I
Page 2B
SPORTS
THE BATTALION
Aggies take on Big 12 foes
UT hosts swimming and diving championships
By Jeremy Brown
Tfoe Battalion
;The Texas A&M women’s swimming
and diving team will compete in the 2001
fag: 12 women’s swimming and diving
championships in Austin today through Sat
urday with the goal of swimming season-
best times and possibly qualifying some
swjimmers for the NCAA Championships.
! ;A&M women’s swimming coach Steve
pultman said that A&M can finish as high
as second, but, with the level of competi
tion this year, the Aggies will really have to
$>top up to do it.
; !“A11 you can really do is take care of
yourself,” Bultman said. “We can swim un
believable lifetime-best times, and, if some-
boldy else swims faster than that, there is
nothing much you can do about it.”
In last year’s Big 12 championships,
A&M finished second — the highest finish
ever by an A&M team in a conference
swimming meet. However, the only Aggie
tp Win an event was junior Clara Ho in the
200-yard butterfly.
The Aggies lost three swimmers this
y|ear to season-ending injuries, including ju
nior Kelly Bolton, one of A&M’s top swim
mers last year. Because of these injuries and
several illnesses, A&M did not fare as well
afc Bultman would have liked this season.
“The girls haven’t put their heads
down,” Bultman said. “We have gotten up
and just done the best we can with the peo
ple that we have.
“If we had everybody, I would feel pret
ty good that we would repeat our second
place.”
A&M is 7-4 in dual-meet competition
and 1 -1 in the Big 12. The unranked Aggie
swimmers have struggled against teams
ranked in the top 25 with losses to No. 11
Southern Methodist University and No. 24
University of Kentucky.
The University of Texas Longhorns won
last year’s meet by a record margin of 179
points. The Longhorns won 16 of the 21
events to claim their second consecutive
conference title. Texas went on to place
ninth at the NCAAs.
With the return of Colleen Lane and the
addition of three Australian Olympic swim
mers, No. 9 Texas will be the overwhelm
ing favorite to win the Big 12 again.
Lane won or was on the winning relay in
seven events in last year’s Big 12 champi
onships. She recorded the fastest times in
the Big 12 this year in three events — the
50-yard freestyle, the 100-yard freestyle
and the 200-yard freestyle.
The Longhorns’ midseason additions
from Australia are Helen Denman, Jacinta
Van Lint and Rachel Harris.
The Longhorns are 4-3
in dual meets, but all three,
losses were to teams in the
top 10.
Texas is the only ranked
team competing in the
meet, but it is not the only
team that A&M must worry
about.
The University of Ne
braska Cornhuskers are 7-3
and have already beat
A&M 152-147. Nebraska
has a conference record of
4-0 but has not faced Texas.
The Cornhuskers finished
third in last year’s Big 12
championship.
A&M has already hand
ed the University of Kansas
a dual-meet loss, but
Kansas was able to beat
A&M at the Big 12 relays,
which they hosted during the fall. Kansas
finished second by beating A&M in the last
relay to break a tie.
Despite its second-place finish at the re
lays, Kansas has not done as well against
the Big 12 in dual meets. The team has an
0-4 conference record and is 3-5 overall.
Thursday
The Texas A&M women's swimming and diving
team will travel to Austin to take on the rest of the
Big 12
diving
Bultman said the University of Missouri
and Iowa State University have the best
teams they have ever had. Both schools are
6-4 in dual meets. Missouri is 2-1 in the Big
12 and Iowa State is 1-2.
The Big 12 championship will be scored
using the same format as the NCAAs. The
top 16 places in each event score points.
RLE PHOTO/ThvBc
conference at the 2001 swimming and
championships at the University of Texi
The championships will be break
nationally from Austin by Fox SportA
The preliminary meet races willbesi:
11 a.in. each day and the finals will star
7 p.m. There will be no charge to watclr:
prelims but the finals will cost $4fora(i.
and $2 for children.
