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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 6, 2015)
SPORTS The Battalion I 2.6.15 4 TRACK Weekend meet the last home stop for Aggies By Seth Stroupe Aggie fans will have their last chance to glimpse the track teams in person this weekend. Texas A&M will host the Ag gie Invitational Meet this Friday and Saturday at Gilliam Indoor Track Stadium. The Aggies come off last weekend’s Arkansas Invi tational in Fayetteville, where the men missed a first-place berth by one and a half points to take third, and the women finished fourth. “It’s good for our team to un derstand that it takes everyone to win,” said head track coach Pat Flenry. “The SEC championships are coming up and that’s an op portunity to make sure that ev eryone can be on the same page on the same day. That’s what each of these competitions is about, trying to find out where our strengths and weaknesses are and deal with them prior to the SEC Championships.” Despite a missed first-place shot, the men’s 4x400 relay team ran a near-historic race. The Ag gie quartet of Gary Coleman, Bralon Taplin, Shavez Hart and Deon Lendore came within three hundredths of a second of break- EQUESTRIAN ing their own national record with a time of 3:03.23. For its ef forts, the relay team was granted a share of this week’s SEC Sprinter of Week award, the third con secutive week that a Texas A&M team member has held that dis tinction. This weekend’s meet features Baylor (men No. 15), Clemson (women No. 24), Houston (men No. 21), Rice, TCU (men No. 23), Texas State and UTEP — a lineup that will pose a challenge to the Aggies even it isn’t quite as stout as the five top-10 schools A&M faced last weekend. “It’s a good balance of teams, [both] the men and women’s side,” Henry said. “This will be a competitive meet in almost every event and that’s what we need for this time of year.” The Aggie Invitational Meet is the last opportunity to catch a meet in College Station. Despite eight national championship titles, the track team lacks the amenities to host an outdoor meet and must spend the entire outdoor season away from home. “This is the last home meet for 28 seniors,” Henry said. “This weekend is the last time that they’ll get to compete at home because we don’t have a track facility that our athletes can com pete on outdoors. Indoors is fun, it’s good to do, but track is really an outdoor sport. The fact that we don’t have an outdoor track is just incredible.” The Aggies’ last home stand W. BASKETBALL will kick off at 2:30 p.m. Friday in Gilliam with the pentathlon, hep tathlon and distance medley relay. The majority of the competition will take place Saturday, with field events and prelims starting at 12:30 p.m. The meet is avail able on SEC Network+ and the Watch ESPN app. AGGIES ON THE ROAD AGAINST RIVAL BAYLOR No. 6 Texas A&M visits No. 1 Baylor in the hunt for its first road win. More at thebatt.com. Aggies claim close victory against Missouri By Andre Perrard The Aggies need every win they can get to better their NCAA Tournament resume. On Thurs day, A&M took care of business in a 55-48win over Missouri (12-11,2-8 SEC). The Aggies were led by Court ney Walker, who scored 17 points in the win. It was a back and forth game in the first half, with the largest lead being seven by the Aggies. Ball security was a key for the Aggies, as they only had five turnovers in the game. Walker added seven rebounds in the win. Chelsea Jennings contributed off the bench as well, scoring eight points and grabbing three rebounds. Courtney Williams also scored eight points with four rebounds. Jordan Jones reached double fig ures with 10 points, four rebounds and three assists. The Aggies shot well to close the first half and went into the locker room with a 28-21 lead at the break. A&M played good defense, forc ing 21 turnovers, which the Aggies turned into 17 points. Achiri Ade led the Aggies with eight rebounds in the game and had a solid game in the paint. The Aggies tried extending their lead in the second half, stretching it to a nine-point advantage. However, the Tigers cut the lead to as litde as three, but big shots from Jones and Walker pushed the lead back to seven. The Tigers would not go away, again cutting the lead down to four late in the second half, but the Ag gies made their free throws down the stretch to put the game away. The win moves the Aggies to 18-5 (6-3 SEC). A&M travels to No. 18 Mississippi State on Sunday afternoon. SOFTBALL CONTINUED out on the field and compete against the best. “I’m really anxious and excited to see how we handle the stress and pressure of a game,” Evans said. “I don’t remember a time when I went into a season with so many inexperienced players in terms of playing time at the college level. It’s go ing to be interesting to see how our kids respond.” The Aggies enter the new season with plenty of fresh faces, as many of the top contributors last year graduated. Upper classmen like catcher Nicole Morgan and outfielder Cassie Tysarczyk held huge leadership roles that now have to be picked up from players who lack in-game