Maroon Life 2020 Spring Sports Preview

2 0 2 0

S P R I N G

S P O R T S

P R E V I E W

MAROON LIFE Finding home Texas A&M baseball coach Rob Childress found a father figure through baseball who changed the course of his life

Calling apartments for prices

Comparing the lowest prices in 5 seconds Find a better apartment in seconds + Exclusive cash back when you sign

W wE SUP PORT

It’s no secret: There’s something special about this place. It has a spirit that can ne’er be told, a vision that can’t be contained and an Aggie community that never wavers. We at the Texas A&M Foundation work hard to support Texas A&M University because we believe it is worth protecting the things that make Aggieland stand out as a unique institution of higher learning.

The Foundation is where passion meets purpose. As a nonprofit organization and the primary academic fundraising institution for Texas A&M, we build and sustain relationships between former students, friends and the university to further Aggie research, facilities, college programs and undergraduate resources. Aggieland is our home, and it’s where we partner with you to lay the foundation for a stronger future.

Learn more about our mission at txamfoundation.com.

THE BATTALION MAROON LIFE 2

TABLE OF CONTENTS 04 || KENDALL POTTS HANNAH UNDERWOOD

08 || SOFTBALL PREVIEW HANNAH UNDERWOOD

09 || BASEBALL PREVIEW JACKSON KING

10 || BRYCE BLAUM JACKSON KING

12 || ROB CHILDRESS HANNAH UNDERWOOD

17 || BUZZ WILLIAMS POSTER 18 || JONES + JOHNSON JACKSON KING

20 || TRACK PREVIEW ADITHYA PRABAKARAN

21 || SWIM & DIVE PREVIEW JENNY STREETER

22 || HOME SCHEDULE

About the cover: Texas A&M baseball coach Rob Childress is entering his 15th year with the Aggies.

Cover design by Brady Stone Cover photo by Meredith Seaver Paul Burke — THE BATTALION

THE BATTALION MAROON LIFE 3

Meredith Seaver — THE BATTALION

E.B. Cushing Stadium hosted its first meet on April 6, 2019. It will host the SEC Outdoor Championships on May 14-16, 2020.

LETTER FROM THE SPORTS EDITOR Sports Editor Hannah Underwood welcomes the 12th Man home to Aggieland for the spring semester Howdy 12th Man,

T

he spring semester is always a busy time in Aggieland, and this year will be no different. In addition to classes, campus activities and the many traditions that are to come over the next few months, there are also several sporting events to look forward to.

Baseball and softball are just starting their respective seasons, while the men’s and women’s basketball teams will soon wrap theirs up in March. Meanwhile, there are a plethora of swimming, tennis, equestrian, golf and track meets going on all over campus.

Included in this magazine is a story that is extremely personal to me: a feature on Texas A&M baseball coach Rob Childress and his relationship with his high school baseball coach Steve Marrs. For those who don’t know, Childress went to Harmony High School, a small 3-AAA school in the middle of nowhere East Texas. It also happens to be my alma mater.

During his time there, Childress and Marrs built a relationship that changed both of their lives and led Childress to A&M. I

hope you enjoy reading this story as much as I enjoyed returning to my hometown to tell it.

Speaking of home, both softball senior pitcher Kendall Potts and baseball junior third baseman Bryce Blaum are in their second seasons in Aggieland after transferring from Baylor and Ole Miss respectively.

However, their journeys to get here were not at all the same.

While Potts’ journey was filled with injuries, Blaum never felt like he truly belonged with the Rebels in Oxford, Mississippi. Both have now found a home in Aggieland at Davis Diamond and Blue Bell Park, and will be leading their teams in the 2020 season.

Potts is one of five seniors on a young A&M softball squad that features nine new faces, eight of whom are freshmen. The other four seniors are looking to help the team return to the College World Series for the first time since their freshman year in 2017.

The baseball team’s last appearance in the College World Series was also in 2017, and a return to Omaha, Nebraska, is the endgame for the Blue Bell boys.

We also have a feature on women’s basketball’s N’dea Jones and Ciera Johnson, who have stepped up to lead the team in the absence of junior guard Chennedy Carter.

For the men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams, expectations are high heading into the championship slate. The women are back-to-back-to-back-to-back SEC Champions and will soon be competing for a fifth ring. The men look to improve upon last season’s fourth place finish at the SEC Championships and 17th place finish at the NCAA Championship meet.

The track teams will spend their second season at E.B. Cushing Stadium, where they will host the SEC Outdoor Championships for the first time from May 14-16.

There is certainly a lot of excitement surrounding the sports over on West Campus, and I hope you get the chance to enjoy some performances from the teams that call Aggieland home.

Thanks and Gig ‘em.

Hannah Underwood is a journalism junior and sports editor for The Battalion

EDITORIAL STAFF Samantha Mahler, Editor-in-Chief Hannah Falcon, Managing Editor Hannah Underwood, Sports Editor Jackson King, Asst. Sports Editor Meredith Seaver, Photo Chief Kaylee Cogbill, Asst. Photo Chief Sanna Bhai, News Editor Hollis Mills, Life and Arts Editor Henry Mureithi, Opinion Editor Cole Fowler, Arts Criticism Editor Jane Turchi, Special Sections Editor Brady Stone, Lead Page Designer Cori Eckert, Page Designer David Allen, Page Designer

THE BATTALION MAROON LIFE 4

OVERCOMER

THE BATTALION MAROON LIFE 5

Senior pitcher Kendall Potts’ journey to Aggieland was nothing ordinary as multiple injuries led her to move from Baylor and find a new home at A&M

By Hannah Underwood @hannahbunderwoo

Senior pitcher Kendall Potts began her final season playing for the Aggies on Feb. 7, 2020.

Meredith Seaver — THE BATTALION

“When I survive, when I survive another day / This great divide / Side by side on the inside / Breaking up our minds on the front lines / Never again, never again will I be denied / Here I come.”

Kendall Potts’ college career has been anything but easy.

During a tumultuous four years at Baylor University that included a slew of injuries, several major surgeries and being cut from the team, the Aggies’ senior pitcher relied on several things to help her through the hardship.

The first was music. Pop Evil’s “Trenches” is a song Potts said perfectly sums up that period of her life, and it remains her warmup song.

“If you look at the lyrics, I’m like, ‘Wow, that’s my life,’” Potts said. “That’s my entire life story in the last couple of years. It’s literally that last year of my life.”

Now, Potts is in her senior season at Texas A&M and her final year of eligibility, but it is not a typical senior year. It is her super-duper senior year — her sixth year of college — as she pursues her master’s in sport management.

She has a series of injuries to thank for her delayed senior season, but the setbacks and unfortunate circumstances that surrounded them brought her to exactly where she needed to be.

The issues began in Potts’ sophomore year at Baylor, when she started experiencing numbness and swelling in her right arm and limited mobility in her wrist. She had surgery at the end of that year to remove a bone fragment from her wrist and decompress her ulnar nerve starting in her elbow.

However, the solution was not that simple.

Her symptoms returned a few months later, and she was diagnosed with thoracic outlet syndrome, a condition in which blood supply to the arm is limited due to compression of the blood vessels and nerves between the collarbone and first rib, which caused her to have no pulse in her hand when moving her arm.

A second surgery followed in October of 2016 in which her first rib was removed, her pectoralis minor was released and one of the scalene

muscles in her neck was removed. Recovery was much more difficult this time around.

“I just had a hard time coming back from that surgery,” Potts said.

