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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 16, 1999)
le Battalion PORTS Page 11 'Tuesday, November 16, 1999 common goal iley Janes and Nik Tate take different paths to success BY JASON LINCOLN The Battalion iley Janes and Nik Tate are about as different as they come. The two are a stark contrast in both physical stature and background. About the only ing that Janes and Tate have in common is Texas A&M wimming and an intense desire to win. The 6-foot-7, 200-pound Janes came to A&M from a wn called Saskatoon in Saskatchewan, Canada, as a ackstroker with very little training background who got y on talent alone — a characteristic he said unfairly famed him an early reputation as a slacker. The 6-foot-l, 190-pound Tate was completely the op- osite. As a freshman from Grapevine, Texas, he was fair- new to swimming and relied on an intense work ethic excel in the breaststroke. Tate had just one problem — espite all the training, he struggled to get faster. JP BEATO eering major (ceni i major (right), figH 1 University during Sunday at theZi 2 tournament in (tie iversity. o on sir ;. 'Today is the lira™ im lack collective!) ontract. Hubberts ays if teachers can rom the state attoni ?gally strike andtlj ce strikers back to i AssocLition Presii stoppage was probat) right to strike, and it \seotit, "Sykes said. Jm JASON LINCOLN/ I in Battai.ion Texas A&M Men’s Swimming Team sophomores Nik Tate {(left) and Riley Janes lead off the 200-meter medley relay. But both made some big changes and improvements over the course of their freshman season — changes that the Aggies are anticipating to pay off big over the course of the next three years. The two sophomores are now leading off one of the Aggies’ most dominant relays, the 200 medley. It is a lead- off that A&M men’s swimming coach Mel Nash said he has complete confidence in. “With those two leading off your medley relay, it puts you in a position to have a fighting chance against almost anybody in the country,” Nash said. “We’re very pleased with what they have done as freshman and to know that we’ve got them for three more years —- what a calming thought.” Janes and Tate make no effort to hide their belief that they are one of the most dominant leadoff duos in the country. “There’s not many people that can be ahead of us at the halfway point of a relay,” Janes said. “Especially in the 200 medley, there’s really nobody who can be ahead of us [halfway].” When they entered A&M in 1998, many saw the talent and potential the two swimmers brought to the program. Yet the benefits would take some time to develop as both swimmers struggled to adjust to college swimming. Tate came into the program with an intensity that was immediately respected by the team. His drive and deter mination earned him a reputation as a no-nonsense guy who, in others’ eyes, set goals higher than he could pos sibly reach — at least at first. But soon it became appar ent that his determination enabled him to achieve even his highest goals. “Nik is a man focused on a mission,” senior Devin Howard said. “He sets his goals really hard, and if he doesn’t reach them he gets angry at himself. He is the type that gets a zone around him and you don’t mess with him at all.” Tate had a problem that all of his determination could not fix. No matter how hard he tried, his performance had plateaued. The problem was immediately recognized by Nash, who would spend the season teaching the fresh man how to break that limit. “Nik had gotten to where he was because he was so tenacious and was such a fighter,” Nash said. “His prob lem was we had to change his technique and revamp his stroke, because he had taken his old one about as far as he could go. He got a little better at it last year, but this year it should help him move up to the next level.” While his coach may have known what was necessary, completely changing his stroke was a difficult thing for Tate to accept. “Mel has really worked with me in im proving my stroke,” Tate said. “All of last year he had to sell it to me and I wasn’t buy ing it. This year I let some of my pride go and let him coach and now it’s a much better re lationship and it improved me in the water.” Janes came to A&M with an impressive list of accomplishments. The backstroker swam for the Canadian national team and had a tremendous amount of talent. But despite his previous accomplishments, A&M would prove a big transition for Janes. In Canada, Janes was forced to train himself without the background in swimming necessary for him to compete against the talent he was be ing compared to. “Riley has done virtually everything he has done before [swimming at Texas A&M] on natur al talent,” Nash said. “He had very little training background. Over the course of the last 14 months he has developed into a solid worker. “That is going to pay dividends over the course of this season and into the summer with his Olympic trials. He has a chance to be among the best in the world — there’s no doubt about that.” Making the transition from swimming for Canadi an club teams to the rigorous schedule of an Ameri can collegiate program was not easy for Janes. Besides adjusting to a new training regimen, he was forced to adjust to a new culture and the disapproval of his former Canadian teammates. “You’re kind of seen almost as a trai tor,” Janes said. “Obviously, they don’t want to lose people to the United States to swim in college, but you come down here and the com petition is so much better. It is really see Goal on Page 12. IP dmr i*t oMocicUiott luitU .A ■pAe&entl >ntest FREE ADVANCE SCREENING Tuesday, November 23 alia ipa+uiasieA h- Advantage The Rules Have Changed... Get Paid to Surf the Web Power5tudents.com W*r'~ ■ lnsideCuide.com 4|u nr 7:30pm @ Rudder Theatre Free passes available at Rudder Theatre Box Office or lobby Passes required. Seating is limi ted and not guaranteed. Please arrive early. NETWORK EVENT THEATER®