Monday, J U | V ; Page 3 Sports Monday, July 30, 2001 THE BATTALION Big 12 football holds media days JEVA.TW lUmu: ighters trai ning session. Matthew L. Thigpen The Battalion Friday at the Big 12 Con ference media days in Dallas, the Aggie football team stated that despite being unranked, hey are ready to battle for not only the Big 12 Conference Slphampionship but for the na tional championship. | Safetyjay Brooks summed up Rhe team’s attitude, saying, ® Each team in America wants to rajnake it to the big dance. That is i our team’s goal.” I Head coach R.C. Slocum brought quarterback Mark Par is, center Seth McKinney and Brooks to answer questions om the press. Each player said at being unranked was not a iad thing because the Aggies ormally shine as underdogs. “We like being sleepers, ight now, we are the sleepers of he Big 12. Oklahoma, Texas ind Nebraska have the pressure .11 on them,” Brooks said. Last season’s disappointing 7- 5 record is a large part of the rea son the Aggies are unranked, fl “It’s disappointing anytime | you don’t win a championship. Ags savor new role as underdog But every year is a new season and at this time a year ago, no body was predicting that OU would play for the national championship,” Slocum said. A major cause of last year’s disappointment were early sea son injuries. “We had the worst run of in juries (last year) since I have been a head coach,” Slocum said. So far, the Aggies are healthy, but losing Ja’Mar Toombs and Robert Ferguson to the NFL draft leaves a void on the offense. “Anytime you lost two guys the caliber of Robert Ferguson and Ja’Mar Toombs, it’s tough. But we have a lot of players who can step in, and, on the whole, make this a better unit than last year’s,” Farris said. This year’s schedule puts several obstacles in the Aggies’ way to a conference title. Notre Dame visits Kyle Field Sep tember 29, and A&M must travel to Kansas State, Texas Tech and Oklahoma. The Red Raiders have a history of play ing well against the Aggies in Lubbock, and playing the Sooners in Norman is never an easy task. A&M’s arch-rival, the Texas Longhorns, must come to Kyle F'ield. The Aggies are hoping to avenge last season’s debacle in Austin. “We made (Longhorn quar terback) Chris Simms who he is after he exploded against us last season. But, Texas has to come play us at Kyle Field this No vember,” Brooks said. Texas A&M head football coach bers of the 2001 team attended FILE PHOTO/The Battalion R.C. Slocum and several mem- Big 12 media days in Dallas. Horns, Huskers start as favorites Matthew L. Thigpen The Battalion After years of playing sec ond fiddle to Nebraska, Kansas State and Oklahoma, the University of Texas took center stage at Thursday’s an nual Big 12 Conference me dia days in Dallas. A No. 1 ranking from The Sporting News increased the Longhorn’s media attention. When asked about the possi bility of winning a national championship, Texas head coach Mack Brown said, “One of the advantages of being in a conference like this is it puts you in a great position to win a national title if your team wins out. It also gives your program national attention and makes it easier to recruit. However, it also makes it harder to win.” Longhorn quarterback Chris Simms is considered to be one of best quarterbacks in the country, although he has started only seven games with a 5-2 record. Simms seemed surprised by the attention, saying “I think there are lots of good players who have proven themselves for more than one year in college. I’ve got to prove myself first.” 1999 Offensive Player of the Year Major Applewhite is wait ing in the wings if Simms fails to produce. With a schedule der signed for a national champb onship run, including national powers like New Mexico State and Houston, the hardest game for the Longhorns is likely to be against Oklahoma. The Long horns also have to travel to Kyle Field, where they historically have not fared well. Despite being the defending National Champions, Okla homa is not picked to win the Big 12. Quarterback Josh He- upel is gone, but head coach Bob Stoops is optimistic about this season. See Bic 12 on Page 6. W r lH| Welcome to the Tour De Lance, Armstrong triumphs i Ji PARIS (AP) — Lance Armstrong raised his t arms * n triumph on the Champs-Elysees yet again 11 11 Sunday, easily capturing his third straight Tour de France title after surviving life-threatening cancer and taking the world’s toughest cycling race to an other level. His leader’s yellow jersey was lost in the main pack as he crossed the finish line, but the man from Austin, Texas, already had shown he is