Trump takes lead on election day
Former Republican president predicted to win swing
By Nicholas Gutteridge
Editor
With election day turnout set to break 2020’s record, neither Democratic nominee Kamala Harris nor Republican nominee Donald Trump earned enough electoral votes on the first day to declare victory. With Trump at 230 electoral votes and Harris at 210 as of midnight on Nov. 5, both candidates await results from swing states before claiming the title of president-elect.
In vital swing states Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania — the infamous “blue wall” — results swung toward Trump early in the night, threatening to deprive Harris of the 44 votes she needs for a term in the Oval Office. The Associated Press called battleground states Georgia and North Carolina for Trump late into the night.
The seven swing states, including Arizona and Nevada, will determine the election’s winner as both candidates aim to capture electoral votes that have swung blue and red in previous elections. Trump won the 2016 election after breaking the blue wall and winning Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania, gains that were reversed when President Joe Biden won them in 2020.
workers to begin counting ballots before election day. However, the legislatures in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin left methods unchanged, while Arizona, Georgia and North Carolina increased security measures, adding operations that officials warned may slow results.
Mar-a-Lago in Florida.
In 2020, early results returned as Republican before mail-in ballots and metro centers — which were counted later in the night — turned states blue, such as Pennsylvania.
By Nicholas Gutteridge
Republican incumbent Ted Cruz has beaten Democratic challenger Colin Allred in the Texas Senate race, guaranteeing another four years in Washington, D.C. for the junior senator.
Called roughly three hours after Texas polls closed, multiple outlets declared Cruz the winner after a vicious campaign that saw Allred position himself as a moderate choice for voters disgruntled with Cruz. In a campaign marked with controver-
The switch spurred false claims of election fraud from Republicans.
Similar to previous elections, most states were called by the Associated Press immediately, such as Florida — a swing state turned heavily Republican — and New
won’t be known for days as close races, intense security measures and slow methods delay tallies. In 2020, slow results from Nevada and Pennsylvania spurred by COVID-19 restrictions and an influx of mail-in ballots resulted in the AP declaring Biden the winner four days after the Nov. 3, 2020, election.
Since then, state legislatures have refined some ballot processes, such as in Michigan, allowing election
sial issues — including transgender healthcare, immigration concerns and abortion restrictions — Cruz saw his biggest challenge since he bested Democrat Beto O’Rourke in 2018.
As of midnight on Nov. 5, the Republican led with 88% of Texas’ votes in. Cruz’s 5,541,753 votes surpasses his 2018 reelection count of 4,260,553 and is expected to increase.
The difference between the candidates is a wider margin than in 2018, which saw O’Rourke lose by 200,000 votes compared to the current number of more than 1.1 million.
“The results tonight, this decisive victory, should shake the Democrat establishment to its core,” Cruz said during a victory speech in Houston.
This election cycle will reportedly cost over $16 billion, a record-breaking number as Republicans and Democrats attempted to sway the country to their side. Tuesday’s election followed final rallies and appearances on Monday, including a campaign stop by Harris in Pennsylvania and a Trump rally in North Carolina. But with more than 78 million early votes already in, the die is cast.
However, the negative results for Harris reportedly have Democrats worried. Each of the seven swing states remains within single-digit percentage points as of publication.
Harris, being vice president and the president of the Senate, would preside over her loss or win.
With only a few paths to the White House remaining, Harris needs to see success in the blue wall, or else the 60-year-old vice president will fail in her presidential bid and attempt to break the glass ceiling. Harris spent the night watching the results at Howard University in Washington D.C., her alma mater, while Trump held his watch party in
Allred, a current U.S. representative in Texas’ 32nd Congressional District, remained behind Cruz in statewide polls since his May 2023 bid announcement. A recent New York Times/Siena poll saw Cruz ahead with 49% of Texans compared to Allred’s 45%.
“When I return to the Senate, I carry with me not just a victory, but a mandate, a mandate from the people of Texas,” Cruz said during a victory speech.
The Republican victory deprived Democrats of one of only a few opportunities to maintain Senate control, and the Associated Press predicted Republicans would regain control of the upper chamber during election night.
Cruz has been Texas’ junior senator since his election in 2013.
Texas senator Ted Cruz’s victory over Colin Allred cut off a path Democrats needed to maintain control of the Senate, as the current electoral map favors Republicans. The AP predicted Republicans will win control of the Senate late into the night, the first time in four years.
