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The Battalion
Page 3 • Monday, July 5, 2004
Doyle rules!
Aggie javelin hurler Katy Doyle grabs gold at NCAA championships
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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
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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.
Federer, 22, is the first men's
champion to successfully defend
his title since Pete Sampras won
his seventh and final champi
onship in 2000.
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