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The Battalion
Page 5
Friday • February 7, 1997
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By Jeremy Furtick
The Battalion
The ping-pong indoor track and field season makes
its last bounce this weekend in Oklahoma City as the
Texas A&M Men’s and Women’s Track and Field Teams
compete in the Oklahoma City Classic Saturday.
The Aggies will be on familiar ground again as they
make their second trip to Sooner Country in three
weeks, after just competing in Houston for the second
time this season. In the four-meet competition leading
to the Big 12 Conference Championships, the Aggies
have alternated between meets in Houston and Okla
homa City.
A&M Head Coach Ted Nelson said the indoor sea
son thus far has been a success even with the youth-
fullness of the two teams and A&M’s problems with in
door competition.
“We’ve educated some of our freshmen,” he said.
“They’ve had three indoor meets now and responded
well last week. I think they’re getting a clue to what col
lege track is all about.”
Nelson said the times were good last weekend, but
he was more impressed with the intangibles the Ag
gies showed.
“The times in Houston were better than we’ve had
this year, but I was pleased more with the competitive
ness we showed out there,” he said.
With this weekend’s meet the only remaining com
petition for A&M until the Big 12 Indoor Conference
Championships in Lincoln, Neb., sophomore Scott
Lengefeld said staying focused on Oklahoma has been
difficult.
“I don’t want to say this meet is practice, but we can’t
help to look at conference,” Lengefeld said. “Every meet
is an opportunity to see how you’re doing until the
championships.”
Junior high jumper Teri Fojtik said spending an en
tire season preparing for the Big 12 meet while trying
to stay focused on each individual meet has been a
challenge for the teams.
“Every meet is a step toward the conference meet,”
she said. “It’s hard, but you can’t let yourself look ahead
to it. You have to stay focused on the next meet.”
Lengefeld said the teams have spent last two weeks
getting themselves physically prepared for the confer
ence meet, not so much for Oklahoma.
“We’ve been training hard these past two weeks to
build ourselves up,” he said. “After this weekend we’ll
taper off and get our fresh legs under us for Nebraska.”
Trying not to overlook Saturday’s competition,
Lengefeld said this weekend’s meet will be a good
chance for the Aggies to gain some confidence.
“We need to look good this weekend,” he said. “A
successful meet in Oklahoma will be good for our con
fidence level.”
The teams have shown a steady improvement in
their first three meets and Nelson said he believes their
success has helped the attitude of the team improve.
“I think we built some confidence in Houston by im
proving our times,” Nelson said. “I feel very good about
the attitude of the team right now.”
oys of summer' host Pan-Am at Olsen
By Jeremy Furtick
The Battalion
raditional baseball knowledge
ays Febuary is no time for the boys
ifsummer to be entering the sec-
mcl week of the season. But the
lO Has A&M Baseball Team will be-
, f D ^ pa 13-game homestand today as
Ci ' rom • 3gei H-PanAiuerican comes to College
tirter, a junior agria Station for a three-game series,
.major who workee The Aggies (1-1) are coming off
id she got quite afe ajtvo-game split with Southwest
while there. Texas State University Monday in
■ a few business C which A&M scored 20 runs. Pan
fed working with,' American (2-1,0-0), who took two
would not minda^T (thr 66 games from SWT last
job iccommendatWeekend, will field a team com-
ob.” larable to that of the Ags’ last op-
t he work experience l °oen t.
al contacts, the Roi
es food and hotel rooii
“We are expect
ing to see a lot of
curve balls and off-
speed pitches like
we did against
Southwest,” sopho
more outfielder Ja
son Tyner said. “We
didn’t react well
Monday, but we’ve
adjusted this week
in practice.”
A&M Head
Coach Mark John
son said the team has been con
centrating on moving runners
around in scoring situations this
week in practice. He said the Aggies
struggled in the first game against
SWT in those situations.
“We didn't react
well Monday but
we've adjusted
this week in
practice.''
Mark Johnson
A&M Head Coach
“We have to get
some runs when we
have guys on sec
ond and no outs or
on third with less
than two outs,”
Johnson said. “We
didn’t need hits in
those situations, just
to put the ball in
play. We were trying
to hit doubles.”
Tonight’s start
ing pitcher, junior
Ryan Rupe, said Pan American is
a good offensive team.
“They are going to put the ball in
play,” Rupe said. “They scored a lot
of runs against Southwest last week.”
