The Battalion — December 5, 2022

MONDAY, DECEMBER 5 | SERVING TEXAS A&M SINCE 1893 | © 2022 STUDENT MEDIA

Silver Taps

A&M Hockey falls to ETBU Tigers, twice

TRIBUTE ON PG. 6

SPORTS ON PG. 7

Matthew Anthony Calderon Aug. 11, 2003 — Oct. 19, 2022

A&M to award 5,428 degrees

Last steps toward graduation

By Sydnei Miles @Sydnei_M04

José Luis Bermúdez said the ceremony will be a historic milestone for A&M as well as for the graduates being celebrated.

“We are recognizing the occasion with a special challenge coin for each Arts and Sciences graduate to commemorate the creation of the College of Arts and Sciences at the heart of Texas A&M University — a single college that brings together faculty and students from across the physical sciences, humanities and social sciences,” Bermúdez said.

The College of Arts & Sciences was formed on Aug. 1 after President M. Katherine Banks

With less than two weeks until graduation, soon-to-be former students reflect on the past four years, and talk about what lies ahead. Their college journey will soon come to a close and hopefully everything they’ve learned will aid them in their next stage of life.

The surreal reality of graduating is one that arrived too soon for many. The time has come when students must enter into the real world college is meant to prepare for. English senior Jaelyn Lynch said the reality hasn’t fully sunk in, but she’s looking forward to and preparing for the next chapter.

“I’m excited. It doesn’t feel real, really,” Lynch said. “It hits me in mini episodes, but it still isn’t really clicking that I’m about to be done with college here. I’m trying to prepare myself for this transition that I’m about to go into, but also, I was trying to make sure I enjoyed myself and was very productive my last semester too. So essentially excited, yet terrified.”

As each graduate paves their own way for their next steps, each are ensuring they prepare to the best of their ability. Allied health senior Jacquline Guerra said networking has been the biggest help as she prepares to move to join a cardiac rhythm management program at UT Health Houston.

“It’s been a very quick process, a very quick turnover,” Guerra said. “A lot of interviews [whether] it’s [for] a job position, or anything like that, just interviews with people within the industry, that has helped me a lot with networking and making those connections. Especially in the industry I’m going into which is essentially med-

GRADUATION ON PG. 2

SENIORS ON PG. 2

Ishika Samant — THE BATTALION

A graduating senior holds up their graduation cap with their Aggie Ring in front of the Albritton Bell Tower.

Inaugural College of Arts & Sciences graduation on Dec. 16

By Caroline Wilburn @Carolinewilb Like years before, thousands of Texas A&M students from 10 separate colleges are set to walk the stage, but this year a newly formed college joins the ranks.

During the Dec. 16-17 graduation commencement ceremonies in Reed Arena, A&M will award a total of 3,980 undergraduate,

1,439 graduate and nine professional degrees.

Graduates are asked to arrive at Reed Arena one and a half hours to 45 minutes prior to the ceremony, according to the Office of the Registrar. Degree candidates must check in at least 30 minutes prior to graduation at the North Entry of Reed Area. In addition, a clear bag policy will be in place for all commencement ceremonies.

The inaugural College of Arts & Sciences graduation ceremony will be held at 7 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 16. A total of 1,191 degrees will be awarded within the college. In an email to The Battalion, Arts & Sciences Interim Dean

To cap it all off...

Expressing personality through graduation attire

By Neha Gopal @10_Novel With many Aggies’ graduations looming around the corner, emotions are high. Maybe you’re that student who ignores every “Urgent: GRADUATING SENIORS MUST READ” email, or maybe you’re a Hallmark cards sucker, fully ready for that romantic tossing-of-caps moment. Whatever the feelings, there is something all graduating students have in common: a graduation cap. Beyond the general nostalgia and anticipation of leaving Aggie student life, many graduates want their caps to tell their own stories, adding a few personal touches.

And no, embellishing graduation caps is not some TikTok or “Gen-Z” trend.

With all the pomp and circumstance of graduation, more and more graduates are adding a personal touch to the ceremony. According to Cornell University, many graduates would affix peace signs to the top of their caps to protest the Vietnam War in the 1960s.

Sociology senior Ashlyn Miller is one such creative and expressive student.

“I decided to decorate it because we weren’t allowed to at high school graduation, and I think it’s a fun way to add some customization to the plain graduation cap and gown,” Miller said. “I wanted to do something fun that had sparkle but wasn’t too overwhelming.

I think it shows my personality. I am crafty, so I had a lot of fun picking out materials and decorating my cap.”

Before you get crafty with your caps, Miller said you should keep a few things in mind: including how you will wear your graduation cap before you start designing.

“Funny story. My original cap was the A&M logo, and I rhinestoned it. However, when I went to try it on, the A&M logo was facing the side of my head instead of the back,” Miller said. “So I had to get another cap and opted for a design that was not directional.”

As a fan of some having the slight sparkle of rhinestones, Miller added a few non-self-adhesive rhinestones to keep the sparkling gems from clattering across the stage. To evade a messy, sticky situation, Miller said to avoid tacky school glue instead of fabric-specific glue.

“I also would avoid painting directly on the cap because the inside is cardboard and will warp,” Miller said.

While Miller decorated her hat with

rhinestones for that extra sparkle, some believe that it is words that are worth a thousand pictures. Pre-dental public health senior Kylee Markowsky is one such student.

“I [want] to decorate mine with a quote from my favorite book,” Markowsky says.

Whether it is mentors, friends and family, or natural ambition — we all have something that serves as a guide in the labyrinth that college entails.

“I have found authors have managed to encourage me throughout my life with what they have to say, just as much as my friends or family did,” Markowsky said.

Markowsky said she was that one girl who got lost in the chapters of her books while others’ noses were buried in their phones playing candy crush or fun run. When asked what books, in particular, Markowsky said books such as “Chronicles of Narnia”, The Phantom Tollbooth” and “The Book Thief” shaped her.