experience. Senior Rachel Fox is one player Coach Jo Evans hopes will assume a leadership role. “She’s a natural leader in terms of be ing a pitcher on the mound,” Evans said. “Anytime you’re a pitcher you have got to lead the team.” A player to keep an eye on is junior outfielder Cali Lanphear, who began her college career with a bang as the first Ag gie freshman to garner All-America hon ors. Last year, Lanphear struggled to get at-bats, let alone to be the big bat in the lineup to drive in inns. Now that Nicole Morgan has graduated, Evans feels Lan phear will be able to regain her freshman year form and produce in the hole that Morgan left behind. “I’ve seen good improvement out of [Lanphear],” Evans said. “She’s someone we’re really going to need to lead us of fensively, especially in the RBI categories and the power numbers.” All of the main contributors from the pitching staff return this season. Fox and junior Katie Marks are projected to take the brunt of the load, along with rising sophomore Abby Donnell. Fox is excited to see her club playing this season. “I expect us to compete,” Fox said. “I expect us to work hard, day in and day out. We’re a younger squad, but I don’t think that’s going to make too much of a difference. The freshmen have come in and put a lot of hard work in. I’m very pleased with them.” Junior outfielder Alex Masek said the Aggies are ready to prove people wrong. “People aren’t going to expect any thing from us and we’re going to use that to our advantage,” Masek said. “We have a lot of fresh faces and fresh talent, but we’re determined and that’s a big deal.” DUO CONTINUED \ J .} ' '.ri'i i li/u p for a visit and the players were really cool and they took me in as their own brother.” Coming out of high school, House was rated a 5-star by Rivals, com. He proved the rating imme diately, becoming the first Houston Cougar to hoist Conference Fresh man of the Year honors with aver ages of 13.6 points and 5.3 rebounds per game. But, like Jones, a coaching change sent House from Houston. Switching schools is no easy task for a collegiate athlete. Neither play er was sure to play at all this season. House wasn’t cleared by the NCAA to play until the fourth game of the season. Jones became eligible before the season’s start but he’ll have to sit out the first four games of the 2015- 16 season because he took part in two closed scrimmages at SMU be fore transferring in January. When House learned he was cleared to play by the NCAA, his team suffered a heartbreaking, 55- 53 defeat to Dayton in the opening round of the Puerto Rico Tipoff. In his first game, House was the lead ing scorer with 18 in a 64-51 con solation championship victory over New Mexico. Although he was good to play at the get-go, injury forced Jones to watch from the sideline in street clothes as A&M dropped SEC games against Alabama and No. 1 Kentucky, which the Aggies took to double overtime on 25 points from House. Since Jones came back, the Ag gies hadn’t lost a game until trav eling to Ole Miss Wednesday, a stretch that saw House garner SEC Player of the Week honors. With nine SEC games remaining, the pair share the team lead with 13.8 points per game. “We were lucky that we got both of them in the summer,” Caruso said. “They didn’t have to start late, so we got to talk to them a bit and kind of get them going with the pro gram and how everything works.” After assessing his time at A&M, House said he’s assured that he made the right choice. Jones shares the sentiment. “I think I made a great decision,” Jones said. “I love the community around here. I love the players. I love the coaching staff. The academ ic support here is excellent. I just feel like I made a great decision.” House and Jones have helped spur the student body’s interest, as Saturday’s win against Vadnerbilt marked the largest student atten dance in Reed Arena since 2011. Still, A&M’s success has yet to find a national audience. The 15-6 team remains unranked, though many now project A&M to be selected for the NCAA Tournament. Fortu nately for the Aggies, they still have nine games for their star duo to draw attention. “By the end of the season, I want a lot of people to recognize this team as a good team because a lot of people consider us as an average team,” House said. “I don’t think we’re average. A lot of our players put in a lot of hard work and dedica tion to the game of basketball. For the team, period, I want to get to the NCAA Tournament.” Tickets as low as $30! MSC Box Office 0. * 979-845-1234 • MSCOPAS.org MSC OPAS The Perfect Musical Comedy! now on sale WE'VE GOT YOUR NUMBER 2015 Texas A&M Campus Directory Convenient listings of administrative offices, departments and other information about A&M. p^EPARTMENTS: You may charge and pick up Ly Campus Directories in the Student Media office in Suite L400 of the MSC. Cost is $5 per copy. Please bring a Student Media Work Order. Call 845-2646 for info. ^TUDENTS AND OTHERS may purchase directories 3for $5 plus tax each in MSC L400 (by cash, check or credit card). Hours: 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Monday-Friday.
