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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (June 24, 1996)
The Battalion ing est rtmentof ’ national cross the partment uate and this con- ty of the ‘ types of irtmental of Indus- 1 institu- igan, the 3 Univer- gia Insti- diversity :ed first :er$ y several 'resident % the eco- le class, ats’ pro- arents to ring pri- 3S to pro- h plans; irporate rig down >y giving an /e HAjRDT ratic leader 'ce child ect pay- al effort ncy and ponsible iter and ontract ling the ing the i seven in the s have late or TO ty STIFF, \YN05£. T UP? SOME iditor owler, enfeld ancis, <, Ray ichael David ics & ity in >647 - The For Don- ra. 3 sin- year iress, fall is MONDAY June 24, 1996 GLANCE Tyner named freshman All-American Texas A&M freshman Jason Tyn er was named to the Baseball Amer ica Freshman All-America team as an outfielder on Thursday. Tyner, a true freshman out of Beaumont West Brook High School, led the Aggies with a .407 batting av erage and set a school record with 41 stolen bases. He was also the only Aggie to start in all 58 games this season and struck out only 10 times in 246 plate appearances. Earlier this season, the All-SWC selection was named a third-team All-American by the National Collegiate Baseball Writ ers Association. A&M soccer starts '96 season ranked 12th The Texas A&M Women's Soc cer Team, which made its first NCAA postseason appearance in program history last season, enters the 1996 campaign ranked 12th in College Sports Magazine's presea son Division I Top 20 Poll. "It is always a pleasure to see our program in the company of such established powers," Head Coach C. Cuerrieri said. "We have high hopes for 1996 based on the success we have had every year, and this ranking hope fully will be a nice springboard for our senior-rich team." The Lady Aggies return all 11 starters and 18 letterwinners from last year's squad that finished No. 10 in the nation with a 18-6-0 record. Among those returning in clude forwards Bryn Blalack and Kristen Koop, who rank as the sec ond-best returning scoring tandem in the nation. Johnson crushes 200- meter world record ATLANTA (AP) — Michael John son broke the world record in the men's 200 meters — the oldest ex isting record in track and field — with a time of 19.66 seconds Sun day at the U.S. track and field trials. Johnson raised his arms in the air in triumph when he saw the time. Then he posed for photographers at the timer showing his 19.66 clocking. The previous record of 19.72 was set by Italy's Pietro Mennea in 1979 in the thin air of Mexico City. The wind registered a legal 1.7 meters per second. Johnson ran 19.70 in the semifi nals Saturday, but a tailwind of 2.7 prevented it from being recognized as a world record. There was no doubt on Sunday, as Johnson got a great start and led throughout the race. Piazza's dinger in ninth defeats Astros, 4-3 LOS ANGELES (AP) — Mike Piaz za hit a solo home run with one out in the bottom of the ninth inning Sun day, lifting the Los Angeles Dodgers over the Houston Astros 4-3. Piazza, who went 9-for-16 in the series, home- red on a full- count pitch from Xavier Hernan dez (0-4). The drive over the left-field wall marked the second time in Piazza's four-year career that he has ended a game with a home run. He did it last June 26 against San Diego. Todd Worrell (3-3) pitched a scoreless ninth for the win. Houston starter Darryl Kile struck out a career-high 12, and left after seven innings with a 3-1 lead. Canseco, Red Sox down Rangers, 6-4 ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — Jose Canseco's two-run single in the eighth inning snapped a tie and the Boston Red Sox went on to a 6-4 victory over the Texas Rangers on Sunday night, ending a five-game losing streak. Troy O'Leary started the win ning rally with a one-out single off Dennis Cook (3-1) and Jeff Frye followed with a walk. John Valentin tied the game 4- 4 with an RBI single off Jeff Rus sell. One out later, Canseco, who was 3-for-4 with three RBIs, drove in two runs with a single up the middle on an 0-2 pitch. Reliever Mike Stanton (4-2) worked 1 2-3 innings for the vic tory and Heathcliff Slocumb got the final four outs for his 10th save, getting Rene Gonzales to ground out for the last out with runners on second and third. TYNER Page 3 ATLANTA HEARTBREAK Different weekend, same results for A&M Olympic hopefuls I n a scene reminiscent of the week before, four Texas A&M Track and Field athletes stumbled in their pursuit of glory at the Olympic trials in Atlanta. A&M standouts Rosa Jolivet, An- janette Kirkland, Michael Price and Adrien Sawyer — all attempting to earn a trip to the Summer Games — experienced the same disappointing results as their A&M teammates the weekend before. Jolivet finished third in her heat in the semifinals of the 400 hurdles last Satur day with a personal best time of 55.91 seconds but failed to advance to the fi nals. However, the Aggie hurdler got a second chance Friday in the 100 hurdles. She advanced to the quarterfinals with a 13.20 second showing in the first round and a 13.24 second finish Saturday was good enough to advance her to the semifi nals. But Jolivet failed to qualify for the final despite setting a personal best time of 13.02 in the semis. Kirkland, the A&M school record hold er in the 100 hurdles, experienced mild success Friday, qualifying for the quarter finals with a time of 13.31 in the first round. But that was as far as she would get, as her 13.32 second finish Saturday failed to qualify her for the semis. Putting her talent to the test in the long jump, 1995 Junior College All-Amer ican Adrien Sawyer failed to make it past the qualifying round despite an ad mirable jump of 20 feet, 2 inches. Price, who posted the nation’s best time by a freshman in the 200-meter dash Early Dismissal in 1996, faced direct competition in the same event from one of the most out standing Olympic track stars in history, Michael Johnson. After advancing to the quarterfinals, Price’s quest ended there with an eighth place finish and a time of 21.15 seconds, while Johnson placed first before setting a new world record Sunday. Staff and Wire Reports Aggie Results: Rosa Jolivet — 100 hurdles 1 st Round: 1 3.20, 6th place, Heat 3 Quarterfinal: 13.24, 5th place, Heat 3 Semifinal: 13.02, 5th place, Heat 1 Anjanette Kirkland — 100 hurdles 1 st