As many students exit the phase when Aggie crewnecks, yoga pants, crop tops and tennis skirts are everyday attire, graduation can be seriously stressful, and there is that one daunting question most soon-to-be graduates are asked, ”What

Ishika Samant— THE BATTALION

A senior decorates their cap ahead of fall 2022 graduation.

CAPS ON PG. 2

Mind the gap Students share experiences, advice for degree candidates

By Rashid Eldoma @rashideldoma Cameron Johnson— THE BATTALION

Students walking around campus on March 28, 2022.

As students approach graduation, a crippling anxiety may begin to gnaw about what awaits them on the other side. Past the gowns and mortarboards lies the slow apprehension that there will no longer be a syllabus each se-

.

mester. Your time is no longer defined by semesters, only the cycle of the seasons, the days crossed out on a calendar, the slow march towards our inevitable end. Suddenly the lessons learned in the classroom seem beside the point.

In the face of all of life’s existential questions, you are suddenly thrust into the real business of life: your mere survival. Now what?

For those whose circumstances allow, some may consider a gap year. The term evokes a GAP YEAR ON PG. 2

With 3-Week Winter Minimester Classes Classes begin December 19 www.blinn.edu/winter blinnbound@blinn.edu

* Available online

PUBLICATION NOTICE

This is the final print edition of the fall 2022 semester. The Battalion will return on Thursday, Jan. 19, 2023 with the Back to School Edition. Have a safe winter break, and congratulations to all our graduating seniors!

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The Battalion | 12.5.22

Two semesters: Head to head

Students discuss pros, cons of fall and spring semesters

By Richa Shah @WhoIsRichaShah

For schools abiding by the semester split, the academic calendar is generally divided into the fall and spring semesters. At Texas A&M, each semester is a thrill in its own way. So, which do Aggies prefer?

With finals season upon college students nationwide, surviving till winter break is at the forefront of everyone’s minds. For those not graduating this December, the spring semester is another hurdle before the sweet reprieve of summer. With football season the focal point of one and a nine day vacation the focal point of another, which semester is more beloved?

Entomology senior Colette Daulton looks forward to greeting the spring semester. She

GAP YEAR CONTINUED period of adventure and character building before getting on with the inevitable business of life, whether that be career or more school.

It is a neatly packaged hero’s journey, a call to adventure and a return home irrevocably changed. That may be too optimistic. A gap year may or may not be of our own volition, but rather a survival necessity.

Just two years ago, today’s graduate students’ plans were derailed by initial pandemic lockdowns. Forced with their own thoughts, many initiated career changes and pursued additional degrees.

Second-year law student at Texas A&M’s School of Law, Ny’esha Young, always saw law school as a destination but did not immediately act on it. She graduated in spring of 2020 during the thick of the pandemic. While her experience as a paralegal and chief of staff for a state delegate proved invaluable, she does not recommend a gap year for everyone.

“I wouldn’t recommend a gap year if you know that you’re mature enough and this is your dream,” Young said. “I just don’t think there’s a reason to delay it unless there’s a good reason for that.”

Young observes a trend with attorneys discouraging students from pursuing law. She implores students to look at themselves critically and try to be honest with themselves whether they would truly benefit accumulating some life capital in between academic institutions.

stated she disliked the shorter days and consequently, walking home in the dark. She explained the dark made her feel more reluctant to be productive. Moreover, the beginning of the fall semester is marked by brutally high temperatures.

“The spring can be hard [academically] too but historically, for me, the time that I took 20 [credit] hours was in the fall,” Daulton said.

Similarly, electronic systems engineering technology junior and Corps of Cadet member Luke Terán is a fan of the spring semester. Barring certain situations, all cadets are required to attend all home, and not-toofar-away, football games. Terán admitted spending upwards of four hours at Kyle Field, most Saturdays often took time away from his schoolwork and social life.

“99% of the Corps probably prefers the spring due to the decrease in Corps-mandated events, leading to more time and better academic performance,” Terán said. “We get our Saturdays back.”

On the opposite end, chemistry senior

Shakylah Sherrod spoke of appreciating the fall semester more with the recent addition of fall break. She stated there were more events she enjoyed during the fall semester. She attended the Bonfire Remembrance Ceremony and Elephant Walk in the past month and said she now feels more connected to A&M. “One day I [will] graduate and it [will] be harder to take part in A&M’s many traditions,” Sherrod said. “[The fall] has more reminders of what it means to be an Aggie.”

History and political science senior Peter Barnett said he has always been biased towards fall and winter. As a child living in Anchorage, Ala., he created some of his favorite memories wearing a thick parka.

“Sweaters are nice. You try wearing a sweater during 90% of the spring semester, you are [going to] die,” Barnett said. “Texas is too hot.”

A lover of Aggie football and cold weather, Barnett has spent five fall semesters — and counting — at A&M and loved every minute.

Goodbye for now, fall.

“The gap year benefited me as far as improving some of my skills, but could I also have been getting ready to graduate this year?

Absolutely, if I hadn’t taken that gap year,” Young said.

Across the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex, Darby Old just wrapped up her first semester of her nursing program. She graduated with a political science degree in 2019 from UT-Dallas with plans to pursue law, but found her plans derailed the following year.

“Usually in a gap year, people encourage you to travel and work different jobs, but you couldn’t really do that,” Old said. “It was just like a year where we kind of all watched TV and had sex with the person we met right before it happened.”

During this reflective time, Old found herself drawn toward the medical field.

“I looked at the same nursing program that I’m in before I was 21 but [a family member] actually discouraged me from doing nursing,” Old said.

Old did not heed their advice, instead finding like-minded peers in her program. Her experience dispelled even her own apprehensions about the profession.

“People talk about the kind of people that nurses are, that they’re mean girls from high school, but all the [nurses] are weird. They’re all just like me,” Old said.