Roughly a third of the 34 seats being voted on were competitive, and unfavorable results for Democrats saw them lose seats.
watch parties
Students, local residents gather to watch results come in on campus, at bars, restaurants
Hundreds of people gathered in bars, classrooms and restaraunts in the Bryan-College Station area on the night of Tuesday, Nov. 5 to watch as results from the 2024 election began to ash across television screens. After the rst polls in eastern states closed around 6 p.m. CT, voters waited in anticipation for vote tallies to reveal themselves.
“Well, I’m sitting here in a bar watching the election,” Paul Thomasson, an attendee at a watch party at Billy’s Grille & Bar in Bryan, said. “I must admit, I’m pretty tense right now.”
Former president Donald Trump appeared to take an early lead with victories in Florida, Ohio and North Carolina among other states. Cheers lled bars like The Angry Elephant as Trump’s victories were called on the screen.
“I’m exhausted,” Joseph Casaretto, a rst-time voter who watched the results at The Angry Elephant, said. “I want to go home, and go home knowing that Trump wins tonight.”
For voters on the other side of the aisle, disappointment and dread lled Democrat voters as the Texas senate race was called for incumbent Ted Cruz against challenger Colin Allred, on top of the presidential results.
“I think everyone in this room is anxious,” English senior Luis Pena said. “That’s just1 election night in America. You don’t know what’s gonna happen. [But] the sun’s gonna come up tomorrow, and the day will still go on. That’s what I tell myself.”
By Battalion Photo Staff
Third-party voting can save America
Trump versus Harris? What about a third (or even a fourth) choice?
By Kaleb Blizzard Opinion Writer
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve probably seen a few political campaign ads in the weeks leading up to the 2024 presidential election.
Whether it’s the signs everywhere on campus, TV ads, TikTok videos or random bumper stickers, you’ve noticed — and probably gotten tired of — them. There are a lot of ads out there, and, consequently, there are a lot of people spending money on those ads.
What are the people running these ads trying to accomplish?
Who are they trying to reach?
Maybe it goes without saying, but they’re going for the moderates and undecided Americans.
The people who don’t think that Donald Trump is a fascist but who also believe that Kamala Harris won’t cause economic disaster or start World War III if she’s elected.
Evidently, the assumption in these ads is that you must be voting for either Trump or Harris and not anyone else. It’s fundamentally a bifurcated choice, a battle between good and evil. Which side is the savior of America depends on who’s writing the ad.
But is it fair to divide the choice in two, to assert that there are no other options for your vote?
No, it’s really not. For those who are unaware, there are (basically) two other minor parties in the United States you can vote for: the Libertarian Party and the Green Party.
Maybe that’s stating the obvious — anyone would probably admit that in a literal sense there are more than two candidates you can vote for. Instead the question is more like: “Aren’t I just throwing my vote away by voting for a third party? The Libertarians or Greens will never win an election, so why should I even care about them?”
There are perfectly legitimate and e ective reasons to vote for third parties, and these reasons have been exempli ed in American electoral history.
“I think I’d remain unbothered no matter who gets the presidency. In the scheme of things, there’s only so much that can happen in four years, and though everything that happens I may not agree with, I’d like to hope that both candidates are going for the best for our country — at least in their own ways.”
“The impact would a ect so much more than just me — also the community around me and those that can’t advocate for themselves. And so I think that it would be a matter of understanding the circumstances we’re in and working with what we’re given and making sure that our voices are heard.”
“Honestly, I would be devastated because I do stand for certain policies that many won’t agree on. At the end of the day I can’t really do anything about it. Go vote, use your voice, stand up for what’s right, stand up for what you believe in, that’s all I can say. I can’t change what’s already been decided.”
It’s true that third parties won’t win a presidential or national congressional election anytime soon — if ever. But third parties have historically been able to capture some local o ces, and local governments make a big di erence in people’s lives. So if you can muster up su cient support for a third party in your community, there’s a good argument from an electability perspective to vote or advocate for third parties just on the historical precedent that they’ve been elected before on a low level.
But what about national politics? Thankfully, one example shows voting for a third party can make a di erence on the national level, even if they can’t get elected: the 2000 presidential election.
The presidential race between Bush and Gore came down to one nal swing state: Florida. Although Gore sued to have a manual recount of the votes, the ultimate count came in at just 537 more votes for Bush than Gore. However, in that very same election, the Green candidate won 97,488 votes in Florida; the Green Party could have easily tipped the
“I’d be disappointed for sure. As a gay person, I’d be like, ‘Oh my goodness, no, my rights.’ Same with women — abortion, you know, ‘my body my choice’ and all that. But at the end of the day, I did what I can. If it doesn’t happen the way I want it, it is what it is and I’ll hopefully make the best of it.”
election toward the Democrats if even a few of its voters had chosen the more moderate Gore.