At the same time, she was also struggling with winged scapula, in which her shoulder blades were protruding from her back and limiting the mobility of her shoulders.

“Basically, I’m skinny and boney and can’t keep my body in place,” Potts said. “That, coupled with not having a first rib, [meant] I had a lot of issues with my chest.”

She experienced bouts of chest pain and was eventually diagnosed with costochondritis, an inflammation of the cartilage connecting the ribs to the sternum. This caused a stress reaction in her second rib.

“It was bittersweet because of course you’re happy that your team was doing that, but I also didn’t get to play in the World Series.”

KENDALL POTTS, SENIOR PITCHER

“The analogy they use is if you bend a paperclip, eventually it would snap,” Potts said.

“But before then, it just has that bent piece in it, which is basically what my rib was doing.”

It was at this point that she decided to redshirt her junior year and was consequently cut from the team, but not before watching them go to the College World Series without being able to participate.

“That was really hard,” Potts said. “It was bittersweet because of course you’re happy that your team was doing that, but I also didn’t get to play in the World Series.”

Still reeling from the heartache of being cut from the team, Potts was hit with more bad news. While in physical therapy for her shoulders the summer before her senior year, an old wrist injury from high school began to get in the

way of her rehab. She had her wrist scoped and learned she would have to have her third major surgery in two years: a full cartilage reconstruction on her wrist.

“There was just a lot of unknown,” Potts said. “Especially with the last surgery, it was to the point where I’m either setting myself up for something good or I was taking myself further away from it, like did this surgery just potentially ruin my career or actually help me? And it ended up helping me a lot.”

Rather than enjoying her final year of eligibility at Baylor like she had originally planned when she first stepped foot on campus, Potts spent her senior year — which she also calls her Non-Athletic Regular Person (NARP) year — in rehab and watching Baylor play in the NCAA Regionals, where the Bears lost to A&M 10-4 in Aggieland.

During that time, she began to focus on another interest of hers: art.

Potts took two art classes during her senior year to complete her studio art minor and began to spend more of her time drawing.

Potts’ interest in art was a part of her life from an early age. At 5 years old, she began drawing the posters of Disney movies while sitting in front of the television. She kept with it, though she stayed away from realism until her senior year at Mansfield Legacy High School, when she took a ceramics class and a painting class and decided to start drawing more outside of school.

“I always had a mental block with drawing realistic faces,” Potts said. “I had always heard that that’s the hardest thing you can do in drawing and art. I was like, ‘I don’t know if I could really do that.’ But then I really forced myself to do it, and it got a lot better, and now faces are my favorite things to do.”

The ceramics class, a clay throwing course, helped with rehab on her wrist until March of 2018 when she began pitching again for the first time in a year.

Recovered from her third surgery, Potts had a choice to make. She could either finish her degree at Baylor, cut her losses and end her collegiate career there, chalking it up to uncontrollable circumstances, or she could pursue taking her talents and two remaining years elsewhere.

CONTINUED ON PG. 6

THE BATTALION MAROON LIFE 6

THE BATTALION MAROON LIFE 7

bone fragment in wrist

“When you have something taken away from you and [you’re] told that you can’t do it anymore, you just want to say, ‘Screw you, I’m going to keep doing it.’”

compression of ulnar nerve

thoracic outlet syndrome costochondritis

2019 SEASON STATS INNINGS PITCHED — 147 ERA — 3.14 STRIKEOUTS — 86

winged scapula

- KENDALL POTTS ON HER INJURIES

Meredith Seaver — THE BATTALION Meredith Seaver — THE BATTALION

She chose the latter.

“I’ve always loved the game, and I’ve always felt like you get four years to play this game, and I just wanted my four years,” Potts said. “When you have something taken away from you and [you’re] told that you can’t do it anymore, you just want to say, ‘Screw you, I’m going to keep doing it.’”

Potts’ relationship with Baylor started long before she was recruited out of high school.

She had grown up taking lessons from Baylor’s pitching coach. Waco was just 100 miles south of her hometown of Arlington.

But, she said, there was always something in the back of her mind drawing her to A&M, comparing it to the distracted boyfriend meme.

“I’m that guy, my angry girlfriend is Baylor and the girl I’m looking at is Texas A&M,” Potts said. “It was always in the back of my mind. Even though Baylor was at the forefront, it was like, there’s always been something about this place that I’ve been drawn to.”

It wasn’t all for nothing though. While re-

cently cleaning out his office, Potts’ dad found a list of her life goals from when she was 10.

First on the list: “Play softball at Texas A&M.” Second: “Become a vet.”

“At one point, I was gung-ho on Texas A&M,” Potts said. “I’m definitely not going to be a vet, but even at 10 years old I was wanting to come here.”

Potts got the chance to make her decade-old dream a reality in 2018 when A&M softball coach Jo Evans took a chance on her.

Potts joined an Aggie squad that had only one senior and was short a pitcher after Samantha Show’s departure to Oklahoma State.

“We were in a situation where we definitely had a hole to fill,” Evans said. “We had some options, but what was appealing about Kendall was she had some years under her belt. We felt if she could get on the other side of the injuries, she would have that maturity.”

In looking for a place to spend her final two years of eligibility, Potts had a list of desires: she wanted to stay close to home, she needed a master’s program that she was passionate about and she wanted to play for Evans.

“[A&M] just checks all the boxes,” Potts said. “[Evans] absolutely lives up to the legend that she is. I’ve loved every second of being here. It’s so night and day from there to here.”

Though she was older than lone senior Riley Sartain, Potts didn’t immediately step into a leadership role with the Aggies. Instead, she took her time to learn the system and its personalities.

“It was a very strange situation because even being older than Riley but also not having the slightest clue what was going on; I’ve played before, I know what college is like, but it’s also been two years, and this is a totally different place,” Potts said. “I had experience, and I didn’t have a lot of experience at the same time.”

Potts’ experience exposed itself naturally.

“The leadership came from her ability to go out there and physically help us win games,” Evans said.

Her perseverance through numerous injuries also allowed her to be more of a behind-the-scenes leader. Sophomore pitcher Hannah Mayo struggles with her own health

issues, which include Type 1 diabetes, hypothyroidism and celiac disease. She said having Potts’ journey to look to as inspiration has helped her in her own journey.

“I’ve had a lot with my health and I’ve also struggled to overcome things, and watching her do it and overcome it means a lot,” Mayo said.

Potts had a rough start to the 2019 season, trying to get back into the rhythm of the game after being out of it for two years, but she found success courtesy of an unlikely helper.

It was a technique she learned in a sport psychology class. In a lesson on the training vs. trusting mindset, in which the performer is either analyzing each step of their performance or simply relying on what they’ve taught their body to do, Potts learned that doing something creative or rhythmic could help increase her focus and allow her to just perform.

“I’m like, ‘Well, drawing’s creative. I guess I can try doing that,’” Potts said. “And it was almost unreal because one of the things the class said was when you’ve been training for so long, your brain gets stuck in that mode. I’ve

Senior pitcher Kendall Potts calls herself a “super-duper senior” in her sixth year of college, and has the phrase embroidered on her glove.

been training for two years without being able to actually perform and use what I’ve been doing. I started doing that, and it was almost an immediate shift.”

During games, while the Aggies were at the plate, Potts started doodling in the dugout, which her coaches thought was weird at first. But it worked. It improved her focus so much that she said she began to lose whole chunks of games.

“I had no recollection of going out on the field and warming up, and I was like, ‘I might need to back off of this a little bit because this is a little bit too much,’” Potts said.

