ics
"he Battalion
Sports
Page 7 • Tuesday, February 9, 1999
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A&M’s Clara Ho excels in first season
A f // i f f f f f f / f
PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY MIKE FUENTES/Thh Battauon
BY BEN WESTBROOK
The Battalion
Texas A&M swimmer Clara Ho
is no stranger to winning. The
northern California native, who
took first this past weekend at TCU
in the 200 freestyle and 100 back-
stroke, has been dominating other
women swimmers for years with
no end in sight. Ho, from Fremont,
California, is the Aggies’ No. 1
freshman prospect and is tearing
up the competition.
Ho began swimming the same
way millions of other people do.
“My parents put me in [swim
ming lessons] just to be water-safe,”
Ho said. They did not know they
were sending Clara on a path that
could culminate with a roster spot
on the 2000 U.S. Olympic team.
The path to swimming stardom
faced an intersection when she had
to deciding to focus on either
swimming or dancing.
“In eighth grade 1 had to choose
between the two because they
were taking up a lot of my time,”
she said. “So I chose swimming.”
No one knows if Ho’s dancing
career would have led to stardom,
"/ think she’s a
great swimmer and
a good person.
She’s wonderful for
the team.”
— Don Wagner
A&M swimming coach
but her swimming career has led to
four California state championships,
a ninth-place finish in the 1996
Olympic trials and a scholarship to
a major Division I school, A&M.
She is making a splash in Ag-
gieland also. She holds the 200-me-
ter butterfly school record for fresh
men and has even come as close as
second on A&M’s all-time best for
the event. Ho will compete on the
World Team this April in China.
The high school great is becom
ing a college great, thanks to a
strenuous weight-lifting schedule
and hard work.
“When I came to college I had
kind of plateaued,” Ho said. “But
I’ve been doing a lot more, and I’m
lifting weights now, so I think that
kind of helps.”
Women’s swimming coach Don
Wagner, who coached Ho in the
1995 Olympic Festivals, is quick to
praise the freshman.
“I knew after [the festivals] I
was going to recruit her wherever I
was once she graduated,” Wagner
said. “I think she’s a great swim
mer and a good person. She’s
wonderful for the team.”
see Swimmer on Page 10.
4gs prepare to take on Owls
AL LAZARUS
The Battalion
ti pant
Bumitru Caradima and Shuon Madden were
be eighth-ranked doubles team in the country
Neff said he; ntering the Rolex National Intercollegiate In
to herinda$>! oors tennis tournament last Thursday, but the
■ His A&M Men’s Tennis Team duo came away
of program wh dth a No.l finish and a load of confidence,
id realizes othei “We weren’t intimidated,” Caradima said,
is,” Neff said. We knew we were a good team and that if we
ilaled our best game nothing could stop us
rom winning the tournament.”
A tournament victory is just what the Aggie
ophomores got; knocking off three of the coun
it does a loto ty’s top five doubles teams along the way to
diming the prestigious event, which is the
oes not see thefird leg of the collegiate tennis grand slam,
of hand because 1 Madden said he and Caradima were look-
d regulated, t0 prove they were worthy of a higher
excited about bi inking.
d about answers “We had a lot of confidence, and even though
/ewere seeded eighth, we felt like we belonged
1 person anyw; itlh higher than that,” he said.
’friends will show IB
nee members’
esses.
ire reserved in
The Aggie duo seemed to maintain their high
confidence level after dropping the first set of
the tournament’s final, rebounding to defeat
No. 3 seeds Jeff Laski and Gavin Sontag of the
University of Illinois, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4.
A&M coach Tim Cass said the victory will give
the doubles team some much-deserved attention.
“T\vo sophomores are going to be the No. 1
doubles team in the country,” he said, “and
that’s a tribute to their skill level and hard
work. ”
Cass said Caradima and Madden’s victory was
also a tribute to the hard work of the whole team.
“More importantly than individual champi
onships, we’re concerned with the team part of
it,” he said. “We had some really good team
practices going into it, and really it was a win
for our whole team.”
The 14th-ranked Aggies will look to carry
momentum from the victory into today’s match
in Houston against Rice University. The dual
match is the first of the spring season for the Ag
gies, who in their lone dual match of the fall de
feated the University of Nebraska, 6-1.
News In Brief
Cook honored as
A&M Soccer Team
Rookie of the Week signs four Texans
MIKE FUENTES/The Battalion
Sophomore Justin Work of the A&M men’s
tennis team prepares for a shot in practice.
The Aggies have split their last two matches
against Rice, losing to the Owls two years ago and
coming back to trounce them, 7-0, last season.
Madden said he expects the team to be ready
for today’s match.
“Everyone’s pumped for the match,” he said.
“[Dumitru and I] have lit the fire, and hopeful
ly it will keep burning for a while. ”
Texas A&M junior guard Clifton
Cook has been
named Big 12
Conference Rook
ie of the Week for
the third time this
season, the
league office an
nounced Monday.
No other Big 12
player has been
honored more
than two times.
Cook averaged 18.0 points, 2.5
steals and 3.5 assists last week in
games against the University of
Texas and Baylor University.
He leads all new comers in scor
ing (15.4), assists (6.1) and steals
(2.8) this season. Nationally, Cook
leads all junior college transfers in
assists and steals.
COOK
Texas A&M soccer coach G.
Guerrieri announced Monday that
four Texans have
signed national
letters of intent to
play for the Aggies
in 1999.
Jessica Martin,
Martha Moore,
Heather Ragsdale
and Andrea Starnes
will look to fill the
holes left by seniors
Linda Castillejos, Emily Elias, Sharon
Pickering and Rebecca Stewart for the
Aggies in the fall.
In 1998, the Aggies went 14-8-0,
7-2-0 in the Big 12 and advanced to
the second round of the NCAA Cham
pionship. The Aggies are set to open
the 1999 campaign on Aug. 25
against the University of Florida .
GUERRIERI
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