Instead of allowing Gore to win, those who voted for the Green Party had a powerful chance to vote in protest and change the strategy of the Democratic Party.
If a third party consistently “steals” votes from one of the main parties, that main party might have to adapt to satisfy the demands of third-party voters, even if those voters can never win an election on their own. That’s because voting against someone can be just as powerful as voting for someone.
Some of the Green Party voters likely knew that simple fact. They probably knew that Florida was a swing state, but also that Gore wasn’t enough. So they let Bush win, but they ultimately pushed toward a modern Democratic party that is far more like the Green Party of 2000 than it is the Democratic Party of 2000.
If you’re unsatis ed with both candidates, I think your choice to vote for a third party comes down to a simple question: if I vote third party and the worse candidate of
“We could get through it, but it’s so contrary to everything that our democracy stands for and everything that — if you’re an American, regardless of what side of the aisle you’re on — you should care about.”
the main two parties wins, will this country — and myself — be signi cantly worse o than if the better candidate would have won?
If you think that democracy is going to die if Trump gets into ofce or that Harris will start World War III, I understand why you’re voting for the lesser of two evils. I probably wouldn’t be able to convince you otherwise anyway.
But if you think that Harris or Trump, whoever gets elected, will be a mostly lame-duck president deadlocked by Congress, the courts and their own incompetence, then who you vote against matters a whole lot more than who you vote for.
A slightly better milquetoast policy from our future president is something to vote for, I guess. But reforming the platform of a whole political party because they need your vote? That’s real change, and it’s something you can help start today by voting Libertarian or Green.
Kaleb Blizzard is a philosophy sophomore and opinion writer for The Battalion.
“If the other candidate won, I think it’d be pretty bad for a lot of people that I care about with just general rights and stu . However, I did bet money on the other candidate. I would be bummed, but I would live.”
wish a lot of younger or more modern people would run.”
Isabella Dyer Animal science sophomore
Andrew Waight Geophysics freshman
Poliana Ayzenberg Psychology junior
Traci Abshire General engineering freshman
Natalia Garrido Construction science junior
Jacqueline Cantu Nutrition sophomore
Jacob Hare Communication freshman
Alan Martinez Psychology sophomore
Lanie Sepehri French freshman
Julian Curry General engineering freshman
The U.S. Department of State recognized Texas A&M as one of 50 Fulbright HSI Leaders. The accolade honors Hispanic-serving institutions, or HSIs, that support Fulbright participants and promote the government program on campus.
“The initiative encourages administrators, faculty and students at HSIs to engage with Fulbright and highlights the strength of HSIs as destinations for international students and scholars,” the Fulbright website reads.
The U.S. Fulbright Program is a government-sponsored exchange program that funds students and researchers and their endeavors in over a hundred countries. Last year,
A&M was named a top Fulbright Scholar-producing institution and the No. 1 in Texas. According to Texas A&M Today, the university has celebrated one or more faculty U.S. Fulbright Scholars every year since 1949.
“We are incredibly proud that Texas A&M has been recognized as a 2024 Fulbright HSI Leader,” Executive Vice President and Provost Alan Sams said in a statement. “This distinction not only underscores our commitment and achievement within the Fulbright HSI Leaders Initiative but also highlights the global impact of the program at Texas A&M.”
The announcement is accompanied by comments from Edu-
Hurricane Harry’s, the beloved Western dance hall in College Station’s Northgate District, announced it would close on Dec. 8 in a Facebook post.
The week preceding the closure will see the hall celebrate “The Last Go’ Round.” It’s unclear what the week-long celebration, beginning Dec. 2, will entail.
A February announcement from Culpepper Realty — a real estate company centered in College Station that owns Legacy Point, part of the land Harry’s sits on — said the area will see a rede-
SENIOR BOOT BAG
ardo Espina, a professor of Hispanic studies at A&M who taught in Paraguay in 2022 through the Fulbright program. There, he authored a book of essays and a book covering his research into the literature of the Americas through works in Spanish, Guaraní and Yopará.
“My time in Paraguay with a Fulbright grant is one of the most unforgettable experiences in my life as a college professor,” Espina said.
According to President Mark Welsh III at his Oct. 25 Presidential Investiture, more than 180 faculty members are Fulbright Scholars.
velopment to accommodate new shopping spaces, outdoor dining and a hotel.
“With a prime location and proximity to campus, this development will revitalize and renew the area, bringing new, unique housing and retail to complement the success of Century Square,” a Feb. 23 statement from Culpepper Realty reads.
The popular dance hall announced its closure in a statement the following month.
