thebattalion l monday,
march 24, 2014
l serving
TEXAS A&M 70 NORTH DAKOTA 55
texas a&m since 1893
Tyler Stafford
ON TO THE NEXT
The Battalion or the eighth-straight year, the Texas A&M women’s basketball team won its first round game of the NCAA tournament, beating North Dakota 70-55 in Reed Arena on Sunday. The first half had all the makings of a typical March Madness game, with 14-seed UND and 3-seed A&M tied at 26 with just more than a
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minute to go. After head coach Gary Blair called a timeout, his team scored two quick layups to give the Aggies a four-point lead at halftime. Blair’s halftime speech to his team was broadcast on ESPN2. “Well, unfortunately ESPN was in there during my halftime,” Blair said. “My assistants said to me, ‘My gosh, coach, you were so hard on
Women’s basketball team advances to NCAA second round
Photos by Tyler Stafford — THE BATTALION
(Left) Center Karla Gilbert totaled 14 points and eight rebounds Sunday, while guard Jordan Jones (right) broke the A&M single-season assist record.
them at halftime there. The whole nation heard that.’” A&M stormed back onto the court in the second half — scoring 10 straight points to extend its lead to 40-26. From that point, the Aggies never led by less than double digits. The Aggie defense buckled down from beyond the arch in the second half. After UND made three of four three pointers in the first half, A&M allowed just two three pointers on 11 shots in the second half. Sophomore point guard Jordan Jones broke A&M’s all-time single-season assist record with her 232nd of the year. Lisa Branch held the previous assists record with 231 in the 1995-96 season. Jones finished with eight points and 11 assists — her fifth-straight game of 10-plus assists. Jones’ 11 assists tied an A&M record for most ever by an Aggie in the NCAA tournament. When asked what it felt like to break the record, Jones said, “It doesn’t feel like a national championship.” Sophomore guard Courtney Walker, who was recently named first team AllSEC, scored a team-high 19 points in 34 minutes. Walker shot 50 percent (8-16) from the field and hit 3-of-4 free throws. Walker has been in See Basketball on page 2
STORIES FROM SPACE
First baseman Cole Lankford, whose walk off hit would seal the A&M win, crosses the plate earlier in the game Sunday. Tanner Garza — THE BATTALION
baseball
Lankford catches walk-off fever First baseman’s extra-innings hit lifts Aggies to win Tyler Stafford & Brandon Wheeland The Battalion
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unior Cole Lankford’s 11th-inning walk off delivered the Texas A&M baseball team some Olsen Magic for the fourth time this season, and secured a series victory over the Florida Gators (15-9, 3-3 SEC) with a 4-3 victory Sunday afternoon at Olsen Field. Freshman Nick Banks got things started for the Aggies in the 11th with a
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Walk across America Two men stop in College Station on their trek across the country in an effort to end human trafficking.
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pinch-hit single. After advancing to second on a walk from senior Troy Stein, the stage was set for Lankford. With a full count, Lankford hit a liner that flew past the defense and into right field, earning the Aggies their third SEC victory of the season and bringing out a mob of teammates from the A&M dugout to celebrate with Lankford. “Right off the bat it took off toward the outfield,” Lankford said. “There’s not a better feeling to get a series win and do that. It was an awesome team win, we needed that more than anything. Now it’s time to get ready for Tuesday [against Sam Houston State].” See Baseball on page 2
Q&A: Veteran astronaut visits Texas A&M
Caroline Corrigan, city reporter, sits down with Leroy Chiao, former astronaut, who spoke Friday on campus about the biomedical effects of working in space. THE BATTALION: What’s the hardest thing about living in space for a significant amount of time? CHIAO: The hardest part about living in space was probably just being away from your friends and family for that long. I also missed being around nature, I mean even though we are up there looking down at the rain forests and all the natural wonders of the world we are still in a very sterile lab environment, observing. I missed being on the Earth smelling grass and birds, seeing squirrels run around and things like that. THE BATTALION: What was your first space walk like? CHIAO: It was really exciting to open the hatch and go out for the first time. In fact, the flight surgeon told me after that my heart rate had went up to about 130. You get outside and even though you have seen the Earth through the windows of the spacecraft, which is fantastic, when you actually go outside the view is that much better.
Jenna Rabel — THE BATTALION
Former astronaut Leroy Chiao speaks Friday in Rudder about his time in space. from your shuttle mission, what was the recovery process like from spending 6 and a half months in space? CHIAO: Even after a short duration shuttle mission, after you have been up for a week or two you come back and you are very dizzy, your brain has to learn how to re-assimilate those signals from your balance system. You feel kind of weak even though you may have been exercising you haven’t been using the exact muscles you use to walk and things like that. It takes you a couple of days to get back into it. You really have to force yourself to get up and walk around, even though it’s
THE BATTALION: When you got back
See Chiao on page 3
swimming & diving
A&M notches NCAA 4th-place finish Clay Koepke
The Battalion he Texas A&M women’s swimming and diving team matched last year’s result with its second-consecutive fourth place team finish at the NCAA Women’s Swimming & Diving Championships. The fourth place finish ties A&M’s highest team result in school history. Seniors Breeja Larson, Cammile Adams and Paige Miller all brought home individual titles for the Aggies, marking the best individual performance in A&M history at the NCAAs. “We had some outstanding swims from a lot of people,” said head coach Steve Bultman. “Winning three individual titles at a single NCAA meet is the most we’ve ever had. Obviously,
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we’d like to have finished a little higher but top four is something to be proud of and we get to take some hardware home.” Adams added to her championship résumé by defending her national title in the 200 butterfly with a time of 1:52.25. Adams will finish her career with two wins and two runner-up finishes in the 200 fly. “I was in the moment and felt good so I went with it,” Adams said. “I’m very happy with the win but I was hoping to go faster. I can’t believe it’s over. It’s been so special swimming with these seniors for the last four years. I feel really honored to be a part of it.” After claiming the individual title in the 100 breaststroke, Larson became the second swimmer in NCAA history to
win three-straight NCAA titles. Despite breaking her own school, SEC, NCAA, U.S. Open and American records with a time of 57.23 on Friday, Larson said she still has room for improvement. “I actually hoped to go faster,” Larson said. “My goal is to get 56 [seconds]. It might take me another year, but that’s what I have my sights set on.” Although Larson was the third-seed going into the final for the first time in her career, the victory makes her the only A&M swimmer with multiple NCAA titles to her name. “This is the third time she’s won it, but it’s the first time she’s ever done it when she wasn’t seeded first going into the final,” Bultman said. “She was third, but she stepped up and took care of it.” After finishing in the top 8 the past
three seasons, senior and four-time 100 backstroke conference champ, Paige Miller, was able to claim her first national title. Miller swam to her first NCAA title after posting a winning time of 50.77, just seven-hundredths off her lifetime best of 50.70. “She’s made the finals all four years, but for whatever reason she hadn’t been able to break through until tonight,” Bultman said. “She continued to improve, break school records and she was able to get it done tonight.” The University of Georgia repeated as the team champion with 528 points followed by Stanford (402.5), California (386) and A&M (336). The Aggies finish their season with a record of 8-0-1, including a league ledger of 5-0-1.
3/23/14 10:44 PM