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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (March 10, 1999)
Battalion Sill} en; esp.&M’s Palmer just short lit Louisiana Invitational men's Golf Team places 10th overall in 15-team field Sports Page 7 • Wednesday, March 10, 1999 tie citia ■w plays ^ould p: at woi ned).; group BY SANTOSH VENKATARAMAN ndsiarl, The Battalion aker$;:§: Blhe Texas A&M Men’s Golf 1 / or ^ Te. ii slipped to a lOth-place finish uitsu .Besday in the Louisiana Classics whileMjmament after shooting 301 as a “gal a: team Monday. I The story for M, like last ^^Har, was ini | ■rformance of ■nior Ryan Pjalmer, the tour nament’s de- art)ara :fe] ding champ. Palmer, who slot a four-un- illr-par 212 for the two-day event, bettered his Classics-winning per- foi mance of 217 from last year. ■ But Palmer was beaten by Rich Borris of the University of Arkansas and Martin Maritz of the Ui iversity of Tlilsa, who each shot 211 to tie as co-champions, o takeB Palmer finished third despite his attempted rally from five strokes gains behind going into the last day. leans, iledlai 'pstoe tied lo PALMER he in :ities of d “Iflo sbeii ins, I 5 the Ail i distrih 1 si ml ling!), Diana! D-Colj i a 19? ; i city ii ss izine? of al) decision llrawsfire JJ NCAA decides to fight judges ruling on Prop 16 ■ fAP) — The NCAA will fight a ruling that struck down test-score requirements for freshmen athletes ■ unfair to blacks, saying the dge’s decision could create chaos its member colleges. , I The governing body of college irvlce Borts Wednesday will ask the ^S e '' ; |dge to stay to the ruling and also Bill appeal, Elsa Cole, NCAA gen- C ' i counsel, said Tuesday. She ex- 5 ^ e »cts a response from the judge ‘dMopjvithin a day or two.” > se dll'l U.S. District Judge Ronald Buck- Id 8 e kilter in Philadelphia ruled Monday ce 1 the NCAA may not use a minimum 1 sonit fest score eliminate freshmen stu- ilwa> dent-athletes from eligibility. He cit- |d the NCAA’s own research show- w * tne ;«g the practice harmed black ntea 'stndents’ chances of being declared nd ti academically eligible, it the® Th e policy, known as Proposi- nfadfipn 16, required the athletes to wasi jiave a minimum score of 820 on ithoi’the Scholastic Assessment Test re- ■rdless of their high school lettejHades. The ruling did not rule out called some use of the tests, which many actpjBucators have long said are racial- ake f ly and culturally discriminatory, ials. | “We are encouraged by the court’s acknowledgment that the ^^initial eligibility standards ... serve a legitimate educational goal,” Charles Wethington, president at Kentucky and head of the NCAA’s executive committee, said. I “In addition, the judge has not precluded use of the SAT or ACT as a part of an initial eligibility rule, gpe challenge for the NCAA re mains as it has always been: to de velop standards to meet that goal.’’ 1 Also Tuesday, the NCAA an nounced a settlement on another di visive issue. It agreed to pay $54.5 lillion to about 2,000 Division I coaches who had sued over the so- called restricted-earnings rule, which jdit ho^ had capped their salaries at $12,000 for an academic year. A&M was seventh and led nation ally-ranked Arkansas and Univer sity of Oklahoma going into Tues day’s action. Other highlights for A&M were the play of senior Matt Welch and sophomore Casey Cronin. Welch and Cronin both carded final-round scores of 77. Welch finished in a tie with three other golfers for 34th while Cronin tied for 39th with three other golfers. Welch finished one stroke ahead of Cronin as Cronin shot 227 for the tournament and Welch shot 226. Aggie freshman Sean Gilliland tied Conrad Roberts of the Univer sity of Kansas with a 15-over-par 231. Competing as an individual, Aggie freshman Josh McCoy tied for 68th with a 236 while sopho more Ryan TU11 shot 250 for sole possession of 81st place. The tournament, at the par- 72, 7,002 yard Oakbourne Coun try Club in Lafayette, La., was hosted by the University of Southwestern Louisiana, who finished third. The Classics gave a good indication of how A&M stood in comparison to its Big 12 rivals since seven conference schools competed. A&M was able to place ahead of conference schools University of Kansas, Baylor University, Kansas State University and the University of Missouri in the 15-team field. The Aggies were three strokes be hind ninth-place University of Col orado and finished behind peren nial golf powers University of Oklahoma and University of Ne braska. No. 11 University of Florida won the tournament in dramatic fashion over No. 22 Nebraska on a second- hole play-off. The Gators won for their third tourney of the season. A&M next travels to the Border Olympics in Laredo, Texas. The Olympics, another two-day event, will be March 19-20 at the Casa Blanca Country Club and the Lare do Country Club. The Olympics are the nation’s second oldest college golf tournament. Nedorostova breaks top 100 SALLIE TURNER/Tme Battalion A&M freshman Martina Nedorostova takes a swing during the Texas A&M Women’s Tennis Team’s match against Oklahoma State University Feb. 27. Nedorostova, from Bratislava, Slovakia, broke into the Intercollegiate Tennis Associations' national ranking this week at No. 98 with a 12-6 overall record. The women as a team are ranked 31st, three spots above their final fall position. The men dropped to 19th nationally after a No. 14 final fall ranking. MIKE FUENTES/The Battalion A&M junior Dell Lindsey (right) attempts the slide against the Iowa State University Cyclones at Olsen Field Saturday