Round: 1 3.31, 4th place, Heat 4 Quarterfinal: 13.32, 6th place. Heat 1 Michael Price — 200 meters 1 st Round: 21.04, 4th place, Heat 3 Quarterfinal: 21.15, 8th place, Heat 1 Adrien Sawyer — long jump Qualifying Round: 20-feet, 2-inches, 1 9th place McMullen's dismissal leaves questions in secondary By Philip Leone The Battalion Senior strong safety Typail McMullen was dismissed from the Aggie football team by coach R.C. Slocum Thursday for violat ing team rules. McMullen, a three-year let- terman out of Dunbar-Struggs High School in Lubbock, de clined to comment on his dis missal Sunday evening, saying he wished “to put the situation behind (him).” McMullen refused to discuss the specific cause for his dismissal. Senior cornerback Andre Williams said the reason for Mc Mullen’s dismissal was academi cally related. “From what I’ve heard from the coaches and some of the players, the situation is due to academic problems,” Williams said. However, according to Dr. Karl Mooney, A&M associate athletic director for academics, McMullen was academically on track at the start of summer school to play next season. “Everyone on the football team, with the exception of one person — not McMullen — was in position at the beginning of the summer to achieve the nec essary academic requirements to be eligible by NCAA regula tions to play next season,” Mooney said. Mooney said he was prohibit ed by federal law from disclosing any information concerning Mc Mullen’s academic record. A&M defensive backs coach Larry Slade declined to com ment on McMullen’s dismissal on Sunday, and a press re lease issued Thursday by the Texas A&M Athletic Depart ment stated that Slocum would have no further com ment on the situation. In his first full season as a starter in 1995, McMullen played in 11 of 12 games for the Aggies and registered 49 tackles, a sack and an interception. His absence from the starting lineup next season will deplete what is believed to be an already suspect "He was my teammate, he's a good guy and every one on the team respected him." — ANDRE WILLIAMS senior cornerback defensive backfield. Williams said he and his teammates will miss McMullen’s character as well. “Typail was not a sore thumb in the bunch or anything like that,” Williams said. “He was my teammate, he’s a good guy and everyone on the team re spected him.” Battalion file photo Senior safety Typail McMullen tackles Louisiana State tailback Kendall Cleveland during the 1995 A&M-LSU matchup at Kyle Field. Slocum's actions show a team can stop a fire before it starts I n light of a scandalous spring at several uni versities, A&M head football Coach R.C. Slocum’s decision to dismiss Aggie starting safe ty Typail Mc Mullen due to a violation of team rules, must be commended. Despite heavy criticism that could result from Mc Mullen’s dismissal, Slocum has refused to sacrifice his or the school’s integrity by over looking the incident. The Aggie coach made a wise decision by telling only the nec essary details of the situation — stating McMullen was re leased due to a violation of team rules — and not bringing anymore attention to the issue or department than necessary. An incident such as this might come across as minute to the observing fan or critic, but Slocum and the A&M football coaching staff have taken a strict, no-compromise stand on NCAA compliance. Currently serving the third year of a five-year probation sentence handed down by the NCAA for the summer job fias co in 1993, A&M is trying to rebuild the image of the foot ball program. The repercussions of the McMullen incident could have been a devastating blow — not only to the team, but to the entire athletic depart ment — had it not been dealt with swiftly. The athletic department is at an all-time high, not only in on-the-field excellence, but also in fundraising and develop ment. With the third of a four- phase facilities overhaul halfway completed, it is doubt ful the department could have withstood the blow of a discov ered cover up. McMullen was a definite as set to the team, starting in 11 of 12 games last season and fin ishing eighth on the team with 49 tackles. But the fact of the matter is, McMullen broke the rules, whether he knew it or not, and unfortunately for him and the team he must face the consequences. Slocum realized this and chose to uphold the law. something that is often shunned in collegiate sports of the ‘90s. Last Wednesday, the Houston Chronicle ran an ex clusive report on allegations involving a former Texas Tech football player and members of the school’s ath letic department. The report raised the ques tion of whether former Red Raider defensive lineman Stephen Gaines was assisted by a coach and an academic coun selor in taking a correspon dence course final exam. Although Gaines claims he is innocent and did not have any idea what was going on at the time the test answers were pro duced for him, it is hard to be lieve that any 22-year-old could be so oblivious. The interesting side to this in vestigation is that Gaines volun tarily exposed this incident three years after it took place. But even if Red Raider head coach Spike Dykes did not have knowledge of what was going on, the fact remains that he did not keep scrutiny over his program — which is required of high-pro file, Division I schools. The Tech athletic program dominated not only the South west Conference this year, but the entire country as well. But deeper investigation into the charges could bring a rising program to its knees. These scenes have become all too familiar within athlet ic programs. University of Massachusetts center Marcus Camby is walking away from a program that could be seriously penalized because he received money from a lawyer wanting to be his agent, while still enrolled. As did Gaines, Camby claims ignorance, saying he had no idea the money had come from the lawyer. Camby, who is projected as the first or second pick in Wednesday’s NBA draft, should find it in his heart to donate a portion of his signing bonus back to UMass to replace the money they might lose from this ordeal. Not to harp on athletic pro grams across the country, but I hate to see instances such as these affect so many when so few are usually involved, as in McMullen’s case. What could have been a stel lar season for the Aggie safety is gone before it even began. Brandon Marler SPORTSWRITER i I I I i