So far, the nursing program has proved more strenuous than her undergraduate education. Old welcomed the challenge with

open arms.

“Honestly at that point, I was grateful for somewhere to go every day,” Old said. “But getting back to school, [though] school has always been kind of intuitive, I did kind of have to rework how I studied. It was so different from anything I’ve ever done.”

Old said there are quite a few people in her nursing program in their 30s and 40s, beginning second, maybe third acts, or simply doing what must be done for their family’s sake.

“So many of them are mothers and honestly, that makes sense. Because motherhood is so vulgar and morbid,” Old said. “I went into it because I like gross stuff, but it’s not that they like it, it just doesn’t faze them.”

First-year law student Angelene Superable did not just take one gap year; she took five. After graduating from UC Berkeley, she switched coasts and began building a career in local government and communications. She worked for the Mayor of New York City, the Lieutenant Governor of New York, and, most recently, the Governor of New York.

“I had a feeling that I was gonna go to law school at some point when I graduated. But I just really enjoyed my work,” Superable said.

“I kept pushing off the idea of going to law school until I felt like it was absolutely going to be beneficial to me.”

Superable plunged towards law school when she reached a ceiling in her career.

“I realized, I might be the one who gets to talk to the principal, the decision maker,

SENIORS CONTINUED

GRADUATION CONTINUED

-ical device sales, networking is huge. So I’m trying to rack up as many connections and contacts that I can, and developing those relationships has really prepared me and opened up doors for me.”

Every senior student has chosen to take a unique path to help them work towards their own goals. Kinesiology senior Anthony James said he wants life after college to consist of fun and further education down the line.

“I’m planning on going to dental school,” James said. “First I’m taking a gap year to go ahead and work and go traveling.

After the gap year, I’m applying for dental school next year to enter into the 2024 academic school year.”

For these seniors, there are no regrets for choosing A&M as their college four years ago. This university has prepared them to the best of its ability to help students succeed in their respective path. Lynch said she feels A&M has thoroughly prepared her to continue her writing journey and become an author.

“This school makes me feel prepared because of the rigor of the coursework,” Lynch said. “Also people who are professors here, especially what I want to do, they actually can give me advice. I feel A&M tries to do things to help us transition into the corporate [world], so I feel this school definitely has prepared me more.”

As seniors prepare to say goodbye to their college lives, they not only reflect on the benefits of their education, but also the meaningful connections and relationships they’ve created.

James said he will miss the people that have become most important in his life over the past four years. “[I’ll miss] the accessibility to my friends and advisors and people who I’ve made relationships with out here,” James said. “Everybody’s from different places. You don’t realize that while you’re at school, but once you leave, I feel like it hits you like, ‘dang,’ we were like all three minutes away from each other and now everybody’s going to go back home and be cities or states away.”

All of these seniors are leaving with a little more knowledge than they came with, whether it be academically or just general life lessons. As they leave, they have some advice of their own for those still here on this college journey.

“My advice would be to always put your mental health first,” Guerra said. “Don’t let school take over that. Enjoy everything else college has to offer. I see too many times, especially in science or STEM majors, that [students] make a lot of sacrifices and don’t enjoy college like they should. I think there’s a good balance between enjoying other sides of college besides the education aspect. Just have fun and enjoy the experience because it goes by in the blink of an eye and you’re gonna miss those opportunities you didn’t take.”

received a recommendation from MGT of America Consulting to combine the Colleges of Liberal Arts, Sciences and Geosciences.

“I am proud of the students who will be graduating in one of our 48 majors, and also proud that Arts and Sciences plays an important role in the career of each and every undergraduate student who graduates from Texas A&M,” Bermúdez said.

Psychology senior Isabela McGough said she feels honored to be able to graduate from the second-largest college within the university.

“It feels very monumental to be the isn’t the first class to graduate from the [College of Arts & Sciences],” McGough said. “I and all of my peers within the [College] of Arts & Sciences have worked very hard to get to this point and to be able to be a front-runner in this newly formed school.”

With more than 17,600 students in Arts & Sciences, McGough said she is thankful for the community.

“Something about being a part of such a big school within a big university makes you feel a sense of community,” McGough said. “I have a lot of friends within the [College] of Arts & Sciences, so I know that if I need to get advice from anyone, or anything like that I have like 17,000 other people I could talk to.”

Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, psychology senior Macey Maxim said she enjoyed her time at A&M. “I look at all these freshmen now and I think ‘Wow, y’all are going to get your whole four years,’” Maxim said. “That’s something that we didn’t have. We had to go home in the middle of the semester and then a whole year basically was online. I’m sad that I didn’t get that year at college, but at the same time, I think it helped me to adapt the way that I learn.”

With graduation only a week away, Maxim said there are several emotions attached to the occasion.

“It’s been great here,” Maxim said. “I love A&M so much, but I’m also happy to be moving on and know that I have the skills and knowledge to do well in the world. I’m really excited and I don’t really know what exactly I want to do yet … but I’m sad to be leaving College Station, and all my friends.”

CAPS CONTINUED are you going to do with your life?”

Each graduate walked a different path and had a different story about their journey, from arriving at A&M to leaving with their diplomas. A graduation cap is just one way to tell a part of that story.

Miller offers a few words of advice for discouraged and burnt-out students who may be losing sight of that triumphant ending.

“For college students struggling to see graduation in the future, keep going. It’s OK to fail some classes, it’s OK to do a fifth year, and it’s OK to want to give up,” Miller said.“However, you’ve made it this far, and if you weren’t meant to be here, you wouldn’t have been accepted. You can do it.”

International Student Christmas Eve Program Come experience Christmas Eve! The program is a traditional celebration of Jesus Christ’s birth followed by a free traditional Christmas dinner.