While she continues to draw before games — mostly faces — she limited the in-game drawing to times when she felt frustrated or started to lose her focus. Nonetheless, the effect it had was obvious.

On March 20, 2019, Potts began to hit her stride. Against Stephen F. Austin, she pitched all nine innings, allowing four hits with nine strikeouts. After that point, she struck out

batters in all but one of the 17 games that followed. Over those 17 games, she was on the mound for an average of 5.55 innings, with an average of 5.4 hits allowed and 3.24 strikeouts per game.

She also pitched in eight Sunday games, leading the team to wins in five of them.

“She had some big Sunday wins for us,” Evans said. “That’s impressive to me, to see a pitcher who can get out there after teams have already seen her once, watched film on her, and then she’s able to come out that third day and attack hitters and be so successful.”

But Potts wasn’t having success just on the mound.

Last spring, Potts saw a mass email about a student art exhibit called ArtFest 2019, hosted by the Memorial Student Center’s Visual Arts Committee. She entered three drawings: Bucky Barnes/The Winter Soldier from “Captain America,” a fox and a jaguar.

Her Bucky Barnes won second place out of 92 entries.

via kpotts.art Instagram page

Kendall Potts’ drawing of The Winter Soldier won second place at ArtFest 2019.

“I got that email right after weights, and I jumped and screamed in the weight room,” Potts said. “I was like, ‘Oh my God, I actually won.’”

Winning isn’t something Potts said she or the team experienced much last season.

The Aggies finished the 2019 season with a 28-27 record, capping off their NCAA Regionals appearance with back-to-back losses to Houston and No. 9 Texas.

Though she didn’t see the College World Series run that she missed out on in 2017, Potts said the 28 wins were enough to make her first year in Aggieland a success, despite having been out of the game for two years prior with injuries and surgeries.

“To be honest, there weren’t that many [wins],” Potts said. “[In] our upset over Alabama in that last inning, even though I walked three people to load the bases, I also struck out the last batter to get us out, and that was an amazing feeling.”

THE BATTALION MAROON LIFE 8

FRESH FACES

Kaylee Cogbill — THE BATTALION

The Aggies’ first SEC home series is on March 13-15, 2020, against the Tennessee Volunteers.

Seniors eyeing return to Oklahoma City for first time in several years

By Hannah Underwood @hannahbunderwoo Nine new Aggies are taking the field at Davis Diamond this spring, with a third of the Texas A&M softball team comprised of freshmen. Another third are sophomores.

Of the new faces on the team, eight are freshmen. The ninth belongs to sophomore pitcher Makinzy Herzog, who transferred from Florida State. With the Seminoles, Herzog recorded a 1.56 ERA with a 10-2 record, while also batting a .316 average with 48 hits, 26 RBI and three home runs.

With the addition of Herzog, Shaylee Ackerman and Ashley Daugherty to the pitching staff, the Aggies increase their depth on the mound to seven, which A&M coach Jo Evans said will help keep the rotation fresh.

“You’ve got potentially three solid starters and the ability to run mid-relievers and closers,” Evans said. “Not having it be just a starter, having to start and close. It just gives us a lot of depth.”

However, the youth and inexperience this A&M team has is familiar, as last year’s squad had only one senior, infielder Riley Sartain.

Evans said Sartain’s versatility is something the Aggies will miss.

“Riley is a mainstay on defense,” Evans said. “If you put her at short, she’ll be your best shortstop. If you put her at third, she’ll be the best third baseman.”

Freshman Jourdan Campbell will replace Sartain in the infield.

“She’s been committed to being the best player she can be for a long time,” Evans said.

“We add a lot of really good work ethic and energy and enthusiasm.”

The Aggies also lost a core piece of their offense as then-freshman Baylee Klingler transferred to the University of Washington over the offseason. Klingler often provided a boost for A&M, batting .289 overall and .280 in SEC play. During the conference slate, she led the team with five home runs, adding 16 RBI. However, this season the Aggies have five seniors providing leadership and experience to the young team. Evans said the program is focusing on team chemistry and culture this season.

“[We’re] a very cohesive group,” Evans said. “I’ve been very pleased with our team and how our nine new players have integrated themselves into our program. It’s a really good team dynamic, team chemistry.”

That culture change is epitomized by the atmosphere of the locker room, senior outfielder Kelbi Fortenberry said.

“You open the doors to the locker room, and there’s always music playing or there’s someone dancing or yelling, being loud,” Fortenberry said.

The team’s motto for this season is “Stronger than one,” and senior pitcher Payton McBride said she has already seen a shift in the unity of the team.

“At this point, we are one team,” McBride said. “We’ve had great, amazing teams all four years that we’ve been here. This year it feels different.”

The Aggies are two seasons removed from their last College World Series run in 2017, which ended in back-to-back losses to No. 2 Florida and No. 9 UCLA. That was freshman year for the current group of seniors.

Evans said their experience playing through both winning and losing seasons will prove invaluable this season.

“We’re always fighting to host and get to a World Series, so last season was definitely different for them,” Evans said. “They handled it very well. They come into this season with that experience and understanding of what it takes to get on the other side of that.”

The Aggies finished the 2019 season with back-to-back losses in the NCAA Regional Tournament for a season record of 28-27.

Though the Aggies barely finished above .500 in 2019, McBride said she was excited for this season as soon as the last one ended.

“We should have done better than what we did,” McBride said. “I was kind of excited as soon as the game was over because I knew all the talent [we had] coming in and having a fresh start and setting goals for ourselves.”

The Aggies’ 2020 conference schedule includes three-game series against Kentucky, Tennessee, Ole Miss, Missouri, Arkansas, Georgia, South Carolina and Mississippi State.

The upcoming SEC slate provides this team a connection to the 2017 squad that made a World Series appearance.

“This is the SEC schedule we had our freshman year when we went to the World Series,” Fortenberry said. “Let’s knock it out one more time senior year.”

THE BATTALION MAROON LIFE 9

A&M baseball ready for run to Omaha

Meredith Seaver — THE BATTALION

The Aggie baseball team’s first SEC home series is on March 19-21, 2020, against the Ole Miss Rebels.

Childress gears up for season with experienced team, new coaches

By Jackson King @MrJacksonTKing As with the start of every new season, expectations are high for Texas A&M baseball.

Following a disappointing 2019 season which ended with a loss to Duke in the regional title game, the Aggies begin a new chapter with the same goal: a National Championship in Omaha, Nebraska.

“Our goals are always higher than anybody’s outside the program; for us, it’s to get to Omaha and compete for a National Championship,” A&M head coach Rob Childress said. “In order to do that, we need to be consistent day in and day out.”

This season, the Aggies return with six of last season’s starting lineup, including Mikey Hoehner, Will Frizzell, Ty Coleman, Bryce Blaum, Cam Blake and Zach DeLoach. Entering a new season with an experienced group is a huge asset to the team, Childress said.

“It’s always a good feeling when you have experience back,” Childress said. “[Experi-

ence] is so invaluable to have in this league. If guys have not been through the grinds of a 30game SEC schedule, you can’t cover that up.

Luckily, we’ve got a lot of experience back.”

During the offseason, four Aggies were selected in the 2019 MLB Draft: shortstop Braden Shewmake, starting pitcher John Doxakis, closing pitcher Kasey Kalich and right-handed pitcher Mason Cole.

After leading the SEC in ERA for 2019, the Aggie pitching staff aims to duplicate that success without the arms of Doxakis and Kalich, who were selected in the second and fourth rounds of the 2019 Draft respectively.

