Wednesday • April 19, 1995
S *
The Battalion • Page 9
A&M track team
signs nine runners
The Texas A&M track and field
team signed nine women to national
letters-of-intent Tuesday.
“This class is by far the best, as a
group, that we have ever signed, “
A&M head track coach Ted Nelson
said. “It certainly is a national top 10
class and possibly a top five class,
depending on what everyone else
around the country does.”
Eight of the nine recruits are from
Texas, with the ninth, distance
runner Marisa Tuzzi hailing from
Dayton, Ohio.
The big recruit of the bunch is
Rosa Jolivet from Odessa Junior
College who is regarded as the top
junior college hurdler in the nation. As
a freshman, she finished second in
the 100-meter hurdles and 400-meter
hurdles at the national JUCO meet.
Other highlights of this year’s
recruiting crop are Adrien Sawyer,
also from Odessa Junior College,
who is regarded as the premiere
junior college performer in the long
and triple jumps this season and Kelli
Schrader from Bellville, who is ranked
as the top discus thrower in the state
this season.
Aggies sign top
Idaho golfer
Lee Reed of Rigby, Idaho, signed
a national letter-of-intent Tuesday to
play college golf at Texas A&M.
Reed won the 1994 Idaho state
junior title and was the runner-up at
the 1994 state high school tourna
ment. He also placed third at the 1994
Doug Sanders Invitational and fin
ished seventh at the 1994 Junior
World tournament,
"Lee has demonstratecl the ability
te play well in national tournaments, "
A&M head golf eeaoh Bob lllie said,
"He wanted to come down south
where it’s warm and get out of that
cold North country. I think his ability
will blossom in an area where he can
play year round.”
Mavs keep playoff
hopes alive
Aggi es tune up for Tech with 6-1 win over Lamar
DALLAS (AP) — Jamal Mashburn,
Roy Tarpley and Popeye Jones led
the Dallas Mavericks to a 104-91
romp over the Los Angeles Clippers
on Tuesday night, keeping their scant
playoff hopes alive.
Dallas went into the game facing
elimination from the playoff race with
any combination of a Denver victory
over San Antonio and a Mavs loss.
Denver lost 107-96 at San Antonio.
The Mavericks trailed Denver, holding
their eighth spot in the conference, by
three games.
Mashburn scored 20 points and
Tarpley had 19 points and 13
rebounds. Jones contributed 15 points
and eight rebounds. Lucious Harris had
14 points and Jason Kidd chipped in
nine points and nine rebounds.
Loy Vaught paced the Clippers
with 28 points and 16 rebounds. Eric
Piatkowski added 13.
Thurman, two more
declare NBA eligibility
Three more prominent
underclassmen — Scotty Thurman of
Arkansas, Rodrick Rhodes of
Kentucky and Chris Carr of Southern
Illinois — decided on Tuesday to
declare for the NBA draft.
The possibility that any collective
bargaining agreement reached
between the NBA and its players
might include a salary cap for
rookies has spurred a number of
college stars to announce they were
coming out.
Earlier, Joe Smith of Maryland,
the college Player of the Year,
Corliss Williamson, who was
Thurman’s teammate at Arkansas,
Gary Trent of Ohio University and
Mario Bennett of Arizona State,
announced they would pass up their
remaining college eligibility for
the NBA.
Players have until 11:59 p.m.
May 14 to announce for the draft
which is scheduled for June 28 in
Toronto. Last year, 20
underclassmen declared and 12
were selected.
□ The baseball team extends
its winning streak to 14.
By Robert Rodriguez
The Battalion
A five-mn second inning helped Texas
A&M baseball team continue its winning
ways as the Aggies defeated the, Lamar
Cardinals 6-1 Tuesday night at Olsen Field.
With the victory, the 17th-ranked Ag
gies extended their winning streak to 14
games and improved to 31-13-1 for the
season in front of a crowd of 1,627.