2

Robert O’Brien— THE BATTALION

but I’m not making decisions. But you know, who is? The lawyers. Those lawyers who tell us the parameters of what we can talk about and what we can do,” Superable said. “So, I was like, ‘Well, I want to be able to decide what is and what isn’t allowed to be a part of the conversation,’ at least until I can become a decision maker myself.”

Aristotle once said that “the law is reason free from passion.” Similarly, passion cannot simply cut it in law school. Superable’s first semester instilled in her the determination required for the sustained performance.

“Law school requires determination. Even when you’re not passionate, you have to do well. I came into law school to become a better advocate,” Superable said. “And, what I’ve learned so far is that the best advocates are those who can detach themselves long enough to see an argument from multiple vantage points. I’ll admit—it’s uncomfortable to try to wrap my head around a perspective that feels antithetical to my personal beliefs. But becoming the best advocate I can possibly be necessitates that I lean into that discomfort.”

Superable’s gap years were also valuable for one central thing: perspective. Her prior professional experience allows her to take this all in stride.

“I feel so much internal pressure to prove to myself that I deserve to be here. But, my mom reminds me all the time that all I have to do is pass,” Superable said. “And, when I graduate, I still get to say, ‘I’m a lawyer.’”

Cameron Johnson— THE BATTALION

HOW TO GET YOUR AGGIE RING IN APRIL 2023:

Check Ring Eligibility: Jan. 1 - Feb. 14 Order Dates: Jan. 5 - Feb. 15 Aggie Ring Day: April 13-14, 2023 If you meet the requirements after Fall 2022: 1. Login or create an account at AggieNetwork.com beginning Jan. 1 to check your Ring eligibility.

2. In the Aggie Ring tab, click on "Order Your Aggie Ring".

• Follow the steps to customize your Aggie Ring; your eligibility will be checked after this step.

3. If eligible, schedule an appointment to order in person or submit your order online by 5 p.m. on Feb. 15.

4. On your appointment day, visit the Aggie Ring Office to select your Ring size and pay for your Aggie Ring.

• FULL PAYMENT IS DUE AT TIME OF ORDER. • Parking will not be available at the Alumni Center.

With construction underway in Aggie Park, access to the Clayton W. Williams, Jr. Alumni Center is impacted.

The nearest parking for guests is the University Center Garage, adjacent to the John J. Koldus Building. The only public entrance to the Alumni Center is via the sidewalk along Houston Street and through the doors closest to the Haynes Ring Plaza.

• Aggie Ring Loans are available to qualified, currently enrolled students through Scholarships and Financial Aid. Visit AggieNetwork.com/Ring for full details.

Visit tx.ag/RingRequirements for information on eligibility requirements for ordering an Aggie Ring.

Saturday, December 24 4:00pm-6:00pm Please Register! www.Beautiful-Savior.net Beautiful Savior Lutheran Church 1007 Krenek Tap Road College Station, Texas 77840 For more information call: 979-693-4514

The Association of Former Students is HERE for Aggies during their days as students and former students, THERE for Aggies as they make their way around the world and EVERYWHERE that the Aggie Network needs us to be.

Aggie Ring Program at (979) 845-1050 | AggieNetwork.com

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3

The Battalion | 12.5.22

Norman E. Borlaug: The Aggie who fed the world

Photo courtesy of International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center

From the beginning of his work, Dr. Borlaug dedicated his time and attention to the training of young scientists.

Agronomist responsible for saving one billion via research

By Jack Lee @JackTheBatt On Nov. 15, the United Nations declared that the eight-billionth person had been born.

Unbeknownst to most Aggies, the man who had done much to pave the way for that figure called Texas A&M home. Norman E. Borlaug, Ph.D., saved about a billion lives by breeding and distributing stronger varieties of wheat in the mid-twentieth century before teaching at A&M until his death in 2009.

Borlaug was born in the rural community of Cresco, Iowa, and spent his youth working on his family’s farm. Educated in a one-classroom school, Borlaug was prepared to head to what is now the University of Northern Iowa to become a teacher, before a friend who was headed to the University of Minnesota to play football convinced Borlaug to follow him to the “Twin Cities.” “[Borlaug] already signed up to go to Iowa State Teachers College, or whatever it was called back then, but his friend from the University of Minnesota that was playing football there came and said, ‘Come on Norm, go to Minnesota,’” Jeanie Laube, Borlaug’s daughter, a retired teacher in Dallas, said. “So he got there. And he didn’t have any money. And he didn’t pass the entrance exam. So they had to put him in a junior college, and of course, he said, you know, ‘I’ll get out of here.’ And he did, of course.”

While Borlaug would gain recognition for his accomplishments in agriculture, he is also remembered in Minnesota for being the founding father of wrestling in the state.

Borlaug, an avid high-school wrestler, was surprised to find there was no wrestling team at the University of Minnesota and persuaded his high-school coach Dave Barthelma to come with him to form one. Barthelma would go on to introduce wrestling to high schools throughout the state.

Ken Quinn, former U.S. Ambassador to Cambodia, said Borlaug’s experience wrestling gave him the perseverance that would later help him during his agricultural career.

A fellow Iowan, Quinn befriended Borlaug and later worked with him to establish the World Food Prize, recognized as the premier award in the world for accomplishments in agriculture.

“Norman Borlaug was a wrestler. He was a huge athlete, wrestled at the University of Minnesota. He’s in the National Wrestling Hall of Fame,” Quinn said. “He used wrestling as a metaphor for striving. He said, ‘You know, never let them pin down your shoulders, never give up, struggle.’ And he said that’s what sustained him through his years working in Mexico, where he never thought he was going to succeed.”

In 1938, Borlaug attended a lecture by Elvin Stakman, Ph.D., at Minnesota, who was discussing his research on breeding varieties of wheat that were resistant to a fungal disease known as rust. Borlaug, due to his childhood on an Iowa farm, was deeply familiar with the ability of rust to devastate wheat yields. He was intrigued by Stakman’s work and the potential of science to improve the lives of farmers. Borlaug switched his focus from forestry to agriculture, and upon his graduation from Minnesota with a Ph.D. in plant pathology and genetics, was employed by DuPont as a microbiologist.

