The Battalion: April 17, 2017

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MONDAY, APRIL 17, 2017 | SERVING TEXAS A&M SINCE 1893 | © 2017 STUDENT MEDIA | @THEBATTONLINE

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THE BATTALION | THEBATT.COM

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National Title

Conference Title Rachel Grant — THE BATTALION

Senior Max Lunkin (left) and sophomore Aleksandre Bakshi (right) celebrate after winning one of their matches.

Men’s Tennis secures No. 1 seed in SEC Tourney after earning SEC crown By Angel Franco @angelmadison_ PHOTO VIA 12THMAN.COM

The equestrian team shows off the NCEA Championship trophy, the first one they’ve won since 2012 when A&M joined the SEC.

Equestrian wins 12th NCEA title in program history, first as SEC member By Kevin Roark @Kevin_Roark

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exas A&M (13-5) secured their first NCEA Championship title since joining the SEC in 2012 after defeating No. 2 Georgia Bulldogs, 11-5, in Waco, Texas. The Aggies faced a rocky season full of twists and turns, concluding with an ending that Hollywood couldn’t have written any better. After suffering two consecutive losses near

the end of their regular season and scraping together a consolation victory in the SEC Championship, A&M pulled off a dominating four game performance in Waco to claim their 12th NCEA title in program history. A&M head coach Tana McKay said the adversity the team faced throughout the season prepared them to perform under immense pressure. According to McKay, the masterful outing by her riders this weekend was one of the best she’s ever seen in her 17 years as the head of the program. “To ride as well as they did and get the shutouts that we did, in all my years I haven’t been involved in a championship quite like EQUESTRIAN ON PG. 3

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o. 10 Texas A&M men’s tennis became the 2017 Southeastern Conference champion after defeating No. 11 Georgia Saturday afternoon at the George P. Mitchell Tennis center. This is the second time in three years the Aggies (18-5, 11-1 SEC) share a conference title with the Bulldogs (15-7, 11-1). The first victory for the Aggies came after junior Jordi Arconada and freshman Hady Habib worked together to defeat UGA’s Paul Oosterbaan and Nathan Ponwith, 6-3. A&M juniors AJ Catanzariti and Arthur Rinderknech kept the momentum going as they defeated the No. 2 pair of Jan Zielinski and Robert Loeb, 6-2, marking the highest-ranking win for duo. Aleksandre Bakshi and Max Lunkin were the only Aggie pair to concede to UGA after Wayne Montgomery and Walker Duncan defeated them, 6-3. Texas A&M head coach Steve Denton

said the points earned by the doubles teams played a crucial part of the team’s conference championship. “Our guys came out with a lot of energy and we’ve been talking about that,” Denton told 12thman.com. “That is what that doubles is really about. We are playing a sprint, it’s one set and that energy really makes a difference and we were able to jump on top of them and we had great help from the 12th Man today and we fed off that energy and our guys played even better than I had hoped they’d play in the and obviously that relaxed us and got us off on the start we needed.” A&M won four of the six individual matches of the day, with one match proving to be the deciding game for the Aggies’ conference title. Having won on the doubles portion of the day, No. 8 Rinderknech defeated No. 60 Ponwith to give A&M its second regular-season SEC title. Freshman Valentin Vacherot defeated Georgia’s Zielinski in two matches, 6-3, 6-0. Denton praised his team for getting ahead of their opponents putting the Aggies in a position to take control of their championship run. “Arthur and Val set the tone for us TENNIS ON PG. 3

Reactor relocated

Nuclear reactor moved from Zachry to the Nuclear Science Building By Chris Martin @martin19340

After two years of planning, A&M securely moved a 60-year-old device located in the basement of the former Zachry Engineering Building. Last semester, the AGN-201M reactor — one of A&M’s two nuclear reactors — was relocated from the Zachry Building to the Nuclear Science Center, or NSC. The AGN reactor has been in operation since 1957 and has a power of five watts — one eighth of the power of a standard incandescent light bulb. The 1,000,000 watt, or one megawatt, TRIGA reactor was built in 1961 and is currently the only active reactor on campus. Sean McDeavitt, director of the NSC and professor of nuclear engineering, said the purpose of both reactors is for teaching and research. Students and faculty are able to learn the fundamentals of nuclear reactor operations and interactions of neutrons with matter. “[The AGN reactor] does all the basic nuclear physics on the nuclear reactor, so we can put students on the control console,” McDeavitt said. “It is excellent for a very simple system, that is ‘impossible’ for anybody to break and is something that can demonstrate nuclear principles … To put the power of the TRIGA reactor into perspective, a commercial reactor that generates electricity for large areas tends to be about of 3,000 megawatts of energy — about 3,000 times bigger than A&M’s TRIGA reactor.” The fuel for the AGN reactor was moved Oct. 2 of last year and the reactor components were moved almost two weeks later on Oct. 15. N.K. Anand, executive associate dean of engineering, said A&M needed to relocate the AGN nuclear reactor because of REACTOR ON PG. 2

Madeleine Brennan — THE BATTALION

Former Deputy Surgeon General Maj. Gen. David Rubenstein spoke at Jewish Warrior Weekend.

Warrior Weekend draws Jewish ROTC cadets Conference works to establish community among Jewish people By Madeleine Brennan @madkathbren

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As of last semester one of the A&M nuclear reactors moved from the Zachry Engineering Building to the Nuclear Science Center due to building renovations.

Military men and women of the Jewish community across the country came together this weekend for Jewish Warrior Weekend, an event put on by the Texas A&M Hillel to encourage and equip Jewish Americans going into the military by surrounding them with a like-minded community. As the first of its kind in Aggieland, Jewish Warrior Weekend invited Jewish ROTC and military cadets from various WARRIOR ON PG. 2


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