“We would like to thank the Culpepper family, all of our loy-
al customers, and all of our former and current employees for their many years of support,” the statement reads. “We would also like to thank all of the artists and bands that have passed through our doors throughout the past 32 years and contributed to the many memories made in this building. We will be continuing business as usual at least through the end of the year. When the time comes, we plan to make it the biggest going-away party this town has ever seen! More announcements coming soon.”
Isabel Lubrano — THE BATTALION
Monarch butterfly migration approaches
Butterflies make pitstop in Aggieland for annual
migration
By Tenny Luhrs News Writer
Monarch butterfly season has set upon Bryan-College Station. The orange and black insects are filling the skies as they pass through Brazos Valley for the second time on their migration journey south into Mexico.
Professor of entomology and director of the Knowledge Engineering lab, Robert Coulson, Ph.D., said that monarch migration is a year-long process that begins and ends in central Mexico.
“The monarch butterfly migration is a truly remarkable phenomenon,” Coulson said. “In the wintertime, the monarchs aggregate in central Mexico in oyamel fir forests … and in the spring, they begin their immigration into Texas.”
The monarchs then reproduce one or two times using milkweed as their host plant before dispersing up north. By the end of summer, monarchs begin their return to South America to repopulate and prepare for their next journey.
“In the fall of the year … the initial population has reproduced four times now, and that fourth generation is what is migrating back to Texas,” Coulson said. “The migration begins to channel down as it gets into Texas … and the populations are very concentrated as they move into Mexico.”
Pollinators — and butterflies specifically — are an essential part of Texas’ ecosystem. According to a study conducted by the University of Texas at Austin, butterflies add roughly $120 million to Texas’ cotton harvest annually. Monarch migration is crucial to the survival of the pollinators, but Coulson and other researchers have identified a significant threat to them.
“One of the things that we discovered was that there was a very large amount of road kill associated with Texas roadways,” Coulson said.
Coulson’s research began with funding from the Texas Comptroller General’s Office and has since been used to find solutions with the help of the Texas Department of Transportation, or TxDOT.
“The project that we have with [TxDOT] right now is we constructed light deflectors at a couple of different locations to see if we can divert the monarchs across the roadways,” Coulson said. “So that they’re not subject to road kill.”
Beyond statewide highway issues, local problems — like a lack
of milkweed in the Brazos Valley — are harming the monarch population as well. Ann Boehm is a community volunteer working alongside the Texas Master Naturalists and the city of College Station to boost monarch migration in the area.
“Milkweed is the only plant that a monarch butterfly will lay her eggs on,” Boehm said. “There was this great chasm in College Station [and] the Brazos Valley where there was no milkweed.”
Boehm saw a need in the community and decided to step forward.
With the help of the former head of College Station Parks and Recreation, a small plot of land was set aside for a butterfly garden. Boehm gathered a group of volunteers, naming them Butterflies in the Brazos, to work with the city to create a pollinator-friendly environment.
“The goal was to plant all native plants to encourage the migration and also to create a garden that could sustain pollinators,” Boehm said. “The garden is sustained by volunteers, and a big part of it is the Texas Master Naturalists.”
Boehm said A&M has also gotten on board with the project and has helped fulfill research and education needs for local pollinators.
“There has been a lot of education about the use of pesticides and herbicides,” Boehm said. “We have to have proper habitats for butterflies and there’s been a lot of education … about how to create a butterfly habitat.”
Coulson said that monarch butterflies could soon be considered endangered, making his research — and Boehm’s work — important assets to the ecosystem. He also said the applied aspect of the research by TxDOT was a quintessential example of how land grant research should be used.
“You have basic research that leads to identification of a problem and then a response by an agency like TxDOT to do something about it,” Coulson said. “So you’re implementing the knowledge and trying to mitigate loss. … That’s pretty significant.”
Researchers like Coulson have laid the groundwork for action by agencies like TxDOT and volunteers like the Butterflies in the Brazos, which have already helped to stimulate migration and mitigate loss. However, there is always more that can be done, and Boehm is an advocate for people to create their own pollinator habitats at home.
“We all need to be educated about pollinators,” Boehm said. “ … You need your host plants. You need your nectar plants, and we need to really limit the use of herbicides and pesticides. If we want to continue eating, we need pollinators.”
Selfless Service, hard work lead to Songfest
Organizations prepare performances to raise money for charity
By Tori Hillis Life & Arts Writer
This Friday and Saturday, Rudder Auditorium will host three sold-out shows of Chi-Omega’s, or Chi-O’s, 46th annual Songfest. Organizations are paired up to choreograph their own seven-minute performances inspired by a movie of their choice. The acts will compete for the prize money, which will be donated to both organizations’ respective philanthropies.
