riday • February 27, 1998
The Battalion
ggies off to Big 12 Championships
;xas A&M Track and Field Team gears up for conference competition in Ames, Iowa
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RYAN ROGERS/The Battalion
timan Bashir Ramzy competes in the long jump at the Houston Invitational.
By Michael Ferguson
Staff writer
The Texas A&M Track and Field
Team will wrap up the indoor sea
son this weekend when it travels to
Ames, Iowa, to compete in the Big
12 Indoor Conference Champi
onships. This promises to be an ex
tremely competitive meet with the
northern Big 12 schools tradition
ally dominating the events. How
ever, the Aggies are concluding
their best indoor season in recent
years and should rise up to meet
the challenge.
After last year’s disappointing
performance in the conference
championships, Texas A&M is out
to prove that last year was noth
ing more than just a fluke. Coach
Ted Nelson said last season was
an inaccurate reflection of the
team’s ability.
“We were a better team than we
showed. Things just didn’t go right
for us,” Nelson said. “If you go back
and look at the events, if they were
qualifying eight for the finals, we’d
be ninth. It just wasn’t our day.”
The Aggies have put that per
formance behind them and are ea
gerly awaiting the opportunity to
redeem themselves. The experi
enced gained last year did help the
team and coaches make adjust
ments this season in preparation
for the season finale.
“We’re going to approach it a lit
tle bit different this year. We went
into it a little apprehensive last
year,” Nelson said. “I think our ath
letes are going to react good to it.”
This newfound approach cou
pled with the knowledge gained in
“I feel like our luck
may change a little
bit (this year),
Ted Nelson
Track and Field Coach
the first Big 12 Indoor Champi
onships should lead to much more
success for Texas A&M this week
end. Nelson said he has a positive
attitude going into the meet.
“I feel like maybe our luck will
change a little bit (this year), and
we have the quality of athletes that
can do that,” Nelson said.
The Aggies will begin their
quest for redemption today at 9
a.m. The preliminaries and semifi
nals will take place today, with the
finals following on Saturday.
Following the Big 12 Indoor Con
ference Championships, the indoor
season will be completed (with the
exception of the NCAA Champi
onships), and the outdoor season
will get underway March 7 at the
Alamo Early Bird in San Antonio.
Softball team on the
road at NFCA Classic
By Robert I Iollier
Staffwriter
The No. 22 Texas A&M Softball
Team (11-3), coming off a second-
place finish in the Aggie Invitational,
will face its toughest competition of
the season as it travels to Columbus,
Ga., to participate in the NFCA Clas
sic Tournament this weekend.
The Aggies will play No. 3 Michi
gan at 3 p.m. on Friday followed by
No. 7 Arizona State at 5 p.m. On Sat
urday, they will play Nicholls State at
9 a.m. and Canisius at 11 a.m. fol
lowed by bracket play on Sunday.
Other Big 12 teams participating will
be No. 6 Oklahoma, No. 9 Oklahoma
State, No. 12 Missouri, No. 16
Kansas, Texas and Nebraska.
“This is the best and toughest
tournament in the country,” Coach
Jo Evans said. “This tournament will
give us a good idea on how far we’ve
come and where we need the most
improvement.”
Senior catcher and co-captain
Mary McGuire agreed, saying this
tournament will provide the team
with some tremendous competition
against some of the country’s top-
ranked teams.
At this point in the season, much
of the team’s success can be attrib
uted to consistent and dominating
pitching performances.
The starters, which include senior
Irina Solesbee, sophomore Danielle
Lemuth and freshmen Ashley Lewis
and AmyVining, have gone 10-1 (in
cluding eight complete games and
two shutouts) with a 1.34 ERA and
have allowed only a. 178 batting av
erage against them. Freshman clos
er Kristina Gandara has also come in
to nail down two saves.
“Right now they (the pitchers) are
our team’s biggest strength,” Mcguire
said. “When they get into really tough
situations, they always seem to get
the job done. The more comfortable
they get, the more they excel.”
Evans said the team still needs
to get more consistent and pro
ductive hitting.
“We need to be more aggressive
at the plate,” Evans said. “We need to
get more consistent RBI production
from our lineup to be more effective.
Lack of hitting probably costs us first
place in the tournament.
McGuire said the team just has not
clicked in all phases of the game yet.
“When the season began, we
were hitting the ball so well, but we
weren’t making the plays in the field,”
McGuire said. “In the last tourna
ment, we fielded die ball well, but we
couldn’t hit consistendy. We just
need to put it together.”
Evans said the Aggies have played
as well as she had hoped, but they
know they can play better and con
tinue to improve.
After this tournament, the Aggies
will return home to play a double-
header against the University of
Texas-Arlington on March 4.
STAY,
day!
4
aseball team faces tough Big 12 opener
JEI
By Travis Harsch
Staff writer
The Aggie baseball team will try to
i^akeoff a mid-season loss Friday as they
lenup Big 12 play against Texas Tech,
of the preseason favorites to win the
nierence.
Coach Mark Johnson said the Red
liders are a team that can do a lot of
ingswell.
We’re facing one of the teams that
favored to win the championship,
idyouhate to open up your Big 12 sea
like that, but I’m glad we’re at
me,” Johnson said. “They’re going to
outstanding pitching, and they
inrun the bases well and they’re going
hit, Texas Tech has always been a hit-
igballclub, they’ve got a great staff,
eve got our hands full, we’re going to
iveto play well.”