Johnson said he expects the
team to be more relaxed tonight af
ter getting the anxiety of the first se
ries out of the way.
“I want our guys to play well, not
just win the game,” Johnson said.
“We need to elevate our level of play
by taking quality strokes at the plate
and not just hacking away.”
Today’s game will begin at 3
p.m. at Olsen Field with gates
opening 90 minutes before game
time. Tomorrow’s doubleheader
will start at 1 p.m. with freshman
Casey Fossum starting the first
game and senior John Codrington
throwing the second.
The first 500 fans through the
gates on either day will receive
magnetic schedules courtesy of the
Therapy Center.
Stew Milne, The Battalion
Senior Wade Diedrich dives off the 3M board at last weekend's meet.
Ags travel to Rice
id a part in
t was going
ehind the
es.
ionda Reinhart
journalism maj
ennis team looks to Southwest Louisiana
a Selena press confetf
years ago and I sat oitti
lird row,” Hearn said
By Dennis Ramirez
The Battalion
its the Texas A&M Men’s Tennis Team opened
the spring dual match season, so did the skies
nup as the Aggies fell to Northeast Louisiana
te University 4-3 yesterday at the Omar Smith
mis Center.
The Aggies found themselves winning all
ee of their doubles matches, but dropping
perk students remerat)' r of six singles matches to Northeast
chance to see the# hsiana for the first loss of the season.
Head coach Tim Cass was disappointed with
outcome of the matches, but remains opti-
itic concerning the overall effect it will have,
iternshipprogramoi ‘1 thought we came out here and played
isiness contacts,exp^fd, but I am not happy that we lost the ten-
match or anything for that matter,” Coach
'e than likely, ifsnoiffts said. “We have still got a long, hard road
Aggie runningthecsi sad of us, but we did an excellent job in dou-
George Strait,” Lace"
3 than likely they wil 1
wire.
hies and our two veterans won big, but we still
have got to get better.”
The freshman squad of Tony Young, Gonzalo
Anderson, and Juan Aramburo came up short in
their doubles matches, and lost the singles
matches to the more experienced Northeast
Louisiana netters.
Both veterans, senior Robbie Krause and ju
nior Carlos Tori, came up with wins. They
teamed up in doubles and put away their op
ponent 8-3. Tori felt confident on the courts
but at the same time credits the freshman
shortcomings as a good learning experience.
“I felt really good out there today and every
thing that I have worked on in the off season
went good,” Tori said. “It was the first match for
the freshmen, but I thought they played pretty
well, especially because they were playing their
top guys. They played great matches and being
a freshman did not have anything to do with it.
They will certainly be able to grow on this expe
rience though.”
The Aggies face the Southwest Louisiana Ten
nis Team tomorrow and hope to put things to
gether by then. For now .dhough, Coach Cass
wants to take the loss with stride and hopes by the
time the Aggies are up for their peak performance
they will look back and grow on this.
“Our goal is to be playing our best tennis by
late April and during May, and I truly believe that
in that time period we will win matches like to
day’s,” Coach Cass said. “By then the guys will be
a little more seasoned and they needed a situa
tion like today, a freshman finishing it off in cold
rainy weather, because really all that is going to
come back and help us in the long run. It will be
interesting to see if the guys come out here with
more maturity against Southwest Louisiana and
see how things go.”
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Stew Milne, The Bati alion
nior guard Lana Tucker drives for a layup against the Sooners.
By Jamie Burch
The Battalion
The Texas A&M Women’s Basket
ball Team’s style of play this season
has mirrored Head Coach Candi
Harvey’s pregame motto “It’s not
going to be pretty,” but bottom line,
a win is a win.
The Lady Ags (8-12 overall, 2-8)
will try to emerge with just that —
a win — when
they battle the
University of Col
orado (13-6 over
all, 7-2) Saturday
in G. Rollie White
Coliseum at 7 p.m.
Hoping G. Rol
lie will provide the
home crowd ad
vantage, Harvey
said the Lady Ag
gies must concen
trate on what they
want to accom
plish, rather than their specific op
ponent.
“If you focus on every opponent
in this league, you’ll just wear your
self out,” Harvey said. “They’re all
good. What we’re trying to do is fo
cus on our goals, regardless of who
we’re playing.”
The Lady Buffaloes, who rank
second in the Big 12 conference,
“If you focus on
every oponent in
this league, you'll
just wear your
self out."
