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Mary Reyes —THE BATTALION
Storms complicate record-setting Aggie Ring Day
By Jennifer Reiley
JA Ithough the clouds rolled
in and storms divided
Ring “Day” across two
M W days. College Station saw
its largest Aggie Ring Day turnout
yet.
At the Clayton Williams Jr.
Alumni Center, 4,811 Aggies stu
dents received their rings Friday
and Saturday.
The Association of Former
Students estimated 30,000 people
visited the Alumni Center over
the weekend — an average of
about six people per student get
ting a ring.
Kathryn Greenwade, vice
president of the association, said
the ceremonies Friday had to be
moved to Saturday because the
weather was too much of a safety
concern for people waiting out
side to receive their ring.
“Two lightning delays and
the weather that is on its way is
looking severe,” Greenwade said.
“We did not want to endanger
people with being outside in those
conditions. We are very sorry we
had to suspend activities for today.
If we could have continued them
we would but we really couldn’t.”
Despite the weather, about
75 percent of students picked up
their rings Friday. One of these
students was Tonee Anderson,
animal science senior and first
generation Aggie. Like many oth
ers, Anderson said she was excited
to get her ring.
“It’s this feeling that I’m almost
done,” Anderson said. “That’s
really nice you know. It’s just
great.”
RING DAY ON PC. 3
TENNIS
A&M men clinch SEC title on home
court after rain-soaked weekend
w
The Aggie
men's
tennis team
wrapped
up the SEC
tournament
Sunday by
topping
Georgia
despite rain
delays.
By Alex Scott
The Texas A&M men’s tennis
team completed its campaign
for a second straight SEC tourna
ment championship Sunday when
it defeated the Georgia Bulldogs
4-2 at the Mitchell Tennis Center.
Head Coach Steve Denton,
whose team split the SEC regular
season title with Georgia last week,
said he couldn’t be happier for his
team following a championship
match prolonged by inclement
weather.
“This one feels as good as the
first,” Denton said. “Our guys
competed their tails off today
against a great Georgia team.”
The ever-important doubles
point was not easy to come by
Sunday when the two teams faced
off in front of the Aggie home
crowd. At line one, the Geor
gia Bulldogs presented the No. 1
doubles team in the nation, con
sisting of Ben Wagland and Austin
Smith, against A&M’s Harrison
Adams and Shane Vinsant, the No.
11 pair in the country.
Although most of the focus was
on court one, it was the freshman
pair of AJ Catanzariti and Arthur
Rinderknech to first retire their
opponents, 6-3. Almost simulta
neously, A&M (21-4) secured the
point on court two, 6-3 while the
top ranked Georgia group record
ed a win on court one 6-3. It was
seniors Jeremy Efferding and Jor
dan Szabo who clinched the point
for the Aggies.
“You see it time and time
again, the difference maker in a
match comes down to that doubles
point,” Efferding said.
Upon advancing to singles play,
it was not long before the Bulldogs
gained ground and tied the score at
1-1 with a 6-2, 6-3 win on court
four, Harrison Adams falling for
A&M.
Cody Franklin — THE BATTALION
With the intensity rising, the
two star freshmen for the Aggies,
Catanzariti and Rinderknech, de
feated their opponents in straight
sets to give A&M a 3-1 lead.
“They’re poised, they don’t
play like freshmen anymore, we’ve
played enough tennis this year that
I try not to call them freshmen,”
Denton said. “They believe in
themselves, they are aggressive
players, serve well and they think
they’re going to win and that’s the
mindset you have to have if you’re
going to compete at this level.”
TENNIS ON PG. 2
SCIENCE
Rice-sized
research
Allison Bradshaw — THE BATTALION
Two A&M research labs run by Gerard Cote and Melissa Grunlan
are working to develop a new way to track blood glucose levels.
A&M diabetes research could
end painful insulin tests
By Zach Grinovich
Finger pricks and continuous
glucose monitors may be things
of the past if A&M researchers suc
ceed in developing a new way to
measure a diabetic’s glucose levels
through fluorescent light.