Senior Ryan Rupe, sophomore Casey
ByAl Lazarus
Staffwriter
:eNo. 38 Texas A&M Women’s Ten-
Team will face No. 14 Brigham
ling University at 1:30 p.m. today at
Omar Smith Tennis Center, and
remain at home Saturday after-
»nto take on Kansas State Universi-
:30 p.m.
The Aggies (7-1, 0-1) are coming off a
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Possum and junior Matt Ward will start in
the three game series for A&M, Johnson
said, as the Aggie offense will try to cope
with an injury to one of its key compo
nents, junior Jason Tyner.
“He rested over the
weekend and Monday
felt like he would go
full speed,” Johnson
said. “Then he got an
infield hit that he had
to leg out, and it tight
ened up, and so we
took him out. It’s a day
by day deal, I’m not as
optimistic right now as
I was Monday, he’s got
a pretty good strain.
“He’s going to have to tell us how it
feels, it’s more important now that he
plays at 95 percent than not playing at all,
he’s so critical to offense that we need to
have him in there.”
Johnson
Although the Aggies did lose 10-7 to
Sam Houston State Tuesday, Johnson
said he did not think that would have
much of an effect on the Tech game, be
cause all of the conference teams are just
getting started.
“We always start with a chance to win
and we want to put our best game out
there,” Johnson said. “Nobody at this
time is on full cylinders there’s not going
to be a Big 12 team on full cylinders in the
latter part of February.”
The Aggies are ranked fifteenth in
the latest Collegiate Baseball poll.
Johnson said although it was nice to be
noticed, the rankings really do not have
all that much importance.
“It’s fun to have recognition, but no
body knows who the fifteenth team in the
nation is,” Johnson said.
The first game of the series will start at 3
p.m. on Friday with Saturday’s game at 3
p.m. also and Sunday’s beginning at 2 p.m.
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BRANDON BOLLOM/The Battalion
Junior third baseman Craig Kuzmic backhands a ground ball in a game against Mississippi.
omen’s tennis team at home with matches against BYU and KSU
disappointing loss at No. 36 Baylor on
Wednesday, 5-4. After winning four of six
singles matches, A&M needed only one
doubles victory to secure the match, but
could not manage it.
In BYU, the Aggies face a perennial
power that is fresh off an upset of the
No. 2 team in the nation, Pepperdine
University.
“BYU is an excellent team,” Coach
Bobby Kleinecke said. “They are a top-
San Miguel
15 team, and they’re
just getting back
from the national in
doors, so they proba
bly have more expe
rience than we have
at this point of the
season.”
The Aggies are
coming off a tough
road stretch during
which they played regional powers LSU,
Rice and Baylor.
“It’s going to be good to get back home
again,” Kleinecke said. “We’ve been on the
road for quite a while, and it should be
good to play some home matches.”
At the beginning of this season, among
the Aggies’ goals were to finish first in the
the Big 12. After losing to Baylor, they will
likely have to win their remaining confer
ence matches to accomplish this goal,
starting with KSU on Saturday.
A&M was victorious, 6-3, at KSU last year.
Junior Monica San Miguel said al
though the Aggies defeated KSU in Kansas
last year, she does not expect an easy go of
it this time around.
“They were a pretty strong team
last year, and they are supposed to be
even stronger now,” she said. “We are
just glad to get a chance to play them
at home.”
■
ELECTIONS
MARCH 2-6
9am-5|>m
IN ROOM 149 KOLDUS
YEU IEADERS-STUDENT SENATE-
CLASS COUNCILS-STUDENT BODY
PRESIDENT-RHA OFFICERS
http://www.lamu.edu/sga
If you need special assistance, please
call 84S-3051
y$ elections are sponsored by the Election Commission.
impmvisational comedy
Mmmrnra..irnprov
Friday & Saturday, Feb. 27 & 28
9 p.m. Rudder Theatre
Tickets are $4 in advance (MSC
BoxOffice)
http://http.tairiu.edu :8000/~fslip
*JB*»**8* >«'*<**$*.
On sale this week at the
M&€,
:<NFF«Ci
i e -
845-1234 or on the net!
http://boxoffice.tamu.edu
(L Call to arrange for special needs.
AggieBucks accepted.
MSC Rudder Box Office
• Theater Arts — Company Wed, Feb 25 thru Sat, Feb 28, 8 p.m.
MSC Film Society (http://films.tamu.edu/) — Devil’S Advocate Fri,
Feb 27, 9:30 p.m.
• Kappa Alpha Psi — Greek Olympiad Sorority and Fraternity Show
Sat, Feb 28,7 p.m.
• Brazos Valley Chorale — Broadway DllOS Sat, Feb 28, 7:30 p.m.
• Brazos Valley Symphony Orchestra — The Power Of Dance Sun,
Mar 8, 8 p.m.
yar- - w - ' "~»ar emm
Spring ‘99
INFORMATIONAL MEETINGS
in 154 Bizzell Hall West
-Monday, February 23
10:30-11:00 AM
-Tuesday, February 24
3:00-3:30 PM
-Wednesday, February 25
9:30-10:00 AM
-Friday, February 27
1:30-2:00 PM
Pick up an application at the meeting or drop by the
Study Abroad Program Office.
Study Abroad Program Office, 161 Bizzell Hall West, 845-0544