At DuPont, Borlaug quickly became regarded as one of the leading experts in fertilizers and pesticides in the country. After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Borlaug rushed to enlist in the United States Army, but was turned away by the United States government, which wanted him to develop technologies at his lab at DuPont to support the war effort. Some efforts his lab was tasked with included glue that remained insoluble in warm Pacific saltwater and insecticides for malaria-carrying mosquitoes.

Following the conclusion of World War II, the administration of Mexican president Manuel Avila Camacho reached out to the Rockefeller Foundation to seek support from the United States for improving its agricultural sector to support its rapid industrializa-

tion. The Rockefeller Foundation recruited Borlaug out of DuPont to lead the new wheat improvement program headquartered in Mexico City, known as CIMMYT in its Spanish-language acronym.

“When I think about whether it is possible to achieve the type of urgent, big changes needed to meet today’s crises, I’m reminded of Dr. Norman Borlaug, who worked at The Rockefeller Foundation for more than four decades and helped the world feed hundreds of millions of people,” Raj Shah, current president of the Rockefeller Foundation, said. “In that time, Norman did everything he could to ensure new scientific advances like dwarf wheat reached those who needed them most.”

For 16 years, Borlaug worked in Mexico, developing better varieties of wheat by manually breeding plants with favorable traits. He was aided by his then-doctoral student Ronnie Coffman, Ph.D., who is now a professor emeritus of plant breeding and genetics at Cornell University.

Most prior research in improving the traits of wheat for harvesting, such as Stakman’s work, lied in improving hardiness and resistance to disease, as well as increasing the amount of edible wheat yielded from a single plant. While Borlaug’s team continued to work to improve these qualities, the innovation that made the Mexico City team’s wheat so much more effective than those that came before was shortening the length of the stalks.

“In addition to the disease resistance, Borlaug brought in the short-statured plant type.

[The issue with increasing the edible yield of wheat] is lodging, or when the crop falls over,” Coffman said. “You get a larger head on [the plant], but it’s a tall stem. So you get a larger head and the plant is unbalanced and falls over. It’s hard to harvest and the grains are damaged. But with the short-statured plants, they would stand, and with a shorter stem you even get a stiffer, stronger straw.”

The wheat strains Borlaug’s team had developed, as well as his efforts to persuade farmers across Mexico to grow them, became extraordinarily successful. By 1963, 95% of Mexico’s wheat production consisted of the semi-dwarf strain that he had bred, resulting in a wheat harvest six times more plentiful than what it had been in 1944, the year Borlaug had arrived in Mexico. Around the same time, however, the exploding population in India and Pakistan as well as drought conditions had led to famine in the region.

Keerti Rathore, Ph.D., a crop science professor at A&M, was personally affected by Borlaug’s work before meeting him at A&M. Rathore recalled the effects of starvation that he witnessed growing up in India.

“When I grew up in India, I always saw beggars on the street. They were just sitting down and begging for food or money, and their legs were gone,” Rathore said. “They had been eating a kind of bean, the botanical name is Lathyrus, that farmers would grow if all the regular crops failed. Because it’s a very hardy crop, it will grow under any kind of stressful conditions. People were so desperate for any kind of protein in their diet that they would eat that bean. But this bean also has a very powerful neurotoxin, and if you eat it for a length of time, maybe a month or two, it paralyzes you below the waist.”

Borlaug believed the wheat strains he had developed could be of help, and convinced the Rockefeller Foundation to send him to the region. His effort to introduce his wheat strains to South Asia did not come without challenges. Conflicts with customs officials delayed his shipment of seeds from Mexico to the United States. The Watts Rebellion in Los Angeles then stalled the shipment from the United States to Asia. By the time Borlaug’s wheat finally arrived in India and Pakistan, the two nations had gone to war with each other.

“I went to bed thinking the problem was, at last, solved,” Borlaug was quoted saying in The Atlantic, “And woke up to the news that war had broken out between India and Pakistan.”

Nonetheless, Borlaug continued to work to implement his new wheat varieties in India and Pakistan. Aided by Indian scientist M.S. Swaminathan, Ph.D., Borlaug and his team worked with government officials and small farmers, often amid artillery fire, to plant the improved wheat strains.

Despite the difficulties that he faced, Bor-

laug’s efforts ultimately led to cereal yields in the Indian subcontinent nearly doubling within five years after his arrival. Food production in India and Pakistan outpaced population growth, and the explosion in agricultural productivity, termed the Green Revolution, is credited with averting mass starvation in the region.

“Dr. Borlaug’s impact on India’s science and economy went much beyond the Green Revolution. A science-based approach to the problems of agriculture was a fundamental tenet of his thinking and the success of the Green Revolution spawned other successful interventions in areas such as animal husbandry, dairying and agriculture,” Manmohan Singh, then Prime Minister of India, said in 2009 after Borlaug’s death. “Borlaug’s life and achievements are testimony to the far-reaching contribution that one man’s towering intellect, persistence and scientific vision can make to human peace and progress.”

For his work, Borlaug was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970. In his acceptance speech, Borlaug said a future without hunger had not yet been guaranteed and called upon the world to continue his mission.

“Obviously, I am personally honored beyond all dreams by my election. But the obligations imposed by the honor are far greater than the honor itself, both as concerns me personally and also the army of hunger fighters in which I voluntarily enlisted a quarter of a century ago for a lifetime term,” Borlaug said during his speech. “I am acutely conscious of the fact that I am but one member of that vast army and so I want to share not only the present honor but also the future obligations with all my companions in arms, for the Green Revolution has not yet been won.”