Returning at the top of the rotation this season is junior Asa Lacy, who is a preseason all-SEC selection. In 2019, Lacy finished with an 8-4 record, recording a 2.13 ERA and two complete games.

The loss of Shewmake at shortstop leaves a crucial position for the Aggies to fill in the infield. Blaum, junior third baseman, said Shewmake will be a tough player to replace.

“He’s a once-in-a-generation talent, so losing a guy like that is always going to be a big role to fill, but I think we have the right pieces to do it,” Blaum said. “Obviously not one guy might be able to fill his role, but we have a

collective group that can.”

Just as important as the loss of the players is the loss of their leadership, Childress said.

“The leadership that those guys brought is something that needs to be replaced,” Childress said. “With Braden on the field, he’s in the quarterback position at shortstop, while Doxakis was an incredible team leader, not just the leader of the pitchers. That [leadership] needs to have been absorbed by other guys in the program, and we feel like it has been.”

One of the several new additions to the team in the offseason was hiring a new hitting coach. Assigned to replace the departing Will Bolt, who accepted the head coaching position at the University of Nebraska, former Southern Mississippi hitting coach Chad Caillet will be coordinating the offense this season.

Hoehner, the Aggies’ senior catcher, said Caillet has already brought much improvement to the offense since his hiring last July.

“Coach Caillet has given us a new approach to [hitting], and I think everyone’s really bought into what he’s been saying,” Hoehner said. “I feel really good about where we’re at as a hitting team.”

Lacy said he appreciates the work Caillet

has put into the offense so far.

“It’s a very different approach to what we’ve had in the past,” Lacy said. “It’s really fun to watch as a teammate and a fellow player. The guys are playing hard, playing fast and they’re sold out to Coach Caillet’s approach.”

In order to see improvement from last season, the team is focusing on being selfless, said junior pitcher Chandler Jozwiak.

“We had to figure some stuff out in the locker room in terms of work ethic,” Jozwiak said. “Getting everybody on the same train for the same goal, not playing for ourselves but playing for the team. We struggled with that a little these last few years, but this team is different and [is] definitely a new team. We feel good about the season.”

With returning experience and steady focus, the team has embraced shattering its high expectations and reaching Omaha, said Lacy. “[Expectations] are always high,” Lacy said.

“This is why we come to play at Texas A&M University. This season, we’ve got a great group of guys in the locker room, so our goal is, and we say it all the time but I think we’ve really embraced it this year, is to win the last game.”

Finding his zone THE BATTALION MAROON LIFE 10

After team-leading 2019 debut, Bryce Blaum reaches higher

By Jackson King @MrJacksonTKing After growing up in Sugar Land, Texas, the Aggies’ junior third baseman Bryce Blaum had the opportunity to stay local and play for Texas A&M. Instead, he chose to take his talents to Ole Miss, though he never felt truly at home during his freshman season.

After his first year of college, Blaum was looking for a change of scenery. He wanted to be closer to his hometown and was searching for a team where he felt comfortable.

“The minute I stepped onto the Ole Miss campus, I felt like I was in the wrong place,” Blaum said.

Guided by his parents’ advice, Blaum transferred to A&M in the fall of 2017.

“Out of high school, A&M was my other option, and my parents really wanted me to come here instead,” Blaum said. “Looking back, I really wish I would have listened to them.”

Blaum and his parents weren’t the only ones excited about his transition to Aggieland. After pursuing Blaum as a recruit out of high school, A&M coach Rob Childress said he was overjoyed to hear of Blaum’s transfer status.

“Bryce was somebody that was very big on our recruiting radar out of high school; he really endeared himself to us in the recruiting process,” Childress said. “When he made the decision to come back, we felt lucky to have him here.”

Now in his junior season, Blaum found a home as the lead-off hitter for an A&M baseball team fighting for a National Championship.

“Bryce is an energy guy,” senior catcher Mikey Hoehner said. “Every day he’s bringing an energy, and people [respond to] it. Some people don’t like it

when it’s early in the morning, but he’s that guy. He’s been doing a real good job of talking to people and telling them how things go [around] here.”

Junior pitcher Chandler Jozwiak said he appreciates Blaum’s hard-working and selfless nature.

“He had to move from shortstop to third base this fall because [Logan Sartori] is a really good shortstop,” Jozwiak said. “He took that transition and just ran with it, and has done awesome at anywhere in the lineup. He’s going to do whatever it takes to help our team win.”

Since the NCAA transfer rules require transfer athletes sit out one year, Blaum was forced to miss the entire 2018 season. However, he said that year away from baseball was a blessing in disguise because it allowed him to get acclimated to the culture of A&M.

“Bryce is one of the hardest working guys I’ve ever met in my life.”

CHANDLER JOZWIAK, PITCHER

“Looking back, that was the best thing that could have ever happened to me,” Blaum said. “Having a year to learn the way that the culture around here functioned, that Coach Childress has established, and not have the pressure of playing a game helped me a lot.”

During that time, Blaum said he learned from veteran A&M players what it takes to play for the Aggies.

“By the time the next year rolled around, I already knew everything about the program,” Blaum said. “There were a bunch of guys that year that had gone to Omaha, so it was cool to just absorb all that information they’ve had

from playing many years in the college program.”

When finally given the opportunity to play last season, Blaum established himself as a key part of the top-25 Aggie baseball team. In 2019, Blaum finished the season batting .292 with 32 RBIs and a team-high nine home runs.

Batting in the lead-off position, a spot usually reserved for contact hitters, Blaum helped set the tone in games, Childress said.

“He’s got a chance to start the game with a bang,” Childress said. “You’ve got to be at your very best when the game starts with him. He’s going to be a catalyst for everything that we do.”

Following a season-ending loss in the regional round, Blaum said he is looking forward to trying Omaha in 2020.

“The reason you come to A&M is to win a National Championship,” Blaum said. “We find a regional as a down year.

I think we have the right group to get over the hump this year. If we sell out to the plan that the coaches want, then we’re going to be very special.”

Blaum said the best advice he learned during his transfer process is to trust his surroundings.

“I think you need to lean on the people that you’re close to,” Blaum said.

“Everybody that is playing at a Division I level, [especially] an SEC school, is talented enough. The reason I’ve had success here as opposed to Ole Miss is all about finding the right fit for you.

Once you find the right fit, it’s just baseball again. It’s the game you played since you were three years old.”

Entering his second season with the Aggies, Blaum said transferring to A&M introduced him to a group of life-long friends and mentors as well.

“Some of these guys on my team are going to be in my wedding someday,” Blaum said. “They’re my best friends, and I’ll talk to them for the rest of my life.”

THE BATTALION MAROON LIFE 11

Junior third baseman Bryce Blaum led the Aggies in the 2019 season with nine home runs.

Megan Cusick — THE BATTALION

THE BATTALION MAROON LIFE 12

THE BATTALION MAROON LIFE 13

Harmony by happenstance A series of coincidences brought Rob Childress to his father figure

By Hannah Underwood @hannahbunderwoo

A&M baseball coach Rob Childress has a record of 578 wins and 306 losses with the Aggies.

Meredith Seaver — THE BATTALION

It was a relationship that could only come about through divine intervention.

Rob Childress, Texas A&M’s baseball coach, spent the first decade of his life in Jonesboro, Arkansas, an hour northwest of Memphis, Tennessee, in the northeastern corner of the Natural State. But at 10 years old, Childress’ parents divorced and he moved with his mom to Texas to be closer to her family.