R<
lo
g*
NL
Rocke
case \
Wedn
ting :
$290,(
RO;
this se
lion l}
Clarkt
Shrifti
Tht
a 2.89
for At!
Tut
more I
half th
the aft
trated
lawye
who s
not be
Tht
was el
the Brt
distrac
ammu
A&M golf team opens spring season with Hawaii tournamen
SWEA
By Kevin Espenlaub
The Battalion
The Texas A&M men’s golf
team will travel to the beautiful is
lands of Hawaii to compete in the
11th annual Taylor Made Waikaloa
Intercollegiate Invitational Golf
Tbijxnament today through Satur
day at the Waikaloa Kings and
Beach Golf Courses.
*;The tournament, which will start
tlae Aggies’ spring season, will fea-
tdre 23 teams from around the
country. Each team will play one
round of 18 holes per day to total a
54-hole tournament competition, j]
The course is a par-72 and is 6,594
yards.
This will be one of the toughest
fields of the season for the Aggie
men, as the Waikaloa tournament
will host seven of the nation’s top
20 golf teams, including No. 3
Georgia Tech, No. 5 University of
Southern California, No. 8 Brigham
Young University, No. 16 (tie) San
Diego State University, No. 16
(tie) University of Texas, No. 18 =
u
[That was] a pretty
important tourna
ment for us because of
our position in the con
ference. We had dug
ourselves into a hole
early in the season. '
— Bob Ellis
A&M men's golf coach
Oklahoma University and No. 19
Texas Christian University.
The Aggies hope to repeat the
success they accomplished at last
year's Waikaloa Tournament when
they finished 10th in the field of 24
teams and upended three top 25
teams.
They hope for another solid
performance this year to bolster
their chances of advancing into
the regional tournament on May
17-19.
The Aggies will need to pull to
gether solid performances against
district competitors to keep that
hope alive.
Although the Aggies struggled
through the fall tournaments, the
coaches were pleased with the
team’s improvement in its last tour
nament.
In the third annual Henry Grif-
fitt's Baylor University Invita
tional Tournament on Nov. 6-7,
th‘e team finished eighth out of 17
teams, its best showing of the
“[That was] a pretty impoHit
tournament for us because oi I’
position in the conference,”AM
men's golf coach Bob Ellis said*
ter the Baylor tournament. “We
dug ourselves into a hole earl;I
the season and needed to perfal
well here.”
Following the Waikaloa Toil;
ment this weekend, the Aggies*
prepare for their March 12-13'i
to Lafayette, La., where they*
compete in the Louisiana Class;
Tournament.
half bee
not atter
In th
force in
shots ai
bounds 1
“I kn
Bean sai
K;
t.
CCLYS
< 4 1114 1 STATIONS NEWEST
EANCE 4111
* »
J i
■Drink Snecials
Wednesday- $1.50 Bar Drinks &
Long Necks all nite
Thursday-$1 Bar Drinks & Long
Necks till 11:00
Friday & Satruday- $1 Bar Drinks
& Long Necks Till 10:00
NO Cover For Over 21 Before 10 p.m.
NO Cover 18 & Up Before 9 p.m.
tfai&rs-fri-scit
JDOORS OI^EJSr^L-JT 7
JYf ORE I/VECJ G&^-OOl8
GUiPEPPEH PUli
(behind HOLIDAY INN)
696-3351
SUNDAYS
$2.00
PINTS &
WELL
DRINKS
7 TIL CLOSE
TUESDAY
$1.50
DOMESTIC
L0NGNECKS
7 TIL CLOSE
PECIALS
WED.
thurs.
$2.00
$2.00
WELL
PINTS
(anything on
DRINKS
the wall)
7 TIL CLOSE
7 TIL CLOSE
' j
wiF
TEw
WE HAVE STEEL
DART BOARDS
OPEN DAILY AT 4 P.