The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current, March 25, 2015, Image 1

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    WEDNESDAY, MARCH 25, 2015 I SERVING TEXAS A&M SINCE 1893 I © 2015 STUDENT MEDIA I ©THEBATTONLINE
BATT
THE BATTALION I THEBATT.COM
Senior Greg Yates earned his third career victory Tuesday.
Yates nets tourney win
Aggies post best team score
on final round of Valspar
By Cole Stenholm
After a relatively slow start to
his 2014-15 campaign, Texas
A&M senior golfer Greg Yates re
claimed the spotlight for the A&M
men’s golf program with a victory
Tuesday at the Valspar Collegiate
Invitational, which fielded five of
the nation’s top golf programs.
Yates shot three consecutive
rounds of-4 (67) to post -12 (201)
for the tournament, a score that se
cured the third victory of his career
by three strokes over the nearest
competitor. No. 20 Hank Lebioda
of Florida State.
“He hit a ton of great shots but
what was most impressive was that
when he did hit a bad shot he was
able to recover and never let a poor
shot get him down,” head coach
J.T. Higgins said.
Yates won the 2011 HBU
Men’s Intercollegiate as a fresh
man and then the 2014 Sea Best
Invitational as a junior.
Up until this point, however,
the 2014-15 campaign had not
exactly been kind to the Ag
gies 2013-14 All-Central Region
Team member and second-team
All SEC selection. He had no top-
five finishes to date, after having
led the team in that category a year
ago, and had dropped all the way
back to No. 181 in the nation’s
rankings.
As a team, Texas A&M landed
in fifth place with a cumulative
score of +4 (856), 21 strokes shy
of tournament champion No.
2 Florida State, which shot -17
(835). However, A&M did match
the final round low score of -7
(277) in its closing efforts Tuesday
to advance past two teams on the
leaderboard.
Texas A&M returns to the links
Easter Weekend as it prepares to
host the Aggie Invitational.
By Jennifer Reiley
^■^F^^exas lawmakers are at
tempting once again to
place a statewide ban
on texting while driv
ing, hoping that a change in the
governor’s office will yield a differ
ent result.
Rep. Tom Craddick authored
the bill, which has now passed
through committee and is ex
pected to be read on the House
floor Wednesday. Craddick pre
viously brought forth legislation
about texting while driving only
to have the legislation vetoed by
then-Gov. Rick Perry.
“When I first filed, only nine
states had done it or were look
ing at it,” Craddick said. “Now 44
states have passed it and 38 Texas
cities.
In Texas, texting while driving
falls under distracted driving, one
of the top five causes of vehicu
lar accidents. In 2013, the Texas
Department of Transportation re
ported 94,943 crashes due to dis
tracted driving.
If passed, HB 80 would expand
on current legislation that outlaws
texting in school zones and pro
hibits all texting, even if the ve
hicle is stopped at a light or stop
sign.
“An operator commits an of
fense if the operator uses a portable
wireless communication device to
read, write, or send a text-based
communication while operating
a motor vehicle unless the vehicle
is stopped and is outside a lane of
travel,” the bill states.
Consequences for texting while
driving would be fines of more than
$99 for a first-time offense or $200
if the offender has been previously
convicted for the same offense.
Alva Ferdinand, assistant pro
fessor at the Texas A&M Health
Science Center School of Public
Health, has conducted studies on
distracted driving and testified about
her research to the Texas Congress
TEXTING ON PG. 2
B-CS
BASEBALL
In the
swing of
things
■II
Jena Floyd — THE BATTALION
Trapeze academy brings
high-flying antics to B-CS
By Amanda Talbot
Members of the Lone Star Trapeze
Academy in Bryan are no strangers
to heights — swinging from metal bars
27 feet in the air above a giant net is a
part of their job description.
Lone Star Trapeze Academy recent
ly celebrated its one-year anniversary.
Co-owners Rhys Challicombe, Chad
Davis and Stacy Majors have brought
their acrobatic expertise to the com
munity through the school, which is
one of the only three trapeze schools
in Texas. The other two are located in
Dallas and Austin.
“There’s a lot on the east coast, a lot
on the west coast,” Challicombe said.
“Bryan doesn’t normally get too cold
... So weather is good down here.”
Challicombe and Davis moved from
Australia to teach trapeze in Texas,
while Majors is from Bryan.
“Stacy grew up here and she talked
about the Aggie Spirit — something
I didn’t really understand but sort of
went along with, but arriving here it’s
evident everywhere in the people that
I speak to,” Challicombe said. “Just a
very big community spirit.”
Chalhcombe had been teaching tra
peze and cleaning high-rise windows
in Melbourne, Australia, before mov
ing to Texas.
“Chad married Stacy and we’ve all
been doing circus — flying trapeze for
a while now,” Challicombe said. “And
we decided we wanted to open it up
and run it for ourselves so people could
experience it the way we wanted to
teach it.”
Challicombe started trapeze when
he was 18. After high school, he took
a gap year, which is quite common in
Australia, but then never went to col
lege after learning the trapeze.
He went through Bali, Thailand,
Singapore, Malaysia and the Great
Barrier Reef in different resorts before
moving back to Australia. He has been
teaching trapeze for about 10 years and
teaches a wide variety of ages, from
children, to young professionals, to the
elderly.
“Chad holds the record for the three
of us with an 87-y ear-old, which wasn’t
done here, but which he taught,” Chal
licombe said.
All types of people can experience
trapeze, Challicombe said.
“I’ve taught somebody in a wheel
chair that wanted to have the experi
ence of swinging,” Challicombe said.
“Also a blind person, so disability is not
really an issue at all. He enjoyed just
TRAPEZE ON PG. 2
A&M BOUNCES BACK
WITH CONVINCING
WIN OVER UTSA, 11-1
By Cole Stenholm
After its first loss of the
season, Texas A&M re
bounded strongly Tuesday
night, defeating the UTSA
Roadrunners by an 11-1
margin.
Ronnie Gideon sparked
the Aggie offense with
four RBIs and a home run
on the night. Freshman
pitcher Turner Larkins also
had a stellar outing on the
mound.
The No. 1 Aggies got
started early, as they put
up a six-run first inning to
take a commanding lead
they would only build on
for the remainder of the
game. A&M (25-1) added
insurance in the fifth with
a four-run inning, and a
run in the seventh gave
the Aggies the 11-0 advan
tage. The Aggies outhit the
Roadrunners by a 19-to-4
mark.
The pitching staff came
through with another big
game. Larkins went six
innings, allowing only
two hits and no runs and
and talked four strikeouts
on the evening. Behind
him, Brigham ITill, Blake
Kopetsky and Corbin Man-
tin kept the Roadrunners
(13-11) in check for the
remainder of the game.
The Aggies return to
Olsen Field this weekend
for their second SEC series
of the year, taking on the
Missouri Tigers.
NBA
FORMER A&M STANDOUT
MIDDLETON WINS GAME
WITH BUZZER-BEATER
Former A&M basketball
player Khris Middleton
spurred his Milwaukee Bucks
to an 89-88 victory over the
Miami Heat with a 3-pointer
at the buzzer Tuesday.
Middleton is no stranger to
clutch baskets, as he netted
a last-second shot from
beyond the arc on Dec. 16to
defeat the Phoenix Suns.
JP I2 n MUI.C0M