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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 9, 2004)
8 ION ■I« t; :e ornia, We do 'ectio “Fox ie 75 ) the tional ipfoi s. i asa i re in id the io vis- > io ndinj in kalso jroup ads in i over irk in over irk io over rds io error kwas twice iosest s 174, Press ites to dorse- ce to iWar, I have resent it the i be," etnam /e the d just Aggies have impressive weekend in the pool falls in hard-fought battle with No. 3 Texas Aggies drown Rice, UH By Jordan Meserole THE BATTALION Setting 16 different individ- iseason or career bests in one it would seem to be a sure imbination for a win for any MB, The Texas A&M men’s and diving team did Friday, but still came nay empty-handed. of the largest crowd an A&M swimming mi diving meet, the No. 13 Igies (8-2) lost to No. 3 liversity of Texas, 176-118, in meet that was much closer 0 the score suggests. A&M head swimming coach 1 Nash said this was one of lehest meets this year. He said mpleased with all the per- iiances that he saw and isn't pi by the loss. Texas swam faster today have all year long saiosttop-10 teams,” Nash said. Texas set the tone of the meet ktothe beginning, winning the lyard medley relay with the stest time in the NCAA this mi. A&M wasn’t far behind, iishing second and setting the shthfastest time in the NCAA. m mi 45 30 35 35 1^1 3 d on Sports The Battalion Page 7 • Monday, February 9, 2004 The one-two finish would foreshadow much of the meet. The Longhorns finished in first place in 13 of 16 events, with A&M finishing second in nine of those 13 events. Impressively, 12 of the 14 swimming events were decided by less than two seconds. In the 50-yard freestyle, A&M senior Matt Rose’s time of 20.07 seconds was the 10th fastest in the NCAA this season. Not to be outdone, Texas’ lan Crocker, a former Olympic gold medalist, time of 19.41 in the same event was the third fastest in the NCAA this season. “It hurts a little bit to swim that good and still get beat,” Rose said about his second- place finish. Rose would eventually redeem himself two events later, taking first place in the lOO-yard freestyle. On the diving side, A&M sen ior Adam Morgan won the one- meter springboard event, his sixth consecutive win in the event. Morgan said he knew he would have to step his performance up a level to get a win against Texas. See Swim on page 9 John C. Livas • THE BATTALION Junior Alfredo Jacob© swims the 200-yard breaststroke against Texas Friday at the Texas A&M Student Recreation Center Natatorium. Jacobo had his streak of eight consecutive wins in the event snapped by Texas senior Brendan Hanson. By Jordan Meserole THE BATTALION The No. 14 Texas A&M women's swimming and diving team ended its season on a high note with wins against Rice University and the University of Houston over the weekend. A&M (10-1) first faced off against the Rice Owls on Friday night at the A&M Student Recreation Center Natatorium in front of the largest crowd to ever attend a women’s swim ming and diving meet. The Aggies performed well, defeat ing the Owls in a 142-109 loss. A&M won 1 1 of the 14 events, placing first and second in seven of those events. A&M junior Courtney Patterson placed first in both backstroke events, the second time Patterson has accom plished this feat in the last three meets. Patterson said her suc cess and the team’s success was due to their rigorous practices. “We’ve never trained this hard before,” Patterson said. The Aggies traveled to Houston Saturday morning to take on the University of Houston, the last meet on their regular season schedule. The Aggies easily cruised to a 155-115 win over the Cougars, winning 14 of the 16 events. The Aggies’ only losses both came on the diving side to Houston freshman Anna Kiess, who won both events. A&M junior Danielle Townsend strengthened her chances at winning a third straight Big 12 Swimmer of the Month award with a win in the lOO-yard backstroke. Townsend said a change in her summer training has helped her get to the level she's at currently. “When you relax, you have fun with it and sometimes even win,” Townsend said. The Aggies will be practicing over the next two weeks to pre pare for the Big 12 conference finals in Austin and NCAA championships, which will