The move brought Childress to Harmony, an unincorporated rural community nestled deep in the piney woods of East Texas where the number of Baptist churches (six) far outweighs the number of grocery stores (zero).

With his dad no longer in the picture, Childress said he was searching for a father figure, and it was in that quiet, unassuming little town that he found one.

Finding Harmony By the time Steve Marrs got to town, Childress had already been at Harmony for a year. But once they met in a physical education class Childress’ freshman year, there was an immediate connection both say was more than coincidence.

Harmony sits isolated along Highway 154 with Gilmer to the east and Quitman to the west. It isn’t very often that someone with no connections to the area moves in.

However, that’s exactly how Marrs got to Harmony.

By the time he arrived, Marrs was right out of college where he spent four years as a left-handed pitcher for Harding University, with his first coaching job taking him almost 300 miles from his hometown of Tulsa, Oklahoma.

“How a guy from Tulsa, Oklahoma, by way of Harding University in Arkansas finds his way to Harmony, it’s truly a God thing,” Childress said.

Upon graduating college, Marrs had no job lined up due to the demanding schedule of baseball season and was a disc jockey on Sundays at a local country and western radio station when he received an unexpected call.

Harding’s head football coach called Marrs about a friend that was the principal of an East Texas high school. He said the school needed a baseball coach and thought Marrs would be the right guy for the job.

“I didn’t know where Harmony, Texas, was,” Marrs said. “He said, ‘Harmony is seven miles west of Gilmer.’ I didn’t even know where Gilmer was.”

Marrs said he had only $5 in his wallet at that time and had to ask his dad for gas money to drive down to Texas for the interview. But his prayers were answered when, sitting in the superintendent’s office at Harmony Independent School District, he was offered the job.

He accepted it right away.

It seemed as though the stars were aligning for Marrs to get the job, because not only was there his connection to the

Meredith Seaver — THE BATTALION

On the back of the Harmony High School dugout in Big Sandy, Texas, hangs a sign honoring Harmony alumnus and Texas A&M baseball coach Rob Childress.

high school’s principal, but Marrs and the superintendent had something in common as well. Marrs’ alma mater was a Church of Christ college; the superintendent was a deacon at a local Church of Christ.

The job brought him to the middle of the Piney Woods, a far cry from the nearly 361,000 people living in Tulsa at the time, according to the 1980 census.

“I ended up down here, and there’s no reason I should be down here,” Marrs said. “It was just out of the clear blue until I looked at it later in life. I think God needed me to come here.”

A baseball home When the pair finally met in 1982, Childress wasn’t in athletics; he wasn’t playing football; he wasn’t playing baseball. He also said he wasn’t sure Marrs would even let him

Meredith Seaver — THE BATTALION

Steve Marrs was Rob Childress’ high school baseball coach.

into athletics to play baseball.

“I think when he found out I was left-handed, he gave me a chance,” Childress said.

For Marrs, the choice was a little simpler than that.

“He had a tremendous desire to participate, to be a part of the team,” Marrs said. “I knew he would be a great teammate, so it was a no-brainer letting him in.”

The similarities between the two were abundant. Both were left-handed pitchers.

Both were freshmen at the time they met — Childress a freshman in high school and Marrs a freshman coach in his first year out of college.

It all culminated at Harmony High School, with a lifelong relationship developing in the strangest of places: a librarian’s basement.

At the time he moved to Harmony, Marrs was not married and lived in the school librar-

ian’s basement. Often, Childress and a couple other players would visit Marrs to play a video game and talk baseball.

It was during those times that the pair’s relationship began to grow into much more than a player-coach dynamic.

“It didn’t take long for him to be such a huge influence in my life and somebody that I admired and somebody that I looked up to and wanted to please,” Childress said.

The fact that Marrs was unmarried and had no children allowed him to give Childress the attention he should have been getting from a father.

“It’s not anything I wouldn’t have done with a lot of other kids,” Marrs said. “But it just so happened with him, it was a time in his life when he really needed that, and I was more than happy to be that figure for him.”

CONTINUED ON PG. 14

THE BATTALION MAROON LIFE 14

THE BATTALION MAROON LIFE 15

Meredith Seaver — THE BATTALION

Meredith Seaver — THE BATTALION

A&M baseball coach Rob Childress was a member of the 1985 UIL State Semi-Finalist Eagle baseball team.

With Marrs leading him, Childress found a passion for baseball that shaped him both on and off the field.

During his senior year, Childress was voted Most Dependable and Best Sense of Humor, the latter of which Marrs said was the antithesis to his personality on the mound.

“He was a happy-go-lucky guy, a lot of fun, a lot of kids really enjoyed him and he had a lot of friends, but when it came to baseball, he was very serious,” Marrs said. “He was a real student of the game.”

It was that dedication to the game that drew Marrs to Childress.

“It was obvious to me right off the bat that he was going to be a tremendous success because of his knowledge and his love for the game,” Marrs said. “He was a sponge.”

Beyond the call of coach Marrs’ decision to step in and become a father figure for Childress changed the course of his life. Had he not found a home in baseball,

the next step for Childress would have been the military.

“I wasn’t going to stay in East Texas and haul hay and milk cows,” Childress said.

“Baseball or the military were the two ways out for me to change things, and I’m glad that baseball worked out.”

Marrs knew this, so he did what he could to help Childress succeed. That included driving him over 500 miles to Salina, Kansas, to meet with a college coach.

“He wanted to give me an opportunity to play beyond high school,” Childress said.

But Childress acknowledges there was a chance he didn’t end up in baseball.

“Somewhere along the way, had I ended up with a jerk of a coach, what would my life look like? What direction would I go?”

Childress said. “God has always put someone in my life that has kept the direction going with sports.”

Childress had positive experiences with

both Marrs and his college coach at Northwood University in Midland, Michigan. In Marrs’ case, it was a desire of the coach to build personal relationships with his players and to know them as people, and the effort he put into doing that is what made him special, Childress said.

“He could always make you feel like you were maybe so much more talented than you really were, and that’s a true gift,” Childress said.

That was a lesson learned from Marrs’ own playing experience.

“There’s a lot more to being a ballplayer than just ability,” Marrs said. “I’ve seen a lot of talented guys that have failed in this game. I’ve seen a lot of guys who weren’t very talented who have been successful. I would probably include myself in that category.”

Marrs learned early in his career that the opportunity he had to influence young lives was much more important than the wins he

A&M baseball coach Rob Childress was a Harmony Senior Class Favorite in 1986. He was also voted “Most Dependable” and “Best Sense of Humor.”

could earn on the field.

“I can’t teach everybody to be a great athlete, but I can teach everybody to be a great human being,” Marrs said. “That became more important to me.”

That mindset inspired the way Childress approaches coaching.

“You’re going to give more if you care more, on both sides as a coach and as a player,” Childress said. “He certainly cared about me, there was no question in that, as a person first and a player second, during those years of my life and, gosh, for the last 35 or 40 years.”

But perhaps the biggest influence Marrs has had on Childress is in his personal life. Marrs played a part in Childress’ nearly 27-year marriage to his wife, Amanda, Class of 1992.

The two met in 1988 while she was a freshman at Texas Christian University. When Childress decided to propose, he needed someone to co-sign for the engagement ring, and there was no doubt in his mind who that

would be. “[Marrs] was the one guy that could do that,” Childress said.

It was at that point that Marrs saw their relationship start to shift as the gesture was a sign of Childress’ complete respect for his high school coach.

