The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current, November 16, 1999, Image 11

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    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.
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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.
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