Songfest was started in 1976 by a woman named Donna Kent to raise money for the Chi-O philanthropy. In its first year, it raised $2,000. Psychology senior and head Songfest chair Taylor White said that since then, acts have continued to impress over the years.
“They have turned this into almost a science where they pour in hours and hours and hours of hard work and they know Songfest like the back of their hands,” White said.
Since 2017, Songfest has raised over $1.7 million, all of which goes to philanthropic causes. Chi-O’s national philanthropy is Make-AWish, a foundation that grants wishes to children diagnosed with critical illnesses. White said her favorite part about Songfest is the opportunity it has given Chi-O to grant two wishes for Make-A-Wish each year.
“Our wish girl this year, she wants to go to Disney World,” White said.
“Recently, we got to host a party at
the Chi-Omega house, and we just got to do all things Disney and sing Taylor Swift karaoke, solely because those are her favorite things. And it’s so fun to see how much hope we can provide through Songfest and what the money goes on to do is really impactful.”
White said she hopes the audience at Songfest 2024 experiences what it truly means to be an Aggie, particularly because it reflects the Core Values.
“The most important one is Selfless Service because these participants are giving up hours of their fall semester to participate in something that does not go back to them,” White said. “That is, not for their glory and honor, but solely to lift up the philanthropies that they are benefiting.”
Zeta Tau Alpha’s, or Zeta’s, philanthropy focuses on breast cancer awareness and research, and partner organization Centuries’ philanthropy bolsters Camp Kesem, a camp that supports children with a parent diagnosed with cancer.
Marketing senior and Zeta Songfest Chair Marykate Velek said it’s exciting how Zeta and Centuries’ philanthropies complement each other’s mission so well.
”Ultimately, we’re wanting to get a place in this competition so that we can raise money for these two organizations that are super, super awesome and making such a big difference in people’s lives,” Velek said.
The Beta Upsilon Chi, or BYX, and Kappa Delta, or KD, act will have 120 dancers performing, and their chairs have been working tirelessly since last semester choreographing,
coordinating auditions and practice schedules and planning lighting and costumes. Communication junior Ryan Pelletier said he’s grown to become a better leader through his time as a Songfest chair.
“A lot of times, it can just seem like we are standing on a pedestal and yelling directions at them,” Pelletier said. “But I think relational leadership is really important in order to be influential and effective. So because of that, it’s been really awesome getting to just get to know everybody, guys in BYX who I don’t know as well, and then girls that I’ve never met in KD. And it’s been so fun getting to know them while also leading them.”
BYX and KD are practicing every night this week to make sure their act is in the best condition possible before the show. Pelletier said their act is very excited to bring people to the circus with them through the performance.
The money raised by Songfest has granted wishes, raised awareness and granted money to countless other worthy organizations. This year’s Songfest will occur only two days, but the lasting impact the money raised will have is lifelong.
Pelletier said he is excited for their performance this week and can’t wait to see the result of almost a year of hard work, service and dedication.
“It’s so cool to just get to see it come into fruition, something that we’ve been dreaming of since January,” Pelletier said. “And then just Songfest in general, I mean, it’s so cool. Where else can you earn money for a philanthropy [and] those in need through dancing?”
A monarch butterfly feeds on a flower’s nectar at The Gardens at Texas A&M University on Thursday, Oct. 31, 2024.
Photos by Shlok Bhat --- THE BATTALION
A student spreads a monarch butterfly’s wings at The Gardens at Texas A&M University on Thursday, Oct. 31, 2024.
A monarch butterfly feeds on a flower’s nectar at The Gardens at Texas A&M University on Thursday, Oct. 31, 2024.
Alpha Chi Omega and One Army perform a themed dance at Songfest on Friday, Oct. 20, 2023.
Photos by Kaili Gaston --- THE BATTALION
Alpha Omicron Pi Aggie Business Brothers perform a Barbie: Life in the Dreamhouse themed dance at Songfest on Friday, Oct. 20, 2023.
RED, BLUE, IT'S TRULY MAROON
This Week in History
November 6, 1869
The rst college football game is played in front of a crowd of 100. Rutgers defeats Princeton, 6-4.
November 6, 1917
Vladimir Lenin leads a communist revolution against the Russian government, later forming Bolshevik Russia.
November 7, 2000
The presidential race between George W. Bush and Al Gore is deemed too close to call.
November 7, 1916
Jeannette Rankin becomes the rst woman elected to Congress.
November 8, 1895
Physicist Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen discovers x-rays by accident while working in his lab one night.
November 9, 1938
German and Austrian Jewish businesses are destroyed in “Kristallnacht,” a riot that left over 100 dead and 30,000 arrested.