Two research labs aim to develop
a device the size of a rice grain that
can be implanted in the skin and will
glow certain colors when fluorescent
light is shined upon it. The colors
will correspond to the diabetic’s glu
cose level, allowing an individual to
monitor their health without the in
vasive, and sometimes painful, pro
cedures available today.
Heading the labs that seek to de
velop this device is Gerard Cote,
director of the Center for Remote
Healthcare Technology, and Melissa
Grunlan, director of undergraduate
programs in the Department of Bio
medical Engineering.
“We are working on a device that
you can implant just underneath the
skin that will change its color or
its fluorescence, if you will, with
changes in glucose concentration,”
Cote said.
When the device is implanted un
der the skin, it is probed by shining a
certain color of light on it. The per
son using the implant can painlessly
and unobtrusively correlate the color
changes with their blood sugar level.
This would provide a way for dia
betics to continuously and noninva-
sively measure their blood glucose.
The device’s design is a joint project
between Cote’s and Grunlan’s labs.
Diabetes is a demanding disease to
deal with. Individuals with diabetes
sometimes have to prick their finger
or forearm at least four or five times
DIABETES ON PG. 2
BASEBALL
GOLF
Rain, Razorbacks doom
No. 1 A&M in series loss
By Seth Stroupe
Maybe it was the
weather delays or just
something in the air, but
for the first time this sea
son the No. 1 Texas A&M
baseball team showed signs
of mortality Sunday agalinst
the visiting Arkansas Ra
zorbacks.
In the series’ decisive
finale, the Aggies were un
able to overcome an open
ing inning in which they
dug themselves into an
early 6-0 hole en route to
a lopsided 8-2 defeat. Sun
day sealed the first series
loss for the Aggies (35-5,
12-5 SEC).
The loss came hours af
ter A&M gave up six unan
swered runs in the last three
rescheduled innings of the
postponed game two.
“We show up [for game
two] and have a five run
lead and nine outs to go
and all of the momentum,”
Childress said. “But Arkan
sas did a great job of taking
that away from us there in
the 8th inning when they
scored five runs with two
outs.”
The team will have a
chance to rebound in Tues-
day’s 2 p.m. home matchup
against UT-Arlington.
FULL STORY AT
TX.AG/BATT44
A&M dominates SEC championship held
PROVIDED
Sophomore Bianca Fabrizio won the
individual title Sunday as part of A&M's
convincing SEC title-winning weekend.
By Lawrence Smelser
The Texas A&M women’s golf team
brought home the SEC championship
Sunday after shooting a historic 13-under
par and garnering a total score of 851 over
the three days.
The 2015 title is A&M’s first since 2010
and its first as a member of the SEC. With
it, the Aggies have now won a total of six
conference titles.
No. 13 Texas A&M achieved the low
est under-par finish in SEC champion
ship history with its 13-under par perfor
mance. The team’s 851 score total is the
second-lowest three-round total in SEC
history.
The individual champion and runner-
up of the tournament both were Aggies.
Sophomore Bianca Fabrizio took the title
with a score of nine-under par 207, and
teammate Maddie Szeryk, who is a fresh
man, finished in second with a score of
seven-under par 209.
“Bianca and Maddie were solid this
week,” McCombs said. “I can’t be more
proud of how they stepped up and played
their hearts out.”
The Aggies dominated the competi
tion, finishing 12 strokes ahead of second
place South Carolina, who are No. 2 in
the nation. Vanderbilt, Tennessee and Al
abama rounded out the top five, finishing
third, fourth and fifth.
“I am so proud of these girls and how
they came through in tough conditions
the last three days, ” said head coach Trelle
McCombs. “They did such an amazing
job of being a team this week, everyone
contributed and gave it their all.”
The A&M women’s golf" team had not
finished higher than seventh in any previ
ous SEC Championship and no individual
had made it higher than 19th place.
With the SEC championship title, the
Aggie women now automatically qualify
for the NCAA championships. Regionals
will take place May 7-9 and the Champi
onships begin May 22.