Thursday, February! " hursday, February 17, 2(XX) SPORTS THE BATTALION Page? AN 'ontinuedfromfi by the Texas A&M', mu led to an indicimtsl eb. 1998, accusing re than SI00,000top^ ts aid the investigation lis outspokenness ment, diversity, andj \v. He claims that oral judge in Austin,i: roceeded illegally win ed. and Pradhan wasi instated after havintk 1 pay aid he simply wantsii e said the Univen riminal charges agaiisl a years. squeezing blood om lan said. lid the Southern attia nd administration is® ces behind the Univen; g harassment agains embers ikmy story is unique.! e have been many case just got too muchpie« relieves false accuses ainst him based entkki e sent an e-mail messy After a three-year domination by tw o elite teams, mbers in Ocl 19%,®? he Big 12 conference is wrought with parity' this union for A&Mprof® women’s swimming season. This according to Jill Sterkel, coach of the de- A began an intense k fending Big 12 women's swimming champs fromthe iccusations against fe University of Texas. arles Orsbum, Pradk l, ]t used to be there would be a couple of teams icy, in a Jan. 21,199Sii that would dominate swimming, in conference and theNCAAs,” Sterkel said. “But over the past few years, we’ve seen that all the schools are able to com pete.” Sterkel said the 2000 season has continued the JP BEATO/Tm Battalion he Texas A&M women’s swim team is hosting the 2000 Big 12 Swimming Championships eb. 17-19 at the Student Rec Center Natatorium. A&M women’s swim team hosts Big 12 Championships lid two other Univeta Dr. Richard Wyskandl) ;uez — felt it was imps icir work elsewhere, w a professor at Pei» versity’s Departmentol anufacturing Engine® is employed by Print* epartment of Civil andfc igineering. Rodriguezs® M, he does not care tot® as still taking plaretoe. id basic rights wo nt the duration ikac- litigation. He clamii BY BLAINE DIONNE The Battalion om their positions at Ai' trend of steady improvement in the conference’s tal ent pool, no pun intended. Besides the usual suspects of UT and the Uni versity ofNebraska, who between them are the pro prietors of every Big 12 championship since the su perconference's inception in 1996, v arious schools have popped up as serious contenders this weekend. "This year the quality of the Big 12 has risen a lot,” Sterkel said. “Kansas, A&M and Nebraska have all gotten better.” Texas A&M women's swimming coach Steve Bultman, in his first year at A&M and in Big 12 com petition, said he had to agree w ith his colleague from recess were v iolate&M[jTabout the relative leveling of the playing field in bjeeted to illegal se£ the conference. “This is my first year here and I’ve looked at the results in the past and clearly Texas and Nebraska have dominated the first three years,” Bultman said. “But 1 feel like we're swimming a lot better, Kansas is definitely improved — even Missouri is a lot bet ter, so hopefully this could be one of the closer cham pionships ever.” The reasons the Aggies could make this a close championship starting Thursday are the same reasons they have stayed close in the standings all season. Bultman, acting as if it were simply a foregone conclusion who would perfonn in the meet, rattled off his choices for A&M’s top performances. “It's probably going to be the same ones that have been doing a great job for us all year,” Bultman said. “Monica Williams, Monica Stroman, Tracy Evans, Clara 1 lo in the flies, Amy Osmun in the backstroke, Kelly Bolton in the sprints, just to name a few.” Sterkel named virtually the same list about the tal ent awaiting the rest of the conference at A&M, but was also quick to point out that each school has their specialty. “On paper, each school has an event that they can win,” Sterkel said. The schools competing are Iowa State Universi ty, the University of Kansas, the University of Mis souri, the University ofNebraska, UT and A&M. The meet will be running all day Thursday, Friday and Saturday at the Student Rec Center Natatorium. Ags hit .500 mark with win GUY ROGERS/Thi: Battalion A&M junior forward Jaynetta Saunders attempts to go up for a shot against the University of Missouri last night at Reed Arena. BY REECE FLOOD The Battalion The Texas A&M women’s basketball team won its second home conference game in a row and brought its season record to the .500 mark after defeating the University of Missouri 66- 55 Wednesday in Reed Arena. The Aggies are now 11-11, 3-9 in the Big 12 Conference, while the Tigers fell to 16-7,6- 6 in the Big 12. It was not an easy victory for the Aggies, though. With 4:28 left on the clock and the game tied 49-49, it seemed the victory was up for grabs. But sophomore guard LaToya Rose sparked the Aggie offense with a timely three- pointer. That was followed shortly by a field goal from junior guard Brandy Jones which prompted Missouri coach Cindy Stein to call a timeout. From this point on, the Aggie offense con tinued to hit its shots from the field and the free throw line, helping A&M finish its 17-6 run to end the game. Stein said her Tigers were unable to get points against the Aggies in the closing min utes due to A&M's aggressive defense. “I think that we absolutely had an offensive meltdown,” Stein said. “I give credit to Texas A&M. They really attacked our guards and made them put the ball down. We weren’t get ting any good shots off. They outplayed us.” The Aggie defense was impressive Wednesday, getting 19 turnovers from Mis souri — nine of which came from blocked shots and seven from steals. “I thought their team, they took it at us,” Stein said. “They didn’t back down from us. They had us on our heels.” A&M coach Peggie Gillom was excited about the win and gave credit to a solid per formance on both sides of the ball. "This is a great win for Texas A&M women’s basketball tonight,” Gillom said. “Tonight we scored some buckets, and we played defense and it all came.” Senior forward Kera Alexander said she no ticed a difference in how the team played to gether in this game. “We played real well as a team,” Alexander said. “Down the stretch we have a tendency to try to go one-on-one and we kind of each get in our own little world. Today we came together.” Gillom said Missouri is a very talented team. By beating them, the Aggies brought an end to a four-game Missouri winning streak. “This is a red-hot team,” Gillom said. “Mis souri is not bad. I think they folded under our pressure tonight.” Stepping up big for the Aggies was junior forward Jaynetta Saunders, who scored a game- high 20 points and recovered nine rebounds. Saunders went out early in the game with a twisted knee, but returned shortly to help A&M get the win. “When I came down on my leg, 1 believe 1 twisted it,” Saunders said. “I came out and everyone was telling me ‘suck it up, suck it up, you ain’t hurt.' They just told me to play my game.” Three other Aggies scored in double digits. Rose chipped in 13 points while senior forward Prissy Sharpe and Alexander both ended the game with 12 points. Julie Helm led the way for Missouri with 16 points, while teammate Amy Monsees grabbed a team-high 10 rebounds. !, 1996, Pradhan was C. at an academic coni puter, computer recot ei/.ed from his office, d he was arrested at 5, 1999 and no Mira which are then typedi- lotes whenever you wish 01-510 RDNG 351.500 >01-502 RENR 205.501-M >05-506 3COM 327.500 >01-502 SOCI 205.503$ 02 SOCI 316.501-5$ 06-507 THAR 101.500 01,503 VAPH 305.501-5$ 04-505 VAPH 404.500 07,509 VTPB 409.501 08 ZOOL 107.501-5# 10-511 ZOOL 320.501-5H 03 01-502 ve., 222D s & Noble) w items :hool Some Of The High Tech Tools You'll Work With At Smith & Associates. At Smith & Associates while we take our business seriously we also work hard at having fun. It's this great environment where people can wear shorts, play Ping-Pong and Basketball that we believe enables ideas to run freely. 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