November 11, 1918
Germany and the Allied Forces end World War I on what is now known as “Armistice Day.”
November 12, 1799
Andrew Ellicott sees rst recorded North American meteor shower.
Late night in Orlando for Aggies
By Braxton Dore’ Asst. Sports Editor
After dropping its rst exhibition of the 2024-25 season to No. 4 Houston, No. 13 Texas A&M basketball fought a rare season opener on the road against UCF in Orlando, Florida.
Aggie men’s hoops has not seen an away game to start the season in over 20 years, and it did not help them this time as they fell to the Knights in a nail-biting 64-61 loss.
Tough defense and halftime comeback
Throughout the rst ve minutes of play, the Aggie defense managed to pressure UCF to a rough, zero-for-eight start in eld goals, while also forcing two turnovers as graduate guard Hayden
He ner landed a steal and newcomer transfer from Minnesota, center Pharrel Payne churned out a block over junior G Keyshawn Hall as he attempted a layup.
UCF began to mount their comeback on the Aggies with eight minutes left in the rst half, starting with a 3-pointer from senior G Darius Johnson which was answered by Payne with a layup. Then, the Knights heated up with two back-to-back threes by fth-year UTSA transfer Jordan Ivy-Curry and Johnson again, forcing a timeout.
Johnson ended the evening with 24 points, nishing ve for 11 on 3-point attempts with the addition of seven free throws.
Battling for the lead before half, the Aggies got a much-needed block as senior F Andersson Garcia stretched the court to channel his inner Dennis Rodman, after a fast break.
Second half choppiness
Out of the gate, UCF’s Johnson traded three-pointers with Taylor as he responded with his second. Making a statement now, both players continued to trade long shots once again showing o their range. Taylor nished the night with 13 points and seven assists.
Payne built o Taylor’s success beyond the arc with his own in the paint, securing four points through two layups. Payne’s 15 points were the most of any Aggie. UCF appeared to panic slightly in
the following minutes, committing turnovers and fouls left and right.
Wear and tear of Aggie ball
Before heading into a timeout, the Taylor-to-Garcia link was ignited as the graduate guard dished out a dime to the center as he rolled the ball o his ngers into a beautiful driving nish.
Continuing the approach of dominating on the glass, Buzz’s boys secured four o ensive rebounds in a row, and they nally knocked the rock in with graduate G CJ Wilcher’s second three of the night.
While Taylor might have not had a usual high-scoring night, he picked up his fth assist of the night to Garcia, who drove through several defenders to put the ball through the net with 7:45 left to play,.With only three minutes left, A&M up 6054, Hall made the di erence on the Knights’ o ensive side as he bashed through Payne to force a three-point try with the foul after his made shot.
Mayhem ensued after the play; Payne headed to the bench with ve fouls, but Taylor got revenge for his teammate as he drew a charge on Hall to force him out of the nal minutes of the game.
Turnovers and sloppy play
(left UCF in the game)
With the feelings of a NCAA Tournament matchup, coach Buzz Williams called a timeout after UCF brought the game within one point as sophomore forward JJ Taylor slammed a put-back dunk after his teammate missed the three-point try.
Post-timeout, JJ Taylor grabbed the defensive rebound from a missed 2-pointer from senior G Jace Carter and then the rock ended up in senior C Benny Williams’ hands as he powered through the Maroon and White defense for the deciding dunk, UCF taking the lead 63-61. While the Aggies won the rebound ght 43 to 35, they committed 12 turnovers and 24 personal fouls, giving the Knights a total of 31 free throw attempts, of which they made 22. If this road opener was any indication on how the season will go, A&M will need to limit their mistakes if they want to go further than the milestones set by last season.
Non-conference matchups
Next, the Aggies will head home to Reed Arena in preparation for Texas A&M Commerce
on Friday, Nov. 8 at 7 p.m. on ESPN+.
The Maroon and White will face a tough non-conference slate from now until Jan. 4, when Texas comes to Reed Arena for the rst time since 2012.
The heavy hitters over the next two months will be matchups against Oregon, Creighton, Wake Forest, Ohio State and Purdue — highlighted by a trip to Las Vegas over Thanksgiving.
Starting o with last year’s Pac-12 Tournament winner, Oregon. The 11th seed Ducks played spoiler to 6th seed South Carolina in the rst round of the NCAA Tournament, in a close 87-73 win. However, the Big Ten newcomers will be without their top scorer of the NCAA Tournament as guard Jermaine Couisnard left for the NBA after last season.
The next two important matchups will also be at the Players Era Festival in MGM Grand Arena in Las
BTHO bye week with these games
Forget about A&M’s loss by road trippin’ on a budget with Ian
By Ian Curtis Features Editor
Second verse, same as the rst. It’s another bye week for No. 15 Texas A&M football, and it’s a much-needed one after the Aggies’ 44-20 loss on the road to South Carolina last Saturday.