Texas A&M head coach Mark Johnson
said he was pleased with the team’s per
formance in the game. ;
“We really made some hard outs tonight,
” Johnson said. “We hit the ball hard and I
was real pleased with that; Every pitcher
was real sharp and they had their-stuff.
This was a good out
ing for us.”
Everything worked
to perfection for the
Aggies on this night.
Five pitchers com
bined on a six-hitter
and the offense con
tinued to produce.
A&M scored all its
runs in the early in
nings to put the game
out of reach quickly.
Junior Dean Mitchell picked up the vic
tory for the Aggies, pitching three innings
and giving up just two hits and the Cardi
nals’ lone run.
Juniors Chad Alexander and Paul Bar
ber and senior John Curl supplied the
bulk of the hitting attack as each went 2-
for-4 and scored a run.
“Lately, it doesn’t really seem to matter
who seores first ©r what, we are going to
win the game, ” Barber said. “Right now,
we have the feeling that any person we
have on this team is going to come
through for us."
The second inning was the deadly blow
for the Cardinals. A&M sent nine batters
to the plate, scoring five runs on four hits
in the inning.
Curl led off the inning with a double to
center. After walks to the next two hitters,
senior Robert Harris knocked Curl in with
a sacrifice fly.
Big hits kept the inning alive for the
Aggies. A double by Barber scored Jason
Stephens and Ryan Huffman to make it a
.3-1 game. One out later, Chad Alexander
.hit a home run to left field to increase the
lead to 5-1. Alexander’s home run was his
eighth of the year, compared to his total of
just one from last season.
“The pitch before was a slider and I
pulled off of it, ” Alexander said. “The one
I hit was a fastball and I saw it pretty
well. I just happened to hit it pretty well.”
The pitching was also very strong for the
Aggies as they walked only one batter and
struck out six Cardinals in the game.
Spencer McIntyre struck out all three bat
ters he faced in the eighth inning and Shane
Ring got but of two potential jams by get
ting the Cardi
nal batters to
ground into two
double plays.
“The pitchers
were not sloppy
at all tonight,”
Johnson said.
“Coach Lawler
had them
hooked up and
ready to go. We
got the guys in
that we wanted, and they got their work in.”
The final run the Aggies scored came
in the fourth inning. A single by Chad
Allen plated Matt Garrick, who reached
base on a walk.
“The feeling we have now is like the
feeling we had in 1993(when A&M
reached the College World Series,) ”
Alexander said. “We go out and we know
that we are going to win. We have no
doubts in our minds,”
Next up for the Aggies will be a erueial
four-game homestand against the eighth-
ranked Texas Tech Red Raiders.
The Red Raiders are in second place in
the Southwest Conference standings, 1 1/2
games behind first-place A&M. The series
starts on Friday at 4 p.m. at Olsen Field.
"The feeling we have now is like
the feeling we had in 1993 (when
A&M reached the College World
Series). We go out and we know
that we are going to win."
— Chad Alexander, junior outfielder
Roger H»leh/TnE Battalion
Junior second baseman Paul Barber throws to first base trying to complete a dou
ble play against Lamar Tuesday night.
Making A&M athletics a family affair
□ Bill and Lynn Hickey
share lives and love of
Aggie sports.
By Shelly Hall
The Battalion *
The name “Hickey” is more
than a family tradition, ,
it’s also an Aggie traditibri
around the Texas A&M
athletic department.
Assistant baseball coach. Bill
Hickey and Senior Associate
Athletic Director Lynn Hickey
have more in common than their
employment with the athletic
department; they are also mar
ried to each other.
The Hickeys said thby sacri
ficed a lot to come to A&M be- -
cause of their coaching* positions
at Kansas State. ■ , “
“I had a good team at
Kansas State,” Lynn Hickey
said. “We felt it was the right
direction to go.”
Although Bill Hickey also
enjoyed a head coaching job
at KSU, competition from out
side sources was driving down
his teams.
“I was head coach at Kansas
State,” Hickey said. “We had
six scholarships and it
was becoming increasingly
difficult to compete with teams
like Oklahoma.”
