Tuesday • September 30, 1997
S The Battalion
PORTS
Wyatt lends experience to young team
COURTESY SPORTS INFORMATION
fliorKari Wyatt nears the finish line.
By Jason Whitcomb
Staff writer
O n a scorching day in May 1996, Texas
A&M cross country runner Kari Wyatt
was running about as well as she ever
had in her life in the Southwest Conference
Track and Field Championships. As she ap
proached the 16th lap of the race, she found
herself in fourth place, but in dire need of
some water. Instead of having a fantastic fin
ish, Wyatt was pulled out of the race after
passing out due to dehydration.
“I was doing really well,” Wyatt said. “I
just couldn’t stop wheezing. I couldn’t even
keep my eyes open to see the track.”
After she was pulled off the track, Wyatt
expressed her disappointment to the A&M
trainers.
“I told the trainer that I let Coach Hinze
down,” Wyatt said. “I said that my coach
would take away my meal money because
I didn’t finish the race. I even called him
the devil.”
Since that race, Wyatt, now a senior, has
managed to bounce back in a very positive
way. She even remains to have a great rela
tionship with her “devil” of a coach.
“He thought the whole thing was pretty
funny,” Wyatt said. “We have a real good rela
tionship and he wasn’t upset with me at all at
the time. He knew I gave one-hundred per
cent because I ran so hard I fell off the track.”
This season, Wyatt is at the top of her run
ning career. As the most experience member
on the women’s team, Wyatt is enjoying her
last season from a different perspective. Last
year, she decided to redshirt because she
wanted to run with this particular group of
girls before she graduates in December.
“I wanted to run this year because I want
ed my last semester to be filled with cross
country.” Wyatt said. “At the time, with the
current group of freshmen gaining experi
ence, I felt like we were going to be awesome
this year and I wanted to be part of that.”
Wyatt did not start running until she
was a sophomore in high school. She had
never even heard of cross country until her
RE. coach told her that she should try out
for the team.
“The first day I ever ran I had to wear my
mom’s oversized shoes.” Wyatt said. “I re
member going home and telling my mom I
just ran two miles. I couldn’t believe it. I
guess that is where it all started.”
Wyatt seems to always find motivation to
kick her pace up. During the final lap of
meets, she finds it very motivating when
people in the stands talk trash to her.
“When I am close to somebody, there are
people in the stands that like to talk trash to
me,” Wyatt said. “They like to say that I am
weak and that I can be caught. That is when
I just turn it on, as if to say T don’t think so,
you can’t catch me’.”
During her 72-mile a week practices, Wy
att and her teammates find other sources of
motivation to keep them going strong on
their course. Sometimes, they run into the
corps while they are running in formation.
“I know that they work very hard, but in
all fun, we love to pass them when they are
running,” Wyatt said. “We’ve heard that they
even have to do push-ups when girls pass
them. I don’t know if that is true or not, but
it is still fun to pass them up.”
As the fall season continues, Wyatt is
looking forward to passing more than just
cadets in practice. She sees this season, her
final season, as a veiy special one and hopes
that all of her hard work will pay off and re
sult in some gratifying finishes.
tggre soccer set to get
back on winning track
\OTEBOOK
W-i7 a
Stephen
Boudreau
Staff writer
[ fall good things must come to
an end, then so must the Texas
A&M Soccer Team’s nine game
rinning streak. The 2-1 loss came
itthe hands of the nation’s top
anked team and defending cham-
lion, North Carolina, in the annual
Ididas Classic in Houston.
Deja-vu.
Prior to the loss, the 9-0 start this
eason tied their best start ever. Last
son, the Aggies pushed the enve-
>e to a 9-0 intro before losing to
in tenth-ranked Nebraska 1-0 in
dime.
The Tar Heels improved their ca-
er record against the Aggies to 3-
0 outscoring them 9-1 in those
three encounters.
Big 12 goal
Despite the loss, the Aggies still ac
complished their goal of maintaining
their hopes of winning the Big 12
championship. Led by an Alison Pe
ters two-goal performance, A&M shut
out Oklahoma State 3-0 this weekend
and improved their conference best
record to a perfect 6-0.
A&M remains the only team
with an unblemished league record
in the Big 12.
On the road again.
The Aggies will hit the road for
three weeks, playing consecutive
games at Texas, Southern
Methodist, Texas Tech and Baylor.
The team will play in the St. Mary’s
Tourney in Maraga, California on
the weekend of October 19.
A&M has outscored opponents 14-
4 in their four road games this year.
Shut outs becoming common.
Including five this season, the
Texas A&M Soccer Team has
recorded 39 shut out victories in the
five-year history of the program.
Please see Boudreau on Page 8.
Marching To A Different Beat
Rebel Menze making valuable contributions to A&M cross country team
I i f j# A
‘'•-a
COURTESY SPORTS INFORMATION
Senior James Menze has been a valu
able part of the Texas A&M Cross Coun
try Team placing in the top three in two
meets this season.
By Jeff Webb
Staff writer
T he Texas A&M Men’s
Cross Country Team has
won their last two tour
naments, and they can look to
Senior James Menze as a rea
son. Menze placed fifth in the
Iowa State meet and third in the
Rice meet, and is on a hot
streak that could continue well
past the North Texas Invita
tional that will be held in Den
ton on October 3. But who do
the Aggies have to thank for
Menze attending Texas A&M
and helping out the cause?
“My parents forced me to
come here,” Menze said.
“They’re really conservative re
ligious people and I’m not, and
they wanted me to come to a
school that reinforced those
values that I don’t have.”
Menze does not always go
along with the way others think
things should be done, and that
philosophy applies to his cross
country career as well. While
placing in the top five in the last
two meets, Menze credits a few
missed practices with his recent
success.
“I’m a lot more rested than
everyone else,” Menze said.
“After my race, he [Coach
Hinze] sees I do really well be
cause I’m so fresh, so he does
n’t care anymore.”
Menze should be fresh be
cause he is coming off a 1996
season in which he was red-
shirted. That enabled him to be
eligible as a fifth year Senior.
He worked hard last year, run
ning 85-90 miles a week, with
his sights set on a berth in the
NCAA Cross Country meet.
The last time Texas A&M sent a
team to the NCAA’s was 1982
and Menze wants to get the
A&M program back on track.
Coach Greg Hinze feels that
Menze provides much needed
leadership for the team as they
work to make the NCAA Tour
nament this season.
“He’s been running for a
long, long time. He’s one of the
guys the team looks up to be
cause of his perserverence,”
Hinze said. “James will proba
bly shoot me for saying this, but
he’s not blessed with a great
deal of natural ability and
everything he gets out of his
body, he works hard to get [it].”
It was difficult for Menze to sit
out last year and watch A&M
flounder to a low finish in the Big
12. A&M finished 10th in the Big
12 meet, but this year promises
a top 3 finish in District VI.
“Last year was a rebuilding
year. It hurt sitting on the side
line watching them, knowing
that me and the other Seniors
that were redshirted could have
gone in there and really helped
them do so much better than
we did. I think it’s all going to
pay off this year, especially if we
get to the NCAA meet.”
With hard work and more
stand-out performances, Menze
should be able to reach his per
sonal goal of being All-District. If
he does, you can be sure of one
thing. He did it his own way.
EWFSKE
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