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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (July 5, 2004)
illil iking iji Sports ■II The Battalion Page 3 • Monday, July 5, 2004 Doyle rules! Aggie javelin hurler Katy Doyle grabs gold at NCAA championships nrlines' n par: ilpassf: irried ; 11 in ne wk urtteii By Nikki Knight THE BATTALION Growing up with three broth ers, it was almost inevitable that Katy Doyle would somehow find her way into sports. Doyle didn’t get hand-me-downs of Barbies and My Little Ponies, but instead found a baseball and glove in her hand more times than not. “My brother Paul played baseball, and at a young age he put a ball in my hand. When he needed someone to catch for him he would drag me out to the backyard,” Doyle said. Aggie senior track and field team member Doyle played vol leyball and softball growing up, but never participated in track and field. Feeling burned out on softball after high school, Doyle said she came to Texas A&M with no specific athletic aspira tions. Doyle was brought to A&M by it’s proximity to her home town in Houston, her brother who had also gone to A&M and her desire to be close with her family. After coming to A&M, Doyle said she realized she missed having the competition in her life that sports provided her with. One of her brothers attended Rice University and was an athlete. Doyle’s father knew some of the coaches there, including the track and field coaches, and recommended to Katy that she try her hand at the javelin. Doyle walked onto the A&M track and field team in 1998 as a freshman, having never thrown a javelin. Her experience in softball helped her acquire the necessary skills to compete in the injury-prone sport, she said. “The biggest struggle was learning to throw when I got started. Injuries are almost guaranteed from not throwing correctly,” Doyle said. After receiving two All- American titles as an under classman, Doyle injured her elbow, requiring her to undergo “Tommy John” surgery in the summer of 2001 in order to con tinue to compete. “It was a big decision, but I had the surgery so I could come back to the sport. I could’ve gone about life fine with my elbow the way it was, but I had surgery so I could come back,” Doyle said. Doyle was sidelined for two years during her recovery from the surgery and granted contin ued eligibility from the NCAA due to her injuries. After returning, Doyle won her third Big 12 javelin title and her second Midwest Regional title. Doyle then headed to the 2004 National Outdoor Track Championships along with 12 other Aggies. Trackwire predict ed Doyle would place third in the competition. And going into the final day of competition, she was in third place. However, her final throw of 185 ft. 7 in., nearly 12 feet farther than her best throw, pulled her into the lead. The throw earned Doyle the gold and the national title in the javelin on June 11 in Austin. “My favorite moment at A&M has been winning the national championship,” Doyle said. “I didn’t realize until later on that night just what had hap pened. I was pretty much just in a state of shock because I wasn’t expecting to win.” With a degree in psychology from A&M, Doyle is now work ing toward her graduate degree in sports management. Doyle said that after she finishes her graduate work here at A&M, she hopes to go to law school, possi bly at the University of Houston. Even though Doyle isn’t cur rently pursuing any sort of pro fessional career on the field, she is aiming to soar high in her post-collegiate career. But don’t expect her to be completely absent from all athletics. I plan to stay involved in athletics,” Doyle said. “It’s hard to cut competition out of your life.” Randal Ford ♦ THE BATTALION A&M graduate student and former track and field star Katy Doyle stands among many javelins at the Rangers win back silver boot against Astros Anderson Track Complex. Doyle overcame surgery to earn gold at the national championships. SPORTS IN BRIEF g at- -etuft Chadf n’sfe here' By Joel Anderson THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Mark Teixeira and Hank Blalock made sure the Texas Rangers didn’t let a lead slip away this time. After watching the Houston Astros rally late for wins in the past two games, Teixeira and Blalock became the first Rangers to hit grand slams in the same game, sparking an 18-3 rout of the Astros on Sunday. “I think the guys were all frustrated that they didn’t finish on top the past couple of days,” Rangers manager Buck Showalter said. “They wanted to come out and make up for that.” Teixeira added a solo shot in the eighth, Kevin Mench also had two homers among his career-high four hits and Alfonso Soriano hit a two-run home run as the Rangers closed out their interleague, in-state series against Houston, scoring their most runs in a game this season. Texas also claimed possession of the Silver Boot trophy that goes to the winner of the series for the first time since 2001. This year’s six-game series ended in a 3-3 tie, but the Rangers outscored the Astros 42-29 to win the tiebreaker. Teixeira hit his slam in the ninth inning off Chad Harville and Blalock was pinch- hitting in the sixth when he connected to give the Rangers their first two grand slam game since the Washington Senators moved to Texas in 1972. “We have an offense that can do that now and then,” said Teixeira. Gary Matthews Jr. set up the Rangers’ six- run sixth, leading off the inning with a sin gle. Eric Young and Soriano were both walked, and Blalock entered for Herbert Perry with the bases loaded. Blalock then homered into the right-field seats off reliever Tim Redding for his 22nd homer of the season, giving the Rangers a 10-1 lead. Teixeira was walked on the next at-bat, and Mench followed with a home run to left field. The Astros suffered their most lopsided defeat of the season, dropping seven games behind NL Central leader St. Louis. “We lost a couple of tough games in the I was bad. I need to get a lot better. — Andy Pettitte Houston Astros pitcher first two games of this series,” said Mench, who had four RBI. “But today it just seemed like one of those days where every thing fell into place.” Andy Pettitte, who was out for a month after going on the DL with a strained left forearm, was roughed up in his first start in Houston since May 26 against the Chicago Cubs. The left-hander’s wild pitch in the second scored Perry for the game’s first run and things only got worse from there. Pettitte struggled to get the final outs in the third and fourth. In the third, Teixeira’s RBI double scored Eric Young and Mench sin- gled on the next at-bat. Michael Young had a run-scoring single in the fourth and Soriano homered into the right-field seats to give the Rangers a 6-0 lead. Pettitte retired the side in the fifth to fin ish his worst performance of the season since his hometown debut against Barry Bonds and San Francisco on April 6. He allowed six runs on eight hits with four strikeouts and three walks. “This is very disappointing,” Pettitte said. “I was bad. I need to get a lot better.” Lance Armstrong finishes first day CHARLEROl.Belgium (AP) - Lance Armstrong played it safe in the first full stage of the Tour de France. Saving himself for the ordeal to come, Armstrong finished com fortably back in the pack in 48th. He is focused on winning a record sixth straight Tour, not scrapping for victories in the haz ardous and fast-paced early stages of the three-week race. A final all-out burst of speed secured Jaan Kirsipuu’s victory in the 125.5-mile trek that fea tured roads turned treacherous by rain. There were crashes, crowds, wind, punctures and a mighty finishing sprint to con tend with — all factors that make the Tour’s first week the part that Armstrong relishes least. Armstrong rode much of Sunday’s stage toward the head of the field with riders from his Postal squad. Federer wins at Wimbledon again WIMBLEDON, England (AP) - Three championship matches, three victories — Roger Federer is a master of the Grand Slam final. The top-seeded Swiss star overcame Andy Roddick’s brute power game Sunday to win his second straight Wimbledon title and cement his status as the game's No. 1 player. The top-seeded Swiss star withstood Roddick's huge serves and forehand winners, winning 4-6, 7-5, 7-6 (3), 6-4 for his third Grand Slam title and 24th con secutive victory on grass. Federer, who won the Australian Open in February, is the fourth man to go 3-0 in his first Slam finals since the Open era began in 1968. 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