Head Coach
Candi Harvey
pose quite an offensive threat. As
a team, Colorado boasts a 41.5
field-goal percentage and is shoot
ing 70 percent from the free-throw
line. 6-foot-4 senior forward Rea
gan Scott’s team-leading 8.3 re
bounds per game and 45-percent
shooting from the field anchors
CU’s post attack.
The other half of the twin towers,
6-foot-3 senior forward Erin Scholz,
leads the team with
14.3 points while
swatting down 18
shots in 19 games.
Although Col
orado’s post players
are tall, Harvey said it
is the seniors’ experi
ence that gives Col
orado an advantage.
“Erin Scholz and
Reagan Scott have
played a lot of bas
ketball for (Head)
Coach (Ceal) Barry,”
Harvy said, “I think it’s not so much
their size, but their experience that
could be a factor.”
To combat Colorado’s post-ori
ented threat, Harvey said the Lady
Aggies will have to outlast Colorado.
“If we’ll have the ability to hold
on just one second longer than our
opponent it could put us in the po
sition to win,” Harvey said.
By Courtney Lyons
The Battalion
With the season winding down,
the Texas A&M Men’s and Women’s
SwimmingTeams have one dual meet
left before the Big 12 Championships.
Saturday’s matchup against Rice
University in Houston contains a
long order of events (16 total), with
short distance relays. There will be
no diving events because Rice does
not have diving teams.
Although the swimming pro
gram at Rice is relatively small, the
Owls will be a tough challenge for
A&M because many Aggies will be
swimming their off events (events
they do not normally compete in or
are not their specialty event).
“This meet (with Rice) is one last
step along the way to conference,”
Head Women’s Coach Don Wagner
said. “Everyone will swim in one or
two events, to keep rested.”
Wagner said the Lady Aggies are
ready to take on the challenge.
"This dual meet with Rice will
help the the guys decide which
events will be their second and third
events,” Assistant Men’s Coach Jay
Holmes said. “After this meet, we
should know what they are capable
of in other events.”
Holmes said the Aggies should win
the meet because the Owls do not
have as deep a team as A&M, al
though they have several individuals
who will give the Aggies an opportu
nity to swim a good, fast race one last
time before conference.
Mastagni retires
Danee Mastagni, a member of
the Texas A&M Women's Swim
ming Team, was forced to end her
swimming career because of a
medical condition called vasova
gal synope, is commonly refered
to as fainting spells.
The 1996 NCAAhonorable men
tion All-American and school
record holder in the 200-yard
breaststroke, Mastagni qualified for
the NCAA Championships in both
her freshman and sophomore sea
sons. Last year, Mastagni collected
all-Southwest Conference honors
by placing third in the 200-yard
breaststroke in an all-time A&M
record 2:15.13.
“Dance’s leadership and her
constant support of her teammates
will be missed greatly,” A&M Head
Women’s Swimming Coach Don
Wagner said. “To lose arguably the
best athlete on the team this late in
the season obviously makes this a
little more difficult.
"From a personal standpoint, I
really hurt for Danee. I hope she
knows we care very much about
her and love her.”
Aggies head for the Rockies
By Matt Mitchell
The Battalion
Anytime the Texas A&M Univer
sity and the University Colorado get
together, it is always a marquee
matchup — in football.
The Texas A&M Men’s Basketball
Team will see firsthand whether or
not the Buffaloes are the first of the
two football-dominated schools to
field a basketball team roughly
equal in stature to its football team
when they clash Saturday night in
Boulder.
Colorado has experienced a bas
ketball resurgence this year behind
the play of sophomore point guard
Chauncy Billups, a 6-foot-3 dy
namo who is scoring nearly 18
points per game. Though coming
off a 77-69 loss to Nebraska, the Buf
faloes are still 16-5 overall and 7-2 in
conference, just a game behind
Kansas.
Colorado has notched wins over
such teams as Iowa State — who
beat the Aggies last Saturday—
Texas Tech and Missouri, an upset
winner over Kansas Monday night.
Ryan Rogers, The Battalion
Freshman guard Brian Barone
dribbles past an Iowa State defender.
The Aggies (8-11, 2-7) will be
playing the second in a two-game
road swing that saw them lose a
heartbreaker to Oklahoma Tuesday,
62-59. A win over the title-hungry
Buffs would provide some much-
needed momentum as A&M enters
the home stretch of the season.
n