be held at A&M. A&M head coach Steve Bultman said he was pleased by the home crowd turnout on Friday and hopes to see a similar crowd at the NCAA championships. “We will definitely be look ing for a big Aggie crowd to come and give our girls the needed support,” Bultman said. Aggie men’s basketball loses again, this time to Baylor By Jordan Meserole THE BATTALION “Dismal” is the best word to desoibethe Texas A&M men’s basket- tall ferformance in a 72-64 loss to BaikUniversity Saturday night. Be Aggies (7-12,0-8 Big 12) were jiveii several opportunities to earn tkirfirst conference win this season ainstthe Bears (7-14, 2-6), but could ixtseize the wide-open chances. The onlf opportunity the Aggies have secured now is the chance to finish wless in the Big 12 and end the sea son with 16 consecutive losses. “We were just bad,” said A&M id coach Melvin Watkins. “We Served to get beat.” The Aggies dug themselves deep loaholeearly in the game, turning the Mover three times and making only so of their first nine shots. The Bears on the Aggie miscues by to a quick six-point lead, through the first half, the jesseemed to get fired up after back- txhack three pointers by A&M senior Ml Kevin Turner that tied the game, hit the Bears quickly extinguished the fire by tying the game with less hanthree minutes left in the half. Turner led the Aggies with 14 its, 12 coming from behind the ihree-point arc. Baylor senior guard Matt Sayman iled a long-range three-pointer at the taertogive Baylor a four-point lead, he closest the Aggies would ever :ome to beating the Bears for the emainder of the game. Sayman scored a career-high 20 points for the Bears. He also con tributed five rebounds and five assists. The Aggies missed their largest opportunity to catch Baylor late in the second half when Baylor went nearly seven minutes without a field goal. A&M, however, would turn the ball over five more times and miss six more shots in that same time frame. A&M finished the night with 23 total turnovers. You can t come in here lackadaisical and expect to win. We're going to put up a fight-this is our house." — Harvey Thomas Baylor junior forward Watkins said it was frustrating to see the Aggies commit so many need less mistakes on the court. He said many of the turnovers weren't forced by Baylor, but instead were pure men tal errors by A&M. “You can’t go anywhere and have 23 turnovers and expect to win a ball game,” Watkins said. “We have to get the players' minds right because we are a much better basketball team.” Baylor, which was projected by many preseason polls to finish the sea son without a conference win, had three players finish with double digits and tallied up 13 steals. Baylor junior forward Harvey Thomas had 20 points, six blocks and two steals. Thomas said he felt A&M expected to come to Waco and leave with a easy win. “They came in lackadaisical,” Thomas said. “You can’t come in here lackadaisical and expect to win. We’re going to put up a fight - this is our house.” Baylor head coach Scott Drew said he was pleased by the energy and focus of his players that earned them the win. “For a team like us that hasn't won a lot of games, it’s easy to play not to win,” Drew said. “But that wasn’t the case today. They came out wanting to win and got it.” The Aggies hope to end their dis mal eight-game losing skid Wednesday night against Nebraska at Reed Arena at 7 p.m. Watkins said the Aggies are talented enough to be getting wins and it is up to the team to work hard enough to get one. “Saying we’re going to get a win and getting a win are two different things,” Watkins said. “They’re going to have to do it and not just say it.” For more photos of the game, please visit www.thebatt.com. JP Beato III • THE BATTALION A&M sophomore forward Luis Clemente gets blocked by Baylor junior forward Harvey Thomas. Thomas had six blocks to go along with his 20 points in Baylor's 72-64 win. The Sattalion IN PRINT ONLINE ON RADIO [ News 0 Sports J Opinion j Mailcall Aggielife £ * Photo t Graphics Comics AP News Classifieds SimfinG. Featuring original designs by David Gardner and selections from Scott Kay, Gumuchian and Simon G, David Gardner’s Jewelers has the widest selection of engagement rings. 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