Borlaug retired from his position in 1979, but remained in Mexico City as a consultant for CIMMYT. In 1984, Ed Runge, Ph.D., then the head of A&M’s Soil and Crop Sciences Department, invited Borlaug to work at A&M as a professor.

“First, he didn’t believe me. I was at Iowa State in Ames at a meeting and he was there as well, and I offered him a job, and he didn’t believe me,” Runge said. “Anyway, he accepted my offer and we had him in the department for 25 years. [I think what drew him to A&M was] one, we asked, and two is his kids were here.”

Borlaug, raised in Iowa, educated in Minnesota, and having worked across the globe, finally found a place to permanently call home. Borlaug would remain at A&M for the rest of his life. A consummate Aggie, Borlaug was such a fan of Aggie football former A&M president Elsa Murano recalled that in his advanced age he walked across the Kyle Field parking lot to see a game after his parking spot was taken.

“You would think that he would call someone and say, ‘This is Dr. Norman Borlaug, somebody has taken my spot,’” Murano said.

“But the old man that he was, in his 90s, he didn’t say a word, drove out to wherever the heck, parked super far and walked in all the heat to the stadium. Somebody found out about it and told [then A&M president Robert Gates] about it. From that point on, Gates put campus police at his spot so nobody could steal it.”

More than sports, however, Borlaug’s favorite thing about A&M were the Aggies themselves.

“He loved it down there. He always said, and he would go to Cornell and he would go to all these different schools and speak when they asked him to,” Laube said. “He said out of all the students of anywhere he went, his favorites were the Aggies because everybody was so kind and down to earth.”

In addition to teaching at A&M, Borlaug spent his last years working with former President Jimmy Carter to expand the Green Revolution to Africa. The pair recruited Ruth Oniang’o, Ph.D., a nutrition scientist and at the time a member of Kenyan parliament, to help with their mission. Oniang’o currently leads the foundation that they established in Africa.

“They were not African, they were already in their twilight years, but they saw what was happening in Africa,” Oniang’o said. “They had hope. They had hope for Africa, for a better-fed Africa.”

In 2009, Borlaug died at his Dallas resi-

dence of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. His lifelong belief that societal progress started at the level of the small-scale agricultural producer was reflected in his last words.

“Take it to the farmer,” Laube recalls.

Borlaug’s legacy is being carried on by A&M. At A&M’s Borlaug Center for Southern Crop Improvement, scientists work to create new strains of plants that are better suited for human use just as Borlaug had done at CIMMYT. In the past, scientists at the center bred a variety of cotton that grew protein-rich seeds suitable for human consumption.

“Cotton seeds have glands that produce a toxin called gossypol, but if you can remove that toxin, the seed becomes edible, so you can actually eat the cottonseed. Breeders actually came up with a new type of cotton, a mutant that had no glands anywhere, so the seed was good enough for people to eat,” Rathore said. “In fact, I have a couple of cans here.

Texas A&M asked volunteers to eat it, and they all liked the taste. Cotton seed is about 23% protein and about 21% oil, so it’s a good source of protein and fat.”

However, the lack of toxin glands caused cotton crops to be susceptible to being eaten by pests. At the Borlaug Center, Rathore currently uses genetic engineering technology to create cotton varieties that lack gossypol only in the seeds. Though he did not have access to such tools during his career, Borlaug became a staunch advocate for using genetic technology for agriculture.

“Now, it was a very good product, but farmers didn’t want to grow it because gossypol, in fact, protects the plant from insects, and some diseases. So these new plants were being attacked very heavily by insects,” Rathore said. “What we’ve done is we’ve silenced a gene, specifically in the seed, to eliminate this gossypol, but the rest of the plant still contains gossypol, so it’s still protected against insects and diseases.”

At the Borlaug Institute for International Agriculture, Murano, who now serves as director of the institute, works to expand agricultural technologies and techniques developed at A&M to developing nations. Specifically, the institute has worked to recover the Rwandan agricultural sector after the genocide in the 1990s.

“We went to Rwanda after the genocide was over. There was a new government and the U.S. government gave us funding to go there and help train their faculty at their universities about agriculture methods, so they could then start to train the farmers,” Murano said. “We decided, ‘No,’ these people need help quicker than that.”

Murano said the institute determined Rwanda had a climate and geography suitable for growing coffee and made an effort to bolster the production of coffee in the region.

“We noticed that coffee was an important crop for them. We got these women farmers because their husbands had been murdered, and taught them how to grow coffee, when to pick the cherries from the coffee tree, how to dry them and process them,” Murano said.

“We got them the first buyer out of a company in Louisiana to bring the very first shipment of Rwandan coffee into the United States. It transformed their economy incredibly, to the point where Rwandan coffee is one of the best quality coffees in the world. [Today, Rwanda is] doing pretty well. It’s one of the most stable countries in Africa.”

Above all else, Borlaug is remembered by his peers as an unassuming man who did his work not in search of notoriety but out of a desire to improve lives. Never as wealthy or as famous as many other Nobel Peace Laureates, Borlaug was content to allow his work to speak for itself.

“When I go speak to students or to people about my dad, I always say he was five things. He was a scientist, obviously. He was a humanitarian. He was a mentor — he loved mentoring young people and scientists from all over the world, making scientists. He also, after he won the Nobel Peace Prize, was turned into a quiet politician,” Laube said.

“But to me, and to my brother, he was just our dad. We didn’t even know until he got the Nobel Peace Prize that he did anything extraordinary. He’d come home and he’d go to work. He worked a lot, I mean, a lot. I always say, he didn’t belong to us, he belonged to the world.”

SWAN SONG

4

The Battalion | 12.5.22

Picture perfect: My time as photo chief Cameron Johnson @cameronjdot My name is Cameron Johnson, and I am — rather, was — the photo chief and graphics editor at The Battalion. I’ve covered politics, local stories, entertainment and sports.

So many sports.

