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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
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