“I said that would be my honor,” Marrs said. “Of course, I did tell him he better not miss one payment or I’d kick his butt, and he didn’t. At that point, I think our relationship kind of changed. I became more of a father figure to him rather than just a coach.”

Marrs’ immediate willingness to help Childress is a testament to what those two guys mean to each other, Amanda said.

“It means the world because, for one thing, it wasn’t a matter of if he would co-sign, but when Rob needed him to co-sign, there was no question,” Amanda said. “He would do anything for Rob.”

‘Right time, right place’ Childress is entering his 15th year at the helm of the A&M baseball team, and during that span, he has seen 578 wins, 306 losses, 13 consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances, six NCAA Regional titles, two conference championships and two College World Series appearances. But Marrs said the success Childress has seen in his professional life is nothing compared to the family he has built.

“What he’s done coaching doesn’t surprise me,” Marrs said. “I knew that his love for the game and his talent to communicate was beyond most people, but what he’s become as a father and seeing how he’s been with [daughter] Hannah, [son] Max and Amanda, that’s what I’m probably most proud of.”

Marrs ended his coaching career after 31 years, with all but three of those spent as a head coach. In his time, his teams saw 496 wins, 206 losses and two ties. His 1985 squad at Harmony, with Childress on the mound,

advanced to the semifinals of the UIL State Tournament before a 10-1 loss to Kaufer High School in Riviera.

After six years at Harmony, Marrs coached at Gilmer for nine years, Harleton for three years, Hughes Springs for two years, Gladewater for four years and Pine Tree for four years. He also spent three years as the athletic director of East Texas Christian School in Longview.

“He should be in the Hall of Fame, but I don’t know that he will because he hasn’t won enough games because he hasn’t coached long enough because he doesn’t need to,” Childress said.

Instead, Marrs’ legacy will always be the relationships he forged off the field.

“He has been a father to so many,” Childress said. “He’s certainly been a guy who’s changed my life on and off the field, and I’ve always wanted to be like him in that respect as a husband, as a father, as a friend.

“He without a doubt is the most important male figure in my life.”

It was a relationship built by situations that seemed purely coincidental.

But it is also a relationship that means the world to both men, and Childress always reaches out to Marrs whenever anything exciting in baseball happens.

When Childress was hired at A&M in 2005, he sent Marrs a thank you gift that sits on a shelf in his former coach’s office alongside the autographed baseballs he has collected over the years.

Marrs said, “He may not even remember this, but he sent me a little book called ‘Coach,’ and in the front of it he wrote, “‘Coach Marrs, you’ll never know the influence you had on my life. Everything that I am and everything that I do is because of you.

I just hope that I’m able to influence lives the way you influenced mine. Thanks, Rob.’”

APARTMENT LIVING ON-CAMPUS CONVENIENCE FULLY FURNISHED | NO DEPOSIT - NO CREDIT CHECK | YEAR-ROUND HOUSING INCLUDING SEMESTER BREAKS | OPEN-ACCESS COMPUTER LAB | GAME ROOM | UPD SECURITY PATROLS

WHITE CREEK APARTMENTS White Creek Apartments are located on West Campus.

• rent by room (added to your student account) • pay by semester; summer session available • internet, cable, electricity & water included • washer & dryer in unit • enjoy White Creek Community Center’s dining, recreation & study spaces • eligibility: students of freshmen standing or higher

THE GARDENS APARTMENTS The Gardens Apartments are located on campus near the Engineering Complex.

• rent by room or by apartment • pay monthly • internet, cable & water included • fitness center • washer & dryer available in premium units • laundry facility • eligibility: graduate students, married and/or with children, undergraduates of sophomore standing or higher, Texas A&M University staff, faculty and post docs

AGGIES LIVE ON

reslife.tamu.edu/apartments | TAMUResLife

“BUZZ IS GOING TO TURN A&M INTO AN SEC POWER

“HARD TO

OR DIE TRYING” - AAaron TTorres,, FFox SSports ports RRadio adio

NOT BE EXCITED

ABOUT THE FUTURE OF TEXAS A&M BASKETBALL” - Ryan Brauninger, TexAgs

“INJECT ME WITH THE

SIDELINE ENERGY OF BUZZ WILLIAMS. THIS MAN IS A MANIAC

& I LOVE IT”

- Nick Moyle, San Aantonio Express News

“TEXAS A&M HIRING BUZZ WILLIAMS

MEANS I’M A TEXAS A&M BASKETBALL FAN NOW” - Tom Fornelli, CBS Sports

Angelina Alcantar — THE BATTALION

DOUBLE TROUBLE

THE BATTALION MAROON LIFE 18

THE BATTALION MAROON LIFE 19

Jones, Johnson provide boost to A&M offense in Carter’s absence

By Jackson King @MrJacksonTKing

Junior center Ciera Johnson and junior forward N’dea Jones have combined for 39 double-doubles in their careers at Texas A&M. Kaylee Cogbill — THE BATTALION

Entering the 2019-20 season, the Texas A&M women’s basketball team had high expectations.

Initially ranked No. 6 in the preseason AP poll, the Aggies hope to compete for an NCAA National Championship March 20 through April 5 in New Orleans. To reach that goal, A&M needed its frontcourt of junior forward N’dea Jones and junior center Ciera Johnson to complement the team’s star scorer, junior guard Chennedy Carter. Despite a road loss to Florida State, the team entered its SEC schedule with expectations of topping the conference.

Then, in the second quarter of a Jan. 9 contest against LSU, Carter left the game with a left ankle injury. The frontcourt that previously looked to her for support suddenly needed to forge its own identity.

Missing its leading scorer, who averaged almost 22 points per game, the dynamics of the team began to shift.

“I think Ciera and I have really tried to

step it up and carry the team,” Jones said. “As a team, I think we’re starting to connect a lot better. Chennedy’s a big part of our team chemistry; even though Chennedy’s hurt, I think our team chemistry is coming together.”

In a conference with dominant frontcourt players like Kentucky’s Rhyne Howard and Auburn’s Unique Thompson, being able to stand out physically in the SEC is important for their success, said Johnson.

“The SEC is a very physical, very grind-itout type of league,” Johnson said. “To have our kind of height and our skill set is very [beneficial]. Not only do we put pressure on other teams, it helps us defend other post players, and there are a lot of good post players in the SEC.” Jones and Johnson are roommates when the Aggies are on the road, and Jones said the bond they have adopted has helped their oncourt communication.

“When there’s a mistake made, we make sure that we connect and try to figure out what we did wrong and what we need to do,” Jones said. “Before games, we scout together and go over things that we need to do. Then we’ll have a pregame talk with each other, trying to pick each other’s brains about what needs to happen in this game. On the court when one’s not doing too well, we’ll try to

talk to the other one to make sure we both get in the flow of the game.”

This season, both Jones and Johnson have established themselves as players who can put together offensively dominant performances in any game. Johnson has recorded six double-doubles this season and has scored in double digits over her last 12 contests. Jones has recorded a double-double in 10 consecutive games since Dec. 29 and has recorded 12 during the season, which is second-best in the SEC. Jones said being able to perform consistently is proof of her hard work.

“I really haven’t thought about it,” Jones said. “I hear people make comments about it, but I’m trying really hard to just be consistent this year. I feel like last year, I had a lot of games that were up and down, so this year having the straight double-doubles has just proved that I’m more consistent.”

Not interested in personal accomplishments, Johnson said she succeeds when her team does.