in a class of his own — the only American to win three Tours in a row. f 1 - With the majestic Arc de Triomphe behind jhim, Armstrong listened to the band play “The urEneimV’sodj Star-Spangled Banner” and savored an end to i-Wesley. three weeks of gut-wrenching treks through ■ es to predict: mountain peaks. Tv to be violate® . He stepped down from the podium and em- n"tr their targets braced his wife, Kristin, pregnant with twin 1 girls, and toddler son Luke, dressed in yellow ration. Thekt <1. a hacker is ataH uter to launch ns, the honr ject aims to «after pro/M ► ugh papers an minutes,”like his father. the helloutotr “It’s the best feeling of the last three (wins),” ise. Wejustp4 Armstrong said in faltering French. “As always, I ismylSDNk am happy to finally arrive, to finally finish the not IBM or soft Tour. It’s a special feeling.” He later took a lap of honor down the graceful, le original net" tree-lined Champs-Elysees with his U.S. Postal ted planning"' ch will be I" rrants. Service teammates behind him, and smiled in amusement when the Texas flag he was waving be came entangled in his bike chain. It was about time something went wrong. Armstrong’s ride to victory was smooth from start to finish, and reached perfection in the five mountain stages. By the time he had finished in the Alps and the Pyrenees, his awestruck rivals were acknowledg ing defeat with a whole week of racing to go. His most memorable triumphs came in the climb to L’Alpe d’Huez — his first-stage victory — and in the ride to the top of Pla d’Adet, where he claimed the yellow jersey that he wore all the way to Paris. Then, with the title already locked up, Arm strong further tightened his grip in the flat stretch es by winning the last individual time-trial. Flis main rival, Jan Ullrich of Germany, was left trailing the Texan by 6 minutes, 44 seconds in the overall standings, a deficit he carried with him to the finish line. Only sickness or accidents could have prevent ed Armstrong from claiming victory, and his leisurely finish in 70th place in the final stage changed nothing. “I never thought I would get to this point. It was a surprise for me even to make it back to the sport,” he added, referring to his comeback from advanced testicular cancer that had spread to his lungs and brain. Like Armstrong, U.S. cyclist Greg LeMond also won three times, but with a two-year gap between his first and second tides. The Tour record is five ti des, but for now Armstrong says he isn’t interested. “I’m not chasing a record,” he said. Armstrong’s triumph crowned a Tour that was almost free of doping scandals: The Texan denied once again that he has ever used performance-en hancing substances after it was revealed he had ties to an Italian doctor linked to doping. Then, Span ish rider Txema Del Olmo was dropped from the race by his team after testing positive for what his squad called “abnormalities.” Czech rider Jan Svorada won Sunday’s stage, ending a more than 2,100-mile ride through France and Belgium in 20 legs. Svorada was clocked in 3 hours, 57 minutes, 28 seconds. Germany’s Erik Zabel was second and Australian Stuart O’Grady finished third, both in the same time as the stage-winner. Armstrong also finished in the same time as Zabel. With Ullrich in second overall and Spaniard Jose- ba Beloki third, the finish was identical to last year’s. It was only the second time in Tour history that the same riders have finished 1-2-3 in consecutive years. Armstrong won the 1999 Tour with a 7:37 lead over Switzerland’s Alex Zuelle. In 2000, he faced stiffer competition, but managed to beat Ullrich by 6:02. “It was one of the funner victories I’ve had here,” he said. “Definitely the strongest I’ve ever been, stronger than the previous two.” But there’s more to come. “I have a lot left,” he said. “I love it. I love what I do. As long as the passion is there, I’ll be around for years.” As for Armstrong winning over the hearts of the French — well, not yet. The public admires Armstrong’s huge talent, but sees him as somewhat cold and distant. “Arch-dominator,” the daily Parisien newspa per called him recently. “Armstronginator,” said the sports daily L’Equipe. For his part, Armstrong has tried to warm to the crowds by speaking a mildly mangled form of French in TV interviews. See Armstrong on Page 6. rget bom b 011 : iy, not all voted to: Cl Residence Hcril: The Student Life Alcohol and Drug Education Programs Office offers presentations on Women and Alcohol as well as Sexual Assault and Date Rape Drugs; how to protect your self. Y<»«# cent « pi~«^ejT£ei’£ic»n 9jrv-ffn«K erfc h££f»://wi