Page 2B
SPORTS
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THE BATTALION
Men’s squad travels to Austin
Swimming and diving team heads to Big 12 championships
By Jeremy Brown
The Battalion
With its focus on the NCAA champi
onships in three weeks, the No. 4 Texas
A&M men’s swimming and diving team
will compete in the Big 12 Championships
in Austin Thursday through Saturday.
A&M men’s swimming coach Mel Nash
said the Aggies will be competing to place
second in the Big 12 behind the No. 1 Texas
Longhorns. However, with nine Aggie swim
mers in the midst of training for the NCAAs,
A&M’s challenge will be even greater.
“With the NCAAs here in our home
pool, obviously that is our focus for the
year, but I still feel that we’re going for sec
ond,” Nash said.
A&M has never placed higher than third
in the Big 12 Championships, finishing
third in each of the conference’s first three
years. Last year, the Aggies finished fourth
with 563 points, one point behind the Iowa
State Cyclones.
The men’s diving events were held dur
ing the women’s Big 12 championship to
give the men more time before the Zone D
diving championships on March 9-10 and
the points scored then were carried over to
this weekend’s meet.
Divers Adam Morgan and Jesse Even
have already helped A&M make strides to
ward a second-place finish.
The Aggies are second with 95 points
while Texas leads with 107 points. Trailing
the Aggies and Longhorns prej Nebraska
(57), Missouri (57), Iowa Sta(e (51) and
Kansas (43).
Morgan placed second in the one-meter
dive and fourth in both the three-meter and
platform dives. Even placed third in all
three of the diving events.
The Longhorns took their eaply lead be
cause of brothers Troy and Justih Dumais.
Troy Dumais won the one-'and three-
meter dives, while Justin Dumais won plat
form diving.
The Aggies are 8-1 in dual meets, 2-1 in
the Big 12. A&M beat Big 12 opponents Ne
braska, 166-127, and Kansas, 139-99. A&M’s
only loss was to the Longhorns, 238-131.
The Longhorns, who are 7-1 and 1-0 in
the Big 12, have not had any problem
against ranked teams like A&M. This year,
Texas beat No. 6 Auburn, No. 7 Arizona,
No. 9 Michigan, No. 12 Georgia and No. 20
Southern Methodist. The Longhorn’s only
loss was to No. 2 Tennessee, 121-120.
Last year, the Longhorns scored a record
1,007 points in the Big 12 championships
by winning 19 of the 21 events, extending
their streak to 21 consecutive conference ti
tles. Texas went on to win last year’s
NCAA championships, its sixth in the last
12 years.
“They have so many horses, you know
that you don’t have enough horses to score
the points that they are going to score,”
Nash said.
The Longhorns have the top times in the Big
12 in 10 events, while A&M has six top times.
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Trent Trabona and the A&M swimming and diving team will head toAiunty Coi
compete in the Big 12 championships this weekend. ater, neart
Nebraska and Iowa State will both chal
lenge A&M for second. Nebraska is 6-4, 3-
1 in the Big 12, while Iowa State is 5-2, 2-
1 in the Big 12.
“Both of them have a large foreign con
tingent of athletes that are a little bit older
and a little bit more experienced than our
guys,” Nash"*aid.
The men’s Big 12 champions!
)t camp.
broadcast on Fox Sports Southu tf
8 at 12 p.m. and March 11 at 1 p-
The preliminaries will beginatni
finals will begin at 7 p.m. each day
scored like the NCAA championship
top 16 places in each event scoring
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Sports in Brief
Nebraska downs
Aggies, 97-69
Nebraska’s cause was aided
by 50 of the Huskers’ points com
ing inside the paint.
The Texas A&M men’s basket
ball team suffered its third
straight loss Wednesday night at
the hands of the Nebraska Corn-
huskers, 97-69.
Freshman forward Nick Ander
son led the Aggies with 19 points.
The Cornhuskers were led by
four different players who all had
double-figure points.
Senior guard Cookie Belcher
scored all 16 of his points in
the second half to help the
Cornhuskers pull away from the
Aggies.
Nebraska Senior center Kimani
Ffriend also added 28 points and
12 rebounds for his 10th double
double of the season.
Nebraska’s five seniors con
tributed 74 of the Huskers’ 97
points.
A&M-Houston
game canceled
The No. 20 Texas A&M softball
team’s game with the University
of Houston Cougars was can
celed because of rain Wednesday
afternoon.
The Aggies will return to action
Friday when the team hosts the
Aggie Invitational II at the Aggie
Softball Complex.
A&M enters the tournament
with a 13-4 mark and riding a six
game winning streak.
Other teams participating in
the tournament are No. 12 Iowa,
Illinois State and Syracuse.
The Aggies will open the tour
nament against Illinois State at
3:30 p.m. Friday.
5911
Free agents hit road as deadline approach
■ Wi
(AP) — Quarterbacks Ryan Leaf, Doug Flu-
tie and Elvis Grbac became free agents and
three-time Super Bowl champion Ken Norton Jr.
was released Wednesday as NFL teams sliced
their payrolls as a salary cap deadline ap
proached.
“We are preparing for free agency and the
draft and this allows these players to catch on
with another team,” Chargers general manager
John Butler said, after getting rid of Leaf and
four others.
In other salary-driven moves, the Pittsburgh
Steelers released center Dermontti Dawson and
the Carolina Panthers released three players who
were with George Seifert when he won a Super
Bowl with the 49ers in 1995.
They cut cornerback Eric Davis, fullback
William Floyd and linebacker Lee Woodall. The
moves were not unexpected for the salary-cap
strapped Panthers, who also released offensive
lineman James Dexter. Carolina needed to trim
$ 11 million to get under the $67.4 million cap by
Friday’s deadline.
“There are only so imany slices to the pie.
i£an>
said Miami Dolphins ij^ach Dave Wannstedt.
“We’re going to lose a couple of key guys.
There’s no way around that.”
The Kansas City Chiefs, who ended last sea
son almost $30 million over the cap, announced
Grbac. will become a free agent.
Negotiations had produced one offer from
Steiner of a five-year contract averaging $8 mil
lion a year, including a $20 million signing
bonus, the Chiefs said. The quarterback’s con
tract called for a $10 million bonus if he was still
on the roster Friday.
“We have been informed by Elvis Grbac’s
agent, Jim Steiner, that Elvis wants to pursue the
free agent market and would prefer to play some
where else,” Chiefs president Carl Peterson said
in a statement.
The Chargers began reshaping the NFL’s
worst team of 2000 by waiving Leaf, who had
been in constant trouble during his three seasons.
Leaf missed all of the 1999 season with a
shoulder injury and won the starting job last
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The Bills ended months of speculat; “y/e’reloc
nouncing that Rob Johnson will be thej^” s ,
back next season, making Flutieexpeniim t y Q oua
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Flutie, who went 21-9 as a starter room in Fc
Bills, turns 38 in October, another facTore the bod
ing against him. Id. Officers
Norton spent six years with Dall:^ ver
joining the 49ers as a free agent in I‘W- ^
is the only player in NFL history tor
o c o i ’S arc await
consecutive Super Bowls — lwowlI " : Records si
boys, one with the 49ers.
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Record-setting running back CoR'jile a warra
will be the most accomplished free age Monday,
able, but the Cincinnati Bengals used Ik WiseCoun
sition tag on him, giving them theriglit irt Worth po
any offer. Given the sorry state of the Bt aether the d
tense, they’re determined not to losefe “We’re goi
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313 S. COLLEGE
846-3343
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