“In the game, as long as we secure the rebound, that’s all we really care about,” Johnson said. “As long as somebody from A&M secures the rebound, we’re totally fine.”

The duo’s efforts have put them in prestigious company at A&M. Both are near the

top of the Aggies’ career double-doubles list, with Jones’ 21 career double-doubles ranking third all time at A&M and fourth among active SEC players. Johnson has 18, which places her fifth among active SEC players and in a tie for sixth among the A&M all-time list with Danielle Adams.

Given the rich history of post players at A&M, being considered among the best is an honor, Johnson said.

“I think it’s pretty cool,” Johnson said.

“There have been some very good post players to come through here at A&M, whether that’s Kelsey Bone, Adams, Anriel Howard or Khaalia Hillsman. To be talked about in that aspect is very nice.”

In a conference loaded with top teams like South Carolina and Mississippi State, Johnson said she’s confident her team can find success, even with the three conference losses the Aggies have sustained thus far this season.

“I think we’re right up there with them,” Johnson said. “I think our downfall could probably be not playing hard enough or not giving it our all. Recently we’ve changed that, we’ve started off strong and have been playing really hard. I think that as we continue to go throughout the season, we will continue to be right up there with them.”

THE BATTALION MAROON LIFE 20

Running into A&M track athletes bring team mentality to individual events

2020

By Adithya Prabakaran @ADP_445 Under 16-year coach Pat Henry, the Texas A&M men’s and women’s track and field teams have won a combined nine national championships over the last 11 years. This type of sustained success doesn’t come often in sports, especially at the collegiate level, but the Aggies have nonetheless maintained consistency.

In a sport full of individual events, the relationship between coaches and their athletes contribute to the greatest amount of individual success. “[Track] is more of a team sport than an individual sport, even if people think the opposite,” Henry said. “As coaches, it is our job to make sure the athletes are doing a good job and are ready for these events.”

Despite an emphasis on personal goals, most athletes understand how and why the team aspect matters.

Working with a team is something heptathlete and pentathlete Tyra Gittens credits for her personal growth. An agricultural leadership and development junior, Gittens had to redshirt her sophomore year due to knee surgery.

Despite not performing, Gittens continued to show up at practice to help her coach and lead her teammates.

“At that time, it was hard not competing, but when I coached my teammates, my technique got better,” Gittens said. “I could visualize what I was doing better because I was instructing them on what to do.”

Gittens said seeing her fellow teammates compete at a high level made her realize how much more effort she needed to put into her craft.

“I did lie to myself,” Gittens said. “Mentally, I was fine. However, I pretended I was doing what I needed to be the best, and I wasn’t

putting in the physical work to get there.”

The difference in mindset is something senior relay and medium distance runner Devin Dixon has seen in himself.

“Last year, unfortunately, I was not putting full effort in some events,” Dixon said. “I knew I could win at smaller meets, but I would run faster at national events because the focus was greater at large events.”

Dixon finished the 2019 indoor and outdoor seasons with seven individual wins.

His fastest time in the 800-meter was at the SEC Outdoor Championships, where he ran a 1:44.76. This year, he has his eyes set on matching that time and eventually improving to hit 1:43 and faster.

The team’s support is imperative to reaching his goal, Dixon said.

“Working as a team is bringing the best out of each other,” Dixon said, “Everyone is wanting to prove themselves, and so they are focusing on the races and taking it more seriously.”

Beginning this season, Dixon and Gittens created a list of goals for themselves.

Dixon has aspirations ranging from setting collegiate records in the 4x400-meter relay and 800-meter run to winning his events at the National Championships. Ultimately, this would end with him qualifying for the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.

For Gittens, her aspirations include improving at what she calls her “worst events”: the javelin throw and the 800-meter run. While placing in the top-5 of most heptathlon events, Gittens tends to finish outside the top-15 in both of these events. She said she believes focusing on her weaknesses will help her become one of the best heptathletes in the world and qualify for the Summer Olympics.

Despite the individuality of the sport’s nature, it is Gittens’ goal for the team to bring a national title back to Aggieland.

“It means a lot to me to see my team win, so I want to make sure we win a championship this year,” Gittens said.

Sophomore Abbey Santoro is a distance runner on the Aggie Track and Field team.

Meredith Seaver — THE BATTALION

THE BATTALION MAROON LIFE 21

Going for gold Swimming, diving enter postseason with chance at championships

By Jennifer Streeter @jennystreeter3 Following one of the most successful seasons in team history, the Texas A&M men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams heads to the championship slate ranked in national polls.

The men’s team is ranked No. 5 in the country by the College Swimming and Diving Coaches Association of America poll, as of Feb. 6. This is the highest they have been ranked by the CSCAA since 2001. The women’s team is No. 11, according to the CSCAA rankings, their highest ranking of the season.

While both teams head into the postseason with championship aspirations, the women are looking to match the success they’ve had during previous spring semesters. The Aggies have won four straight SEC titles and will pursue their fifth at Auburn’s James E. Martin Aquatic Center on Feb. 18-22.

The women wrapped the regular season on Jan. 25 with a win over Arkansas to finish with a 5-2 overall record and 2-1 conference record.

Meanwhile, the men head into the spring with a 6-3 record. Their second meet of the

season ended in a loss to Texas, which men’s head coach Jay Holmes said heavily motivated them for the rest of the season.

“We certainly respect Texas and who they are and what they do,” Holmes said. “We’re really happy that we got the chance to do the meet. Obviously we would’ve wanted to have won that one, but just the opportunity to get up and race those guys at that time of year, that’s exactly what we needed.”

Despite the three losses that came in the dual meet portion of the season, there were also several wins, including a first place victory at the Art Adamson Invitational last November, which Holmes said was one of the team’s highs of the season.

“We came in, swam really well, had some really good competition for us to be racing here,” Holmes said. “That is for sure where we’ve been our best.”

Business administration and accounting senior Ben Walker is the Aggies’ team captain and currently holds the 10th-best 200 breaststroke time in the NCAA this season. He was named SEC Male Swimmer of the Week after setting an LSU Natatorium record in the 200 breast on Jan. 18 and holds the school record in the 400 IM. Walker also earned NCAA All-American First Team honors last season with a top-8 finish at the NCAA Championships.

Walker said the most important thing go-

ing into the SEC Championship is the team’s mentality.

“SECs is a really long meet, so the biggest thing is keeping a good mindset through all five days,” Walker said.

As for men’s diving, junior team captain Kurtis Mathews has posted six top-3 finishes and two victories in the three-meter, in addition to five top-3 finishes and three victories in the one-meter. He was named SEC Male Diver of the Week after winning both diving events at No. 11 Georgia.

While the team normally has positive results at Georgia, he was pleased with his personal success, Mathews said.

“I wasn’t really expecting it, that’s a really good pull,” Mathews said. “Historically we’ve had good performances there, everything came together that week.”

Women’s senior Anna Belousova has won back-to-back SEC Championship titles in the 100 breast after being the second SEC swimmer to finish in under 58 seconds (57.99). She has earned NCAA All-America First Team honors in each of the two previous seasons she has competed at NCAAs. Belousova is tied for the sixth-fastest time in the 200 breast in the nation (2:08.23), which was set at the Art Adamson Invitational. This season she tallied 12 individual first place finishes, including seven in the 100 breast and five in the 200 breast.

Senior swimmer Ben Walker specializes in the 100- and 200-yard breaststroke. He holds the 10th-best time in the NCAA this season.