But as A&M regroups ahead of its next matchup against New Mexico State, that doesn’t mean you, good reader, have to go without your weekly dose of college football.
There are plenty of games within driving distance from Aggieland perfect for an impromptu adventure — and you know you’re just begging for a reason to avoid studying or visiting your parents like you know you probably should with your free time.
Here’s a trio of games that can scratch that itch.
No. 18 Army at North Texas Saturday, Nov. 9 — DATCU Stadium — Denton
2:30 p.m. CT
All hail the triple-option offense. Army sits at 8-0 and 6-0 in American Athletic Conference play, good for No. 18 in the country in the AP Poll.
And you guessed it, it’s because of the same o ense the three service academies ran for decades — a run-heavy triple option that senior quarterback Bryson Daily has turned from a relic from a bygone era to the nation’s best-rushing o ense while turning himself
into a legitimate Heisman Trophy candidate.
But to keep their playo hopes alive, the Black Knights have to get past the Mean Green and junior QB Chandler Morris — the man with the nation’s fourth-most passing yards this season. Morris is the reason North Texas is averaging just under 41 points a game, a mark good for sixth in the country in scoring o ense.
It’s a showdown between an old-school pound-it-out-andrun-through-your-foe’s-face offense vs. a new-school throw-itdeep-and-throw-it-often air raid o ense.
It’s a chance to see what might just be the best service academy football team the nation has seen in decades all but secure their spot in the AAC Championship Game — or watch its playo hopes die on the DATCU Stadium turf.
And it’s a chance to spend some time in a rather underrated college town. Denton is pretty sweet, y’all.
Lamar at Incarnate Word
Saturday, Nov. 9 — Gayle and Tom Benson Stadium — San Antonio 2 p.m. CT
Guess who’s back, back again. It’s senior QB Zach Calzada — and this time, he’s got a friend.
The former A&M QB may be leading the Southland Conference and rank seventh in the FCS in passing yards, but it was junior wide receiver Jalen Walthall who’s taken the football world by storm this week after his viral celebration garnered NFL attention — and imitation.
After taking a pass from Calzada 50 yards for a touchdown during the Cardinals’ game against Houston Christian last week, Walthall
promptly debuted a simple headstand celebration and was immediately agged for unsportsmanlike conduct.
That didn’t stop the celebration going viral, though. The next day, Atlanta Falcons WR Drake London and Detroit Lions WR Amon-Ra St. Brown each tried their own versions of the move after scoring in their own NFL games. This week, Walthall, Calzada and the rest of conference-leading Incarnate Word host Lamar in a game that would pull the Cardinals ever so closer to their third conference title in four years.
It’s a chance for A&M students to give back to Calzada, the player who led the Aggies to a 2021
upset over No. 1 Alabama, and a chance to possibly witness another viral moment from Walthall, the man of the hour in the world of football celebrations.
Who’d want to miss it?
Oklahoma State at TCU Saturday, Nov. 9 — Amon G. Carter Stadium — Fort Worth 6 p.m. CT
Sometimes, it’s nice to detox.
There’s no thought of the College Football Playo or the Big 12 Championship game here. This season is one Horned Frogs and Cowboys fans will not look on with nostalgia — especially for the Pokes, who started the year ranked in the preseason
poll and sit at 0-6 in Big 12 play. Still, the game must go on. Both these teams are ghting like hell for a chance at six wins and a bowl game to end the year. And in a sport currently consumed with playo narratives, Heisman discussion and NFL Draft talk, it’s a healthy reminder that as long as two schools bring 22 players together to chase a ball around, every single game matters to somebody.
So go have an adventure. Buy
GALLERY: Women’s basketball vs. A&MCorpus Christi
Texas A&M women’s basketball opened the season with a 6256 loss to A&M-Corpus Christi at Reed Arena on Monday, Nov. 4, 2024. The Aggies’ next matchup will be at home against the UTSA Roadrunners on Thursday, Nov. 7 at 11 a.m.
By Chris Swann Photo Chief
Fans react to a touchdown during Texas A&M’s game against Bowling Green at Kyle Field on Saturday, Sept. 21, 2024.
Bats, boundaries and brotherhood
Aggie Cricket Club
unites students from across the globe
By Shalina Sabih Features Writer
If an Aggie found themselves at the Polo Fields on a Sunday morning, they’d notice a cluster of players in maroon and black cricket jerseys preparing for the day’s practice. To the players — Aggies part of the Texas A&M Cricket Team — the club is more than a team. It’s a connection to home, a community and a continuation of a passion they carried across borders.