It was her husband who
encouraged Lynn Hickey to ap
ply for the head women’s bas
ketball coaching position at
A&M, despite her success at
Kansas State.
“Lynn was at the Final Four
when I saw in the paper that
the Texas A&M head women’s
basketball coach had resigned,”
he said. “I encouraged her to
look into it.”
Through her years as the
women’s head basketball coach,
Hickey said her most memo
rable moments stem from the
athletes and their successes.
“There have been a lot of ex
citing times,” she said. Last
spring, when' we beat Florida
here and went on and beat San
Diego State to get into the
Sweet 16 {was a highlight.) The
kids made it even more special.”
Coacb Hickey said the 1989
baseball.team, especially the
players, made an impact on his
coaching career at A&M.
“The ‘89 se
ries against UT
was memorable
because they
beat us on a
Friday night 6-
2 and we beat
Texas the next
night twice,”
Hickey said.
“(We) won 26
games in a row
and the commu
nity went crazy
with that team.
It was unbeliev
able.”
Lynn Hickey
said it has been
tough at times
juggling family
and career.
“Scheduling
with a child has
been difficult at
times,” Hickey
said. “I would
six-year old daughter) to the
basketball game and drop her
off at baseball practice.”
She said the various aspects
of coaching have made family
life even more difficult.
“It’s tough with a family
when you both have careers,”
Hickey said. “Weekends are
work days. We have games and
recruits we are both trying
to call.”
Hickey said there has always
been kind competition but sup
port from her husband toward
her career goals.
“There’s always been compe
tition,” Hickey said. “When we
See Hickey, Page 1 1
Desperately seeking Seles:
tennis needs a boost
Photographer/THE Battalion
bring Lauren A&M head coach Bill Hickey coaches sophomore
(the Hickeys’ Rich Petru at first base .
F or all you
sports en
thusiasts
out there, here’s
a little question
for you. What
do Michael
Jordan, Tom
Watson, Mike
Tyson and Bo
Jackson have in common?
Answer: Each sports star
has or will return to his re
spective sport following a
lengthy absence.
Whether it was sickness, in
jury, or in Tyson’s case, jail
time interfering with their
dreams, these athletes have
attempted comebacks to amaze
and excite fans once again.
Now to the more important
question at hand. When will
former women’s tennis stand
out Monica Seles join this elite
group and return to the game
that she temporarily ruled?
If you recall, as the world’s
No. 1 women’s player in 1993,
Seles was plugging right along
until she was stabbed in the
back by an avid Steffi Graf
supporter during a break at a
match in Germany.
Over two years later, Seles
has yet to return and the game
of women’s tennis has suffered
in her absence.
Since Seles’ untimely exit,
Graf has turned the game
into a one-player show, domi
nating the circuit and leaving
little doubt as to who the top
dog is now.
The 25 year-
old German has
an 18-0 match
record and has
n’t lost a set in
1995. With four
tournament ti
tles this year
and 90 in her
career, Graf is
simply sleepwalking through
her inferior competition and
there are few obstacles left for
her to overcome. There is sim
ply no suspense in the game.
How do fans spell tennis
these days? B-O-R-I-N-G.
A decent threat to Graf’s
supremacy might come from
Arantxa Sanchez Vicario. The
Spaniard has won three of the
last four meetings between
the two, but Graf was said to
have an ailing back during
that span.
However, Graf’s biggest
challenge and the game’s best
hope for revival still lies in Se
les. The successful return of
one of the game’s premiere
players would definitely drum-
up more interest in the sport.
With the queen mother of
women’s tennis, Martina
Navratilova, retired from sin
gles play, the game could use
another marquee name, and
Seles’ is just that.
Plus, a Graf-Seles rivalry
could generate more excite
ment for women’s tennis like
the newly emerging Andre,
Agassi-Pete Sampras rivalry
See Day, Page 1 0
Your memory may fail you but your Aggieland won’t
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