Meredith Seaver — THE BATTALION

Women’s head coach Steve Bultman said he has high expectations for Belousova at the SEC Championships.

“She’s done a great job at SECs every time she’s gone,” Bultman said. “We’re looking for more of the same.”

Sophomore diver Charlye Campbell has also been a major point-scorer for the Aggies this season. She has six top-3 finishes and five wins on the three-meter board, in addition to six top-3 finishes and four victories on the one-meter board. She swept the diving events in back-to-back road meets in early January against SMU and Georgia.

Campbell said the expectations she puts on herself have made her a better diver.

“It’s kind of humbled me in a way, making sure at each practice I’m taking advantage of each dive I do,” Campbell said.

A&M diving coach Jay Lerew said he expects his divers to have immense success at the SEC Championships.

“If they dive like they can, they can do it,” said Lerew. “They’ve had the highest scores all year long. If they dive like they should, they could pull it off.”

Throughout the SEC and NCAA Championships, not only will the Aggies be looking to bring a title back to Aggieland, but they also have their eyes set on a larger goal: qualifying for the Tokyo Summer Olympics.

THE BATTALION MAROON LIFE 22

SPRING SPORTING EVENTS IN AGGIELAND

February 14-16 BASEBALL: vs. MIAMI OF OHIO THREE-GAME SERIES

February 16 SOFTBALL: vs. ST. JOHN’S @ 11:15 A.M.

February 15 February 15 MEN’S BASKETBALL: vs. GEORGIA SOFTBALL: vs. LAMAR, BINGHAMPTON @ 2:30 P.M. @ 12:15 P.M., 3 P.M. Blue Bell Park Reed Arena Davis Diamond

February 19 February 18 BASEBALL: vs. PRAIRIE VIEW A&M BASEBALL: vs. STEPHEN F. AUSTIN @ 6:30 P.M. @ 6:30 P.M. Davis Diamond Blue Bell Park Blue Bell Park

February 21 February 21-23 MEN’S TENNIS: vs. RICE BASEBALL: vs. ARMY @ 6 P.M. THREE-GAME SERIES Mitchell Tennis Center

February 22 WOMEN’S TENNIS: vs. Oklahoma, SFA @ 12 P.M., 5 P.M. Mitchell Tennis Center Blue Bell Park

THE BATTALION MAROON LIFE 23

February 27 - March 1 February 28 February 28 WOMEN’S SWIM & DIVE: EQUESTRIAN: vs. BAYLOR MEN’S TENNIS: vs. KENTUCKY SPEEDO SECTIONALS MEET @ 9 A.M. @ 6 P.M. Rec Center Natatorium Hildebrand Equine Complex Mitchell Tennis Center February 28 - March 1 SOFTBALL: REVEILLE CLASSIC

February 29 March 1 EQUESTRIAN: vs. SOUTH DAKOTA STATE WOMEN’S TENNIS: vs. ARKANSAS, PVAMU @ 11 A.M. @ 12 P.M., 5P.M. Davis Diamond Hildebrand Equine Complex Mitchell Tennis Center

March 3 March 4 March 8 BASEBALL: vs. A&M - CORPUS CHRISTI BASEBALL: vs. ABILENE CHRISTIAN MEN’S TENNIS: vs. FLORIDA, VALPO @ 6:30 @ 6:30 P.M. @ 1 P.M., 6 P.M. Blue Bell Park Blue Bell Park Mitchell Tennis Center March 11 SOFTBALL: vs. TEXAS STATE @ 6 P.M.

March 13 March 13 - 15 WOMEN’S TENNIS: vs. MISSISSIPPI STATE SOFTBALL: vs. TENNESSEE @ 5 P.M. THREE-GAME SERIES Davis Diamond Mitchell Tennis Center

February 22 February 23 February 22 MEN’S BASKETBALL: vs. MISSISSIPPI STATE INDOOR TRACK: vs. Texas A&M Invite MEN’S TENNIS: vs. ARIZONA STATE, UIW @ 2:30 P.M. @ 1 P.M., 5 P.M. @ 5 P.M. Reed Arena Mitchell Tennis Center Gilliam Indoor Stadium

March 15 March 17 March 17 WOMEN’S TENNIS: vs. OLE MISS SOFTBALL: vs. STEPHEN F. AUSTIN BASEBALL: vs. HOUSTON @ 12 P.M. @ 6 P.M. @ 6:30 P.M. Mitchell Tennis Center Davis Diamond

February 23 February 25 February 25 WOMEN’S BASKETBALL: vs. AUBURN MEN’S BASKETBALL: vs. KENTUCKY BASEBALL: vs. Houston Baptist @ 3 P.M. @ 6 P.M. @ 6:30 P.M. Reed Arena Reed Arena Blue Bell Park

March 19 - 21 BASEBALL: vs. OLE MISS THREE-GAME SERIES

February 26 February 27 February 26 SOFTBALL: vs. SAM HOUSTON STATE WOMEN’S BASKETBALL: vs. ALABAMA BASEBALL: vs. INCARNATE WORD @ 3 P.M., 5 P.M. @ 6 P.M. @ 6:30 P.M. Davis Diamond Reed Arena Blue Bell Park

Davis Diamond

Blue Bell Park

March 20 March 22 WOMEN’S TENNIS: vs. TENNESSEE WOMEN’S TENNIS: vs. GEORGIA @ 5 P.M. @ 12 P.M. Blue Bell Park Mitchell Tennis Center Mitchell Tennis Center

March 24 March 24 SOFTBALL: vs. TEXAS SOUTHERN BASEBALL: vs. LAMAR @ 3 P.M., 5 P.M. @ 6:30 P.M. Davis Diamond

March 27 MEN’S TENNIS: vs. AUBURN @ 6 P.M. Blue Bell Park Mitchell Tennis Center

NOT ANOTHER

AGGIE

Suicide Awareness & Prevention Office

SAVING A LIFE CAN BE AS SIMPLE AS 5 WORDS:

“ARE YOU THINKING ABOUT SUICIDE?”

Learn More: caps.tamu.edu/suicideprevention

Now is the time to pre-order your copy of the

2020AGGIELAND 2019AGGIELAND We have extra copies of the 2019 Aggieland, a photojournalistic record of the 2018-2019 school year. The 117th edition of Texas A&M’s official yearbook.

Go Online to tx.ag/BuyTheAggieland or call 979-845-2697 to make your purchase.

A photojournalistic record of the 2019-2020 school year. The 119th edition of Texas A&M’s official yearbook. Distribution will be the Fall 2020.

Go Online to tx.ag/BuyTheAggieland or call 979-845-2697 to make your purchase. $81.19 (Includes Tax and Mailing Fee)

Add some Aggie Spirit to your commute.

Now there are two new ways to take your Aggie Spirit on the road!

Drive the Aggie legacy and support Texas A&M University by purchasing our new official specialty license plates at AggiePlates.tamu.edu.

There’s even an option to customize your plate, making it the perfect accessory for those who “bleed maroon.”

AGGIEPLATES.TAMU.EDU

SPACES FILLING FAST FOR FALL 2020

You’ve never lived like this.

Walk or bike to class

Reed Arena

Private bedrooms available

TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY

Student Recreation Center

Fully furnished apartments, townhomes and suites

Memorial Student Center

Amenities for a fit and healthy lifestyle Zachry Engineering Education Complex

Kyle Field

Academically oriented environments Meal plan options available

Apply online today at AmericanCampus.com/CollegeStation

Amenities are subject to change. See office for details.