night. The Texas A&M Baseball Team defeated the University of Houston Cougars, 8-7, Tuesday night in Houston. Ags break even on road with win over Cougars A&M Baseball Team moves to 16-3 on season BY AARON COHAN The Battalion HOUSTON — The road woes were finally defeated Tuesday night as the No. 3 Texas A&M Baseball Team defeated the University of Houston Cougars, 8-7, in front of a UH-record 3,021 fans. It was a strong showing to start off a five-game road trip for the Ag gies, but A&M coach Mark John son said the team could not take anything for granted. “That was one win,” Johnson said. “But there are five more.” The Aggies showed up on both sides of the plate Tuesday, with both the offense and defense com ing down the stretch. After giving up two homeruns to the Cougars in the bottom of the fourth inning, ju nior pitcher Chris Scarcella was re lieved by senior Shane King, who was able to retire the next two Houston batters to keep UH’s lead at one. In the top of the fifth, A&M ju nior center fielder Steven Truitt launched a fastball over the left- field wall for his eighth homerun this season, tying the game. King got into trouble in the bot tom of the fifth, loading the bases. Johnson brought in freshman hurler Khalid Balloui, who man aged to get A&M out of the inning by forcing Cougar catcher Jarrod Bitter to ground out to A&M short stop Steve Scarborough. Johnson said he was impressed with the freshman’s performance. “K.B. (Balloui) came in and did a good job,” Johnson said. “For a freshman to step into an arena with a packed house, I was really A&M Baseball vs. Houston A&M, 8-7 W- Balloui (2-0) L-Moore (3-2) pleased with him.” A&M began to pull away from the Cougars in the sixth inning, as junior catcher Joe O’Jibway hit a two-RBI double that scored three runs. A&M never looked back, tacking on one more run to end their scoring as Balloui pitched his way to his second win of the year. The Aggies, who have now won 13 of their last 14 contests, will re turn home March 19 to host the Aggie Classic at Olsen Field. NCAA reaches salary-cap deal KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Un derpaid college coaches who suc cessfully sued the NCAA are final ly getting a big bonus: $54.5 million. The governing body of college sports agreed Ttiesday to pay the amount to about 2,000 Division I assistant coaches whose salary was capped at $12,000 for an aca demic year. The so-called restricted-earn ings rule lasted three years (1992- 95) before a judge struck it down. The coaches and the NCAA had been fighting over a settlement ever since. “This association-wide night mare is over,” Charles Wethington, NCAA executive committee chair, said in announcing an end to years of expensive litigation. The settlement comes a day af ter another NCAA setback. A fed eral judge in Philadelphia threw out the organization’s minimum test-score requirement for fresh men student-athletes, saying it was unfair to blacks. The NCAA is fighting the ruling. In the settlement, the NCAA must still decide how much each of the 302 Division I schools will pay. Officials of many schools have crit icized the organization for not set tling the case sooner. The schools’ financial pain could be cushioned by about $22 million the NCAA will make over the next three years through cost cutting measures, executive direc tor Cedric Dempsey said. But the schools would still be responsible for the balance of the settlement. Dempsey would not speculate on a school-by-school allocation of the damages. He said a subcommittee that is already studying the question has heard two “extremes” — one to "We won our major point, which was that the rule was unlawful and was repealed/' —Dennis Cross NCAA coaches’ lawyer divide the total equally among all Di vision I schools, the other tied to dis tribution of revenue based on school size. “It is not likely the subcommit tee’s allocation plan will embrace either of these solutions,” said Dempsey, adding that the NCAA wants to decide before the organi zation’s next fiscal year begins in September. The settlement now awaits a judge’s approval, which will clear the way for the coaches to submit claims. They will not split the money evenly, however. Instead, the amount they receive will be based on what they made under the cap and what their schools would oth erwise have paid them, said Den nis Cross, a Kansas City-based lawyer for the coaches. It will probably be months be fore checks are sent out to the coaches, many of whom are no longer in college sports, he said. “We won our major point, which was that the rule was un lawful and was repealed. And those who were damaged by it will be recompensed,” Cross said. The restricted-earnings rule was adopted as a cost-cutting move by near-unanimous vote of Division I schools in 1991 and took effect in August 1992. The rule capped salaries for entry-level assistants in various sports, excluding football, at $12,000 for the academic year and $4,000 for the summer. Coaches filed three lawsuits that were later consolidated into one, and the NCAA lifted the rule in 1995 after a federal judge in Kansas City, Kan., ruled that the organiza tion violated antitrust laws. An ap pellate court upheld that ruling, and the U.S. Supreme Court re fused to hear the case. I i durifls I /), or : cole? 1999 New Phone. 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Come find out what Steve Von Hoff, Senior V.P. of Newmark Homes, has to say about opportunities in home building. Tuesday, March 23 7:00 p.m. Harrington Room 110 Sponsored by National Association of Home Builders