EQUESTRIAN
Baylor beats A&M: The fourth-ranked Baylor Lady Bears handed the second-ranked Texas A&M equestrian team its first home match loss in more than two years, 13-10, on Saturday at the Brazos County Expo Complex.
The Aggies (5-3) earned a win in horsemanship and riding to ties in both equitation over fences and reining but it wasn't enough to stave off a Baylor (9-2) squad that has now won four straight contests. A&M did manage to pull out a 6-5 win in the western competition, moving that group's record to 6-1.
"We're in a little bit of a rut right now but we are getting closer and closer to breaking out of it," A&M head coach Tana McKay said. "Each loss has been much closer than the one before it. We did earn a win or tie in three of the four disciplines so we aren't that far off. This is a good team we faced today. Baylor is one of the hottest teams in the country right now. Credit them for coming in here and pulling out a victory."
JUDO
A&M judo team wins Texas Collegiate Conference: The Texas A&M judo team successfully defended its Texas Collegiate Judo Conference title at G. Rollie White this Saturday afternoon.
The Aggies have won 10 straight conference championships and 17 overall since 1990. A&M competitors grabbed 13 medals while winning seven weight divisions as the Aggies held off the University of Texas and Stephen F. Austin University.
Aggies winning their first conference championships were freshmen Sam Garcia (81 kg) and Lauren Frech (63 kg), sophomore, Owen Lindslay (66 kg), juniors Matt Larson (73 kg), John Moore (+100 kg) and Adri Trevino (48 kg), and senior Anthony Pusch (90 kg).
Placing second were junior Preston Kirkham (60 kg) and seniors Matt Soto (66kg), Chris Jones (73 kg) and Steven Strube (81 kg). Aggies taking third were junior John Ahn (66 kg) and freshman Mark Livengood (60 kg).
"In the past couple of years we have lost some key competitors to graduation, however the up and coming members are stepping up to carry on the Aggie winning tradition," longtime head coach Bob Perez said.
The team will host a tournament on Feb. 21 at the Rec Center before competing in the 2009 National Collegiate Championships at San Jose State University.
SWIMMING
A&M women split: TALLAHASSEE, Fla.--The eighth-ranked Texas A&M women's swimming team closed out its 2008-09 dual meet season with a 170-121 victory over Florida State, but sixth-ranked Auburn grabbed a 170.5-126.5 victory.
The Aggies (9-2) won five of the 16 events in the three-team meet, including both breaststrokes and both diving events. A&M's win over Florida State earned them their sixth-straight nine-win season.
"I was real pleased with the way they stepped up and raced," A&M head coach Steve Bultman said. "We have a few that are under the weather which definitely affected them and affected us as a team. I was pleased they got after it and raced hard in spite of that."
Sophomore Jaele Patrick grabbed her second A&M school record in less than a month, crushing the entire one-meter springboard field by nearly 50 points. Patrick set a new school record of 320.25, erasing the nine-year-old mark of 311.32 set by four-time All-American Danielle Guarneri. Patrick earned a sweep of both boards, thanks to a 323.05 effort on the three-meter. The mid-year addition now owns the Texas A&M school record in both springboard diving events.
Olympian Alia Atkinson continued to remain unbeaten in the breaststrokes with a fine outing against the Seminoles and Tigers. Atkinson captured the 100-yard breaststroke by more than a second in 1:01.70 while earning a two-plus second victory in the 200 breast (2:13.76).
Senior Olympian Triin Aljand (Tallinn, Estonia) kept an unbeaten streak going her self, albeit in the 50-yard freestyle. Aljand clocked a time of 23.10 for the top spot in the 50 free and later took second in the 100 fly (54.35).
A&M had seven second-place finishes against Auburn and Florida State -- Aljand, Codie Hansen (Arlington; 200 free, 1:49.51, and 500 free, 4:53.26), Casey Hurrell-Zitelman (San Antonio; 1,000 free, 10:05.45), Christine Marshall (Newport News, Va.; 100 free, 51.65), Rita Medrano (Aguascalientes, Mexico; 200 fly, 2:01.55), and the Aggie 200 freestyle relay team (1:32.79).
TRACK
A&M women win, men fourth: NEW YORK -- The A&M women's track team won the New Balance Collegiate Invitational on Saturday. It was the women's second New Balance title in three years.
A&M, which had a two-point lead over Baylor heading into the final event, placed fourth in the 1,600-meter relay, nipping the Lady Bears who were fifth.
A&M ended with 72 points. Baylor had 67 followeed by Connecticut 56, BYU 49, North Carolina 45 and LSU 43.
The Baylor men won their division with 65 points followed by LSU 60, Texas 59.5, A&M 55 and Oregon 50.
"We came to this track meet and tried to line people up in what we thought we were capable of doing at this track meet," Texas A&M head coach Pat Henry said. "If we would have lined up to score points, then we might have done some things different."
The A&M men were third in the 1,600 relay (3 minutes, 9.68 seconds) with Tran Howell, Bryan Miller, Chris Dykes and Justin Oliver carrying the baton.
A&M's Zuheir Sharif, Julian Reid and Yasmine Regis posted NCAA
automatic qualifying marks in the triple jump. Sharif had a winning leap of 53-11, a school record. Reid was runner-up (52-11.5) and Tyron Stewart finished third (52-7.5).
Porscha Lucas raced to second place in the 200 (23.44).
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