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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 29, 1995)
The Battalion H' ■Bl m NEWS pc Tuesday August 29, 1995 9 ?rs Libra i L geU a Is that k ew Rec Center offers something for everyone Stew Milne,THE Battalion 42-foot rockclimbing wall looms in the main room of the new Student Recre- ’dera! 'Rational Center. The wall is the only of its kind between Houston and Dallas. ie wff Encompassing 286,000 square feet with equipment and facilities for more than 20 sports, A&M's new Student Recreational Center has everything from archery ranges to volleyball courts. By David Winder The Battalion It’s finished. Well, everything except the natatorium is finished. But with all the neat stuff in the new Student Recre ational Center, you will never have time to go swimming. You will, however, be able to participate in sports ranging from archery to volleyball for the extra $50 added to your fee statement this se mester. Overall, the facility pro vides for over 20 sports, cost $36.4 million to build, and is 286,000 square feet or roughly five football fields. As you walk into the state-of-the-art facility, one thought enters your mind, “Man, those sofas look comfortable.” But you came here to get some exercise, and those muscles are not go ing to tone themselves. So you turn left down the cor ridor and enter the weight and fitness room. There you see machine weights, free weights, car diovascular equipment and a cardio-theatre — which combines treadmills and ex- ercycles with large-scale video screens — resting on 14,000 square feet of carpet. After working out on one of the 125 weight ma chines, you do lifts with some of the 19,000 pounds of free weights and finish up by getting the old tick er pumping with one of the 80 cardiovascular ma chines. After that, you decide to work on your medium- range jump shot and look for a pick-up basketball game on one of the four in door courts. After giving the shoot ing performance of the ages, you are asked to play a little volleyball on one of the four indoor vol leyball courts. After domi nating the net, you get a badminton game going on one of the six courts. Feeling a little bit tired after crushing the compe tition, you go into the huge snack bar and lounge to grab a quick drink. From there, you pro ceed to the video and games room where you challenge all comers .to beat you at Mortal Kom- bat II and air hockey. Rejuvenated, you win a couple of racquetball games on court one and a few handball games on court 14. Then, even though you have never played before, you find squash a fun game. You play on both courts and walk away with a 3-0 record. All this exercise has made you a little winded. so you decide to work on stamina. After running a couple of miles on the one-fourth mile, four-lane indoor track you decide to do some aerobics in the 4,000-square-foot dance room. You make a mental note to come back when martial arts and dance classes occupy the other four 2,000 foot rooms. Walking around the complex, you discover the Special Events room that will also be used for con certs, archery classes and as a banquet facility. Two classrooms are found nearby. Then, just when you think your day is about to come to an end, you see it. You don’t know how you missed it before but you are now looking at a 42- foot, freestanding facility for rock climbing. The wall has over 3,500 square feet of climbing surface and has inter changeable hand and footholds. After climbing it three times, you become bored and decide to look for something more ad venturous. You find it at the two indoor soccer courts with the dasher boards and Plexiglass walls like those found at a hockey rinks. You are asked to leave af ter scoring four goals and body-checking a guy into the hospital. Mad at the world, you wander outside and dis cover an outdoor pool with a current channel and un derwater seating. Then to your chagrin, you notice there is no wa ter in the pool. In fact, you will not be able swim there until early October. So you walk around to the south side of the building and come upon the new home of TAMU Outdoors. You buy a cou ple of tents and rent a ca noe just for the fun of it and make your way back to the entrance of the building. What you really want to do is cool off but you know the natatorium will not be open until early October. You decide to sneak a peek anyway and find a 17-foot dive tank, a 50-meter competitive pool, two warm water spas and an instructional pool. Trying to find your way out, you choose the wrong door and end up in the large locker room. You put your clothes in one of the full-size lockers and take a shower to fi nally cool off. You find yourself liking the compli mentary towel service. After finding the cor rect exit, you make a mental note to work out harder tomorrow but to fall asleep on one of the comfortable sofas. Stew Milne, The Battalion Stew Milne, The Battalion ■ Olsen Field is visible from the quarter-mile jogging and walking track on the third floor of the new Stu- MHBdent Recreational Center. The natatorium in the new Student Recreational Center is set to open in early October. The A&M swimming and diving teams will train and hold meets there, including the first-ever Big 12 Championships, in 1996. |3g| HEWLETT® WlnM PACKARD 48G / 48GX Advanced Programmable Graphing Calculators 48G $ 99.95 48GX $215.00 University Bookstores Three Off-Campus Stores For You Northgate • Culpepper Plaza • Village Now Accepting Aggie Bucks! “Your Source for Hewlett- Packard Calculators” “Play A Part In The Big Picture!” An fit£C P^e^eyntation 2-6 RM. In The MSC Hallway More Than 250 Organizations Will Be Represented Entertainment And Other Events Planned Organization Sign-Up Ends On August 30 PR Sponsored by the MSC Public Relations Committee Ccitt X45- f S f 5 to- uo tfoun. ofio- eieit ttcoeio. TVe. lefutot t/toeo (3) ptioo to tAo eoent to ettaAlc uo to aaotat ifou to tAo 6eot o£ otto aAtitttoo. SVfngattiJ Welcome Back Ac’s Mr. Gatti’s FastFeast Buffet Specially Priced Just For You! AM You Care To Eat! • Pizza (lots of different kinds!) • SpaGatti (with Mr. Gatti’s rich 'n meaty sauce!) • Fresh ‘n Healthy Salad! • Desserts (including Mr. Gatti’s Dutch Apple Treat and Very Cherry Dessert Pizzas!) Weekday Lunch $099 Dinner & Weekend Buffet $099 Plus Tax served M - F 4 - 9:30 p.m. Sat. - Sun. 11 a.m. - 9:30 p.m. 107 South College • 268-8888 Plus Tax served M - F 11 a.m. - 4 p.m.