggies were junior Scott DeWolf with a third-place finish in the 200-yard butterfly, sophomore Robb Pantano with a fourth-place finish in the 200- yard backstroke and freshman Kent Willis, who took third in the 1650- yard freestyle. Baseball team drops series to Cal State Cal State-Northridge exploded for eight runs on 14 hits to win Sunday and take two out of three games from the Texas A&M baseball team over the weekend. The Aggies could manage only six hits and committed two errors in falling to 9-7-1 on the season. The Aggies were still very much in the game after eight innings, trailing just 3-1. But Northridge scored five runs in the top of the ninth to put the game on ice. First baseman John Curl had his hitting streak snapped at 12 games with a 0-4 day. The Aggies return to action on Tuesday when they host Mary Hardin- Baylor at Olsen Field at 7 p.m. Thomas honored at football banquet Senior running back Rodney Thomas was named the 1995 recipient of the Aggie Heart Award at the annual Texas A&M football awards banquet at the College Station Hilton Saturday night. Thomas was also named the Offensive Most Valuable Player and the Offensive Team Captain for the 1994 season. Thomas, a consensus AII-SWC running back led the team in rushing with 868 yards and scoring with 96 points. Also honored were senior Reggie Graham as Defensive MVP and Defensive Team Captain, sophomore Leeland McElroy as Special Teams MVP, senior defensive back Billy Mitchell as Special Teams Captain and sophomore Kevin Caffey as 12th Man Most Valuable Player and 12th Man Team Captain. Lady Aggies win last game in style □ The women's team faces Texas in the first round of the SWC tournament. Staff and Wire Reports The Texas A&M women’s bas ketball team used another ca reer night by Bambi Ferguson and a superb shooting perfor mance by the entire team to rout Baylor Saturday night, 99-65. Ferguson, a junior guard from Jayton, scored a career-high 20 points, grabbed a team-high sev en rebounds and dished out three assists in just 23 minutes as the Lady Aggies finished up their season 18-8 overall and 9-5 in the Southwest Conference. A&M shot 52.2 percent from the field in the game including a blistering 17-27 (63 percent) in the second half. Sophomore for ward Marianne Miller went 6-7 from the field and scored 17 points. Sophomore guard Lana Tucker added 14 and junior guard Lisa Branch had 12 points, nine assists and five steals. Also turning in another out standing effort was freshman guard Carey Owens who came off the bench to score 14 points in just 17 minutes. Owens hit four three-pointers in six at tempts for the Lady Aggies. Senior Debbie Biermann, who was honored in a pregame cere mony, matched her career-high with two blocked shots. Bier mann also scored five points and collected four rebounds in 10 minutes of play. The Lady Bears, who fin ished the season 13-13 overall and 4-10 in the SWC, shot only 36 percent from the field and were outrebounded by the Lady Aggies 47-39. Forward Tonya Harris led , i 1f|P- the Lady Bears in scoring with 14 points and guard Halley Bradley added 10. The game was never in ques- tion as the Lady Aggies j limped out to a 20 point lead at half time, shooting 20-40 from the field including 6-11 on three pointers. A&M, the third seed in the conference tournament, will face the University of Texas in the first round of the Dr. Pepper SWC Classic on Wednesday at 2 p.m. at Moody Coliseum. Baylor will face second seed Southern Methodist University in the first round. Roger Hsieh/ The Battalion Sophomore guard Lana Tucker eyes the loose ball as Baylor forward Tonya Harris is frozen in her footsteps. Aggies even record, face Rice Thursday □ Joe Wilbert and Tony McGinnis spark an 11-point rally past Baylor. Staff and Wire Reports The Texas A&M men’s basketball team, down 11 points at intermission, shot 58.1 percent from the field in the second half to run by the Baylor Bears 87-78 in Saturday night’s Southwest Con ference finale. Senior forward Joe Wilbert, playing in his last regular season game as an Aggie, led all scorers with 29 points and grabbed 11 rebounds in 30 minutes for A&M. The win gave the Aggies a 14- 15 record overall for the season and evened their record at 7-7 in the SWC. The Bears dropped to 9- 19 overall and 3-11 in the SWC. Senior forward Tony McGinnis contributed mightily to the Aggies cause, making 11-13 shots from the floor and scoring 27 points, just one off his career high. The Aggies shot just 37.5 percent in the first 1 half and trailed Baylor 43-32 at the half. With the University of Houston in a tight game with South ern Methodist Saturday night, the Aggies had to win to assure themselves of being the fifth seed in the Dr. Pepper SWC Classic this coming week. The Bears were led by guard Aundre Branch, who scored 26 points. Center Brian Skinner added 21, but no other Bear scored in double dig its in the game. Freshman point guard Kyle Kessel dished out 11 assists for A&M and senior forward Damon Johnson added 12 rebounds to the Aggies’ cause. The Aggies outscored the Bears 55-35 in the second half in front of a crowd of 8,142 at the Fer rell Center in Waco. Harper worth more than Cowboys think he is W ith March Madness still several weeks away and baseball’s millionaire crybabies still bickering with each other, the main focus of this early part of spring has been on the National Football League’s free agent comings and goings. While some teams are searching for the players who will get them back to re spectability (the Houston Oilers come to mind), others are trying to wheel and deal to get back to the top. One such team is Amer ica’s Team, the Dallas Cowboys. Owner Jerry Jones is faced with the realiza tion that he is go ing to have to make some big moves to topple the champion San Francisco 49ers and take the Cow boys back to their rightful place atop the NFL mountain. The Pokes have managed to retain the services of such im pact players such as Michael Irvin and Tony Tolbert. Howev er, they have already lost such mainstays as James Washing ton and Jim Jeffcoat to the free agent bidding wars. Now the Cow boys must turn their attention to Jay Novacek and Mark Stepnows- ki. But one per son the Cowboys are overlooking is the talented Alvin Harper. With Harper all but gone, the Cowboys will have to fill the void of a great receiver who had the flair for making the athletic catches. Harper’s contributions to the team have been downplayed re cently. People have complained that he never plays well in the big games and is not as strong or tough as fellow receiver Michael Irvin. However, Harper’s accom plishments have been numerous and deserve to be recognized as the Cowboys climbed their way back. Who can ever forget the way the man from Tennessee has tormented the 49ers in the play offs over the last couple of years. It was his 73-yard reception two years ago in the NFC cham pionship game that got the Cowboys back to the Super Bowl and erased memories of the dreaded “catch” from Cow boys fans’ minds forever. Receiver Kevin Williams is a fine player and will make an ad equate replacement, but no one will give the Cowboys the big play threat that they enjoyed with number 80 running that familiar route to the post. While other Cowboy fans will be glad that the team is parting with Harper, I think that it will be a tremendous loss to lose a player of his caliber. So long. Harp. Your presence will be missed. 4.0 and Go Tutorina with Arf Located at 700 E. 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