Special to The Eagle
BASKETBALL
Gant honored with Academic Momentum Award: Texas A&M women's basketball player Danielle Gant was recently named a winner of the Academic Momentum Award, which recognizes student-athletes who have demonstrated significant academic improvement throughout their collegiate careers.
Gant, a 5-foot-11 senior, has significantly improved her grade-point average since her first semester at A&M and won the school's Heart of the Learning Center Award, given to the top male and female student-athletes who best utilize the academic center support system as a freshman in 2006. She is majoring in agricultural leadership and development and is on track to graduate in May of 2010.
GOLF
Zwartynski's 71 paces Aggies in Tennessee: KNOXVILLE, Tenn. -- Sarah Zwartynski fired a 1-under 71 on Friday to lead No. 19 Texas A&M into a tie for eighth place after the opening round of the Mercedes-Benz Collegiate Championship at Fox Den Country Club.
Zwartynski is tied for ninth individually. She is three shots out of the lead shared by North Carolina's Sydney Crane, North Carolina State's Lauren Doughtie and Central Florida's Marika Lendl.
Tournament host Tennessee leads the team standings by six strokes after opening with a 5-under 283. A&M shot 296.
A&M's Crystal Reeves (73) is tied for 23rd, Ashley Freeman and Lauren Johnson (76) are tied for 49th and Alexa Porter (80) is tied for 82nd.
SWIMMING & DIVING
Aggies open with pair of victories: The Texas A&M women's swimming and diving team began its season with dominating victories over North Texas and Rice at the Student Rec Center Natatorium on Friday.
A&M (2-0) finished first and second in all 14 races and both diving events en route to a 161-92 victory over Rice and a 187-103 victory over North Texas. The two victories pull A&M head coach Steve Bultman into a tie with Mel Nash as the winningest women's swim coach in Aggie history. Bultman, now in his 10th season at A&M, has posted an 81-20 record.
A&M's Triin Aljand won the 50-yard freestyle with an NCAA consideration time of 22.65 seconds. She also won the 200 backstroke (2:02.02).
Alia Atkinson won the 100 breaststroke (1:02.46) and the 100 freestyle (50.77).
Melissa Hain also won a pair of races, taking the 200 freestyle (1:50.16) and the 200 individual medley (2:03.93).
Diving transfer Haley Haynes swept both events in her A&M debut. Haynes, who came to A&M from Iowa State, captured the 1-meter springboard with a score of 255.97 while leading a 1-2-3 Aggie finish on the 3-meter with 268.80 points.
A&M closed the meet with a 1-2-3-4 finish in the 200 freestyle relay. All four relay teams finished within 0.55 seconds of each other with the group of Codie Hansen, Leslie Dlugopolski, Emily Neal and Maria Sommer taking the top spot in 1:36.00.
The Aggies will compete against Kansas and Missouri on Oct. 23 in Lawrence, Kan.
TENNIS
Pollock qualifies for second ITA National Indoors: TULSA, Okla. -- Texas A&M All-American Conor Pollock upset eighth-ranked Justin Kronauge of Ohio State 6-3, 7-6 (3) in the round of 16 to advance in the singles main draw of the D'Novo ITA All-American Championships on Friday at the Michael D. Case Tennis Center.
The victory qualifies Pollock, ranked No. 17 in the nation in singles, for the prestigious ITA National Indoors for the second straight season. This year's indoor tournament is set for Nov. 6-9 in Charlottesville, Va.
Pollock will face top-seeded and top-ranked Oleksandr Nedevyesov of Oklahoma State in the All-American Championships quarterfinals at 9:30 a.m. Saturday.
In doubles play, the fourth-ranked team of Pollock and All-American Austin Krajicek beat No. 33 Houston Barrick and Sanam Singh 8-3 in the round of 16 but fell 8-5 to Jonas Berg and Bram ten Berge of Ole Miss in the quarterfinals.
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Klores reaches quarterfinals at Invitational: MIDLAND -- Texas A&M men's tennis player Austin Klores reached the singles quarterfinals at the Midland Racquet Club Invitational on Friday.
Klores claimed a straight-set victory over Nathan Robinson of Tyler Junior College in the opening round and beat second-seeded Dimitri Novinkov of Texas A&M-Corpus Christi in the round of 32. He will face David Gonzales of Texas Tech in Saturday's quarterfinals.
A&M's Marcus Lunt beat Blaine Shields of Boise State but lost to third-seeded Michael Breler of Texas Tech in the round of 16.
Play continues through Sunday at the Midland Racquet Club.
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Potgieter advances to round of 16: MIDLAND -- Texas A&M's Elzé Potgieter opened play at the Racquet Club Collegiate Invitational Friday by defeating Emily Braid of Rice, 6-1, 6-2, in the Round of 32. Potgieter, the tournament's No. 1 seed in singles, will face Kelsey Garland of Texas Tech on Saturday.
A&M's Christi Liles fell to Vivien Silfany of Boise State, 6-3, 7-5, but came back to defeat Irina Squillachi of Abilene Christian, 6-0, 6-4. Liles will face Irina Parasching of North Texas.
In doubles, Potgieter and Liles teamed to defeat Monika Hadvigarova and Klara Jagasova of Texas-Arlington, 8-3. The Aggie duo will play Saturday at 9 a.m.
VOLLEYBALL
Aggies to face Red Raiders: Texas A&M will take on Texas Tech at 7 p.m. Saturday at United Spirit Arena in Lubbock.
The Aggies (8-8, 3-3 Big 12) evened their records and moved into a tie with Colorado for fifth place in the Big 12 after defeating Kansas 3-2 on Wednesday in Lawrence, Kan. It was A&M's third consecutive five-set match and the Aggies' fourth five-setter in their last five outings.
Texas Tech (5-13, 0-7) is winless in the Big 12 and suffered its fifth straight loss after falling to Colorado 3-0 on Wednesday in Boulder, Colo.
-- Special to The Eagle
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