I started taking photos for The Batt in November 2021, during my first in-person semester at Texas A&M University.

Abbey Santoro and Bobby O’Brien, the photo chiefs, hired me, despite my meager portfolio from years of hobby photography.

My first assignment was a volleyball game against Missouri, during Senior Night. I didn’t know the players, nor had I followed their semester, but I remember watching these athletes cry in each others’ arms as they said goodbye to their graduating teammates. I thought to myself, “Is this what every assignment is like?”

I was wrong of course, there have been plenty of duds since then, but my love for this work has never diminished.

Abbey eventually stepped down to focus on cross country, which made Bobby and Ishika Samant the chiefs to impress.

As my junior year went on, I got more comfortable as a staff photographer, and wanted to make friends with the editors.

It felt like kindergarten all over again, trying to get the other kids to like me.

For those who haven’t been to The Battalion office, there are two sides of the newsroom. On one side is an aisle of desks, where editors work. On the other side, beyond massive foundation columns and desk dividers, is a seating area and conference table where staffers can write, edit photos and socialize. That’s where I sat every day. I even had a favorite spot: at the conference table, next to the projector, with my back to the wall.

When conversations would float across the room, I did my best to chime in.

Admittedly, I was anxious to impress these people. Every day that semester, I would show up and make myself known, trying to help wherever I could. It wasn’t long before I got a jump on photo assignments, got handed proofs and stuck around for headline parties every week.

We would get out late those nights, sometimes in the early morning, but I didn’t mind. It was only one night of

Elizabeth Brieden Jonathan Cogwell Caroline Dethloff Grace Dodd Chanse Hernandez Malachi Hernandez Roxanna Irani Braeden Kajs Sarah King Annabel Klemm Sydney Knoop Rohit Kumar Kaitlyn Laird Benjamin Liang Edreece Mangal Victoria Martinez Kade McAdams Eleanor McLeod

the week, and it was satisfying to see our hard work the following Thursday, when the paper would hit stands.

I was assistant photo chief that summer, and had the pleasure and honor of becoming the photo chief this August. I also appointed myself the graphics editor in a shameless move to draw at my desk, and I’ve even made a few illustrations I’m proud of.

In only six months, I’ve gone to Washington D.C., covered the Southwest Classic at AT&T Stadium, photographed Beto O’Rourke during one of his visits to campus and menaced Jimbo Fisher with my camera on multiple occasions. My favorite moments, however, have been spent in our office, “the Batt Cave,” working and laughing with my friends.

As I frantically type this final goodbye from our 8x8 photo closet, listening to the muffled laughter of my fellow editors as they watch the Colts play the Cowboys, I’m reminded of my first Battalion assignment. Of watching perfect strangers cry in the arms of their friends, heartbroken that their time of working together had ended.

It’s not an unfamiliar feeling. It’s necessary for growth, but come this Wednesday after our final Maroon Life production, I’ll dread feeling it again.

So, to Michaela, Kyle, Kathryn, Ruben, Caleb, Caroline, Kenzie, Jordan, Zoe, Grant, Emma, Dan, Megan and Doug — my friends — you’ve made my last semester of college truly incredible.

Between the excitement of my job and the experiences we’ve all shared, I feel like the second-luckiest person at A&M — next to Jordan, who is getting married after graduation. Typical sports editor, always competing.

Bobby, I try to impress you on every assignment, and I always will. You’ve become my friend, and I’ll always be Ishika Samant— THE BATTALION grateful for you and Abbey letting me Photo Chief and Graphics Editor Cameron Johnson is graduating on Dec. 16 at 7 p.m. at join The Batt.

Reed Arena.

Ish, I can’t overstate my excitement for you to lead the photo desk this spring. You are a great friend, and one of ugly exercise equipment back into the right by you, and that my short time as the best photographers working. Please art room. photo chief reflects well on our commucall me back to the newsroom from time Gracie, my niece, I love you most of nity and The Battalion. Print is not dead, to time. Although I’m moving on, I want all. You’re growing up fast, and my colstudent journalism matters and pictures to see what’s next for you and everyone lege years have been less bright without are crucial. on staff. seeing you as much. Big hugs promised So turn in photo requests on time.

Thank you, Mom and Dad, for evfrom now to the end of time. erything you’ve done for me. I love you And thank you, dear readers. Without Cameron Johnson is a journalism senior and I sincerely hope to make you proud. you, I would have nothing to work for and the photo chief and graphics editor for Please remember that when I move my — nothing to show. I hope I’ve done The Battalion.

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SWAN SONG

5

The Battalion | 12.5.22

Running the race set before you Jordan Epp @j_epp22 Sometimes I wonder if I was ever supposed to be in the position I’m in right now. Texas A&M wasn’t my first choice, journalism wasn’t my first major, I told myself I’d never become an editor and I never applied to be the head sports editor. How did I end up in this position?

A&M was never on my radar growing up until my friend pestered me enough to take a visit during high school. Despite touring on a rainy, 40-degree day, I got sold by the business school’s business honors program. I excitedly went back home and proudly talked about my decision on A&M … as my second choice.

But after a lot of deliberation and prayer, I settled for Aggieland in an effort to save money.

Despite this, I came to College Station with excitement and energy toward completing my business degree. I wasn’t really sure what I wanted to do after college, but a business degree felt safe. I was in a good program too, so I was sure I would figure it out eventually. A couple of months later, though, it didn’t feel right. Nothing felt right. I didn’t think I belonged, but I didn’t know where to go — and frankly, that was scary to think about.

I’m not the only college student to think this, and I certainly won’t be the last, but it felt isolating. How do you tell your parents you’re in the wrong place?

I knew I couldn’t confront them without a plan, so I pulled an all-nighter reading through every single major and minor A&M offered. I created a list and crossed them off one by one until I landed on one: journalism. I felt like sports journalism was my path, but now I had to tell everyone else.