Formed in 1999, the team originally practiced on a cricket pitch where The Gardens now stand. A dedicated group of 30 players brought the global sport to life in College Station, turning open fields into a home for cricket and creating a powerful connection between Aggie pride and an enduring passion for the game.
When the club first formed, it was the vision of Aggies from cricket-playing nations who yearned to create a space for their sport in a place where few knew the game.
Computer engineering graduate student Pranav Vaidik Dhulipala, the president of the club and batsman and point fielder for the team, said the team has two weekly practice sessions, one at Penberthy Fields and another at Polo Fields, where the team hosts warmups, long catches, short catches and bowling practices. On Sundays, they play matches at the Polo Fields.
“The team started as a minor club, but around 2014, they started growing immensely because of cricket matches that were held at The Gardens,” Dhulipala said. “There were people from India, Australia and the West Indies who played a simulated World Cup, and
everyone enjoyed coming together to play a sport they grew up loving.”
The Polo Fields are expansive and arid, with patches of dry, hay-like grass — a striking contrast to the lush green turf that marks the cricket pitch in the center of the fields. The vibrant pitch stood out amongst the yellow landscape, a beacon to those seeking a piece of home.
Among those drawn to this green sporting oasis is biotechnology graduate student and leg-spin bowler Shri Aravind Manikandan Ramamirtham. He was one of the international students who found his place on the team after arriving in Aggieland from India.
“I searched for cricket teams while looking for schools,” Ramamirtham said. “It mattered to me because cricket is in my blood and the love was passed down from generation to generation. I played professionally in India, and it was important to me to have a piece of home.”
The club is composed mostly of graduate students from India who serve as a bridge to the club and tournament cricket teams they left behind when they made the move to A&M. Having traveled thousands of miles and across continents, these players have now found themselves in College Station, cricket bat in hand, determined to keep the spirit of their sport alive.
Chemical engineering graduate student and medium pace bowler Shaunak Rajeev Gosavi, a cricket player since he was eight years old, said he joined the team as soon as he moved from India.
“This team is a family, and we are always looking out for each other and pushing each other to get better one match at a time,” Gosavi said.
“My teammates push me to be a better cricket player every day.”
In the fall of 2019, Aggie Cricket Club moved under the National College Cricket Association.
Headquartered in Prairie View, the short distance allows the team
to frequently travel the 45 minutes down Highway 6 to face off against other schools. A&M won nationals last spring.
“We want to make cricket much more popular at Texas A&M, and there’s a lot of people that are not aware of this club,” Gosavi said. “We’d like more undergrad activity and bring out more locals, and I hope that the more we win, the more our team’s name can be mentioned.”
Aggie Cricket hopes to foster diversity in the sport, and they envision a future where cricket can draw players from all backgrounds. Their long-term goals include offering scholarships to players and expanding their reach by traveling to other states for matches.
One of their biggest milestones came recently when they officially joined the Texas A&M sports club program. Dhulipala said they were even recognized as one of the three best-performing club sports organizations at A&M.
“Being a part of rec sports allows us to be on a website visited by thousands, and hopefully when they scroll and pick a club, they will see cricket and see the national champions and want to join,” Dhulipala said. “We want a lot of international students and students whose roots are connected to this sport to know they have a place they can belong.”
Engineering management graduate student Amatya Bhardwaj Manduva is a right-handed batsman who also does medium-pace bowling for the team. He started playing this semester and was one of the people who played during a recent tri-series against University of Texas at Arlington and University of Texas at Dallas.
“We would like to see a time when the cricket ground is bustling with people who want to be present and play the game,” Dhulipala said. “Our team is a family, and it is always open for others.”
Photos by Shlok Bhat
Pranav Vaidik Dhulipala stands in the outfield at the Texas A&M Cricket Ground on Sunday, Nov. 3, 2024.
Shaunak Rajeev Gosavi bowls the ball towards batter Pranav Vaidik Dhulipala at the Texas A&M Cricket Ground on Sunday, Nov. 3, 2024.
Amatya Bharadwaj hits a ball at the Texas A&M Cricket Ground on Sunday, Nov. 3, 2024.
Shaunak Rajeev Gosavi laughs at a teammate’s joke at the Texas A&M Cricket Ground on Sunday, Nov. 3, 2024.
Pranav Vaidik Dhulipala holds a cricket ball at the Texas A&M Cricket Ground on Sunday, Nov. 3, 2024.
Pranav Vaidik Dhulipala follows through a ball at the Texas A&M Cricket Ground on Sunday, Nov. 3, 2024.