After convincing everyone around me that my path made sense — or maybe I was really just convincing myself — I knew I needed to dive in head first if I was going to make this work. I got put in connection with The Battalion and swiftly applied. I had never written outside of an English class before, and my high school had no student newspaper, so I was starting from scratch. Beginning as a trial writer in February of 2020, I wrote my first story, then my second … and then the world shut down.

I went nearly half a year before writing again, unsure where my standing was with The Batt. I didn’t know anyone who worked there, and I didn’t know how to reach out. I thought I had lost out on my one opportunity. And then one day I got a message that said something like, “Hey, do you still want to write for us?” I did, and I expressed that, getting back onto the staff as a writer.

I wanted to write football, that was my dream, but first I had to pay my dues and learn.

I spent my entire sophomore year covering an assortment of golf, tennis and swimming, all remotely as the world was on pause due to COVID-19. I didn’t interact with anyone I worked with because of the remote world we lived in, I basically just did my job and moved along with my life. Entering my junior year, the world seemed to slowly be going back to normal, and I finally got my first opportunity to cover football.

After the fall semester ended, I was asked to apply for an assistant editor position on the sports desk, which I did. I didn’t want to, but I knew it was a good opportunity. By the end of the spring semester, I was the only editor left, and I was basically thrust into the role. Now in December 2022, I’m saying goodbye to everything and am way more sentimental about it than I ever thought I would be.

But why am I saying all of this, telling my life story? It was a bumpy road that led me to the point I’m at as the head sports editor. I don’t know if I was supposed to be here, but I am here, and that’s got to mean something.

I have no idea where I’m going from here, or what the future has in store, but I know what it feels like to be in the wrong place. I know I’m not, and I know I’m going the right way. I’ve also learned that if you feel like you stumbled into something and feel like you accidentally got somewhere, maybe it’s where you were supposed to be. Sometimes you have to trust yourself and the path that is set before you. I never expected to be here, but I’m here, so I’ll continue to take all my challenges head-on and see where that takes me.

Keep running the race that is set before you with endurance — Hebrews 12:1 Cameron Johnson— THE BATTALION

Sports editor Jordan Epp is graduating on Dec. 16 at 7 p.m. at Reed Arena.

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SILVER TAPS

6

The Battalion | 12.5.22

Silver Taps August 11, 2003 — October 19, 2022

MATTHEW ANTHONY CALDERON A kind, friendly person, with a gentle heart

By Michaela Rush

M

atthew will be remembered as a loving brother and son, a soccer lover, who was relied on and loved by many.

Hailing from San Antonio, Matthew Calderon, a nature lover, also had a deep passion for the minute details of technology, which led him to the engineering programs at Texas A&M. His mother, Dee-Ann Calderon, said Matthew was always “Mr. Fix-it” around their house, and A&M’s reputation for engineering, coupled with a welcoming environment, led him to make the move to College Station.

“He’s been interested in engineering for forever,” Dee-Ann said. “From an academic perspective, that was the big thing that attracted him, and he has some relatives, a lot of my cousins, who went [to A&M]. Those factors and the built-in community type of feel … is what ultimately led him there.”

Once Matthew moved into a campus dorm, he made friends through his classes and engineering organizations, while also making trips to Austin to visit his girlfriend, who attends the University of Texas. As time went on, Matthew spent more time in College Station with friends, often playing soccer.

While engineering and technology were important to his academic career, Matthew expanded this passion into creating a small online business, where he 3D printed a variety of products. Dee-Ann said his entrepreneurial spirit was also motivated by a desire to help others.

“He started a 3D printing business, [through] a store on eBay, where he designed things and

PROVIDED

Electronic systems engineering technology sophomore Matthew Calderon (center) will be honored at Tuesday’s Silver Taps Ceremony in Academic Plaza at 10:30 p.m.

then also took things other people designed that he could sell, so he had that aspect of himself as a young entrepreneur,” Dee-Ann said. “He was interested in how he could make [life] better for others, when he would design things.”

Both before and during his college career, he exemplified Selfless Service by working with children and animals. When it came to working with animals, Matthew wanted to help dogs particularly, knowing how greatly they can influence their caregivers. Working with children was a regular part of his volun-

teer work, Dee-Ann said.

“He’s always been super involved in volunteering. Giving back, especially when it impacts others, specifically kids, was really important to him,” Dee-Ann said. “He volunteered at the Children’s Museum here in San Antonio and used the engineering skills that he had acquired through high school, and more into college, working with the kids and giving back. He does definitely have the servant’s heart.”

Even though he primarily lived in San Antonio, Matthew enjoyed living in College Sta-

tion, as it reminded him of his family home in Boerne, a small-town, friendly feel.

“Having some elements of a home feel was nice for him even though it wasn’t San Antonio. It was comforting to him to have people who were nice … a little more friendly to everybody in general,” Dee-Ann said. “He got that feeling when he was out in different restaurants or around town and just on campus. Everybody just says ‘Howdy’ and things like that. It was a nice shock to him, in other words, because it reminded him of his second home, where he grew up as a kid.”

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SPORTS

7

The Battalion | 12.5.22

Aggies fall to Tigers on ice Competitive A&M hockey team takes tough loss against ETBU

By Hunter Mitchell @HunterM1001 On a December night that truly embodied the Texas winter, Aggie fans left the warm, muggy night air and piled into the cold Spirit Ice Arena to watch No. 24 Texas A&M face off against the No. 18 East Texas Baptist Tigers.

The Aggies fell 3-1 to the Tigers on Friday, Dec. 2, in a match where A&M could not cash in on its scoring chances.

East Texas Baptist University, or ETBU came into this matchup 11-5, looking to snap its three-game losing streak after going winless in the 2022 Louisville Tournament against Lake Superior State, Louisville and Kentucky before the matchup against the Aggies.

A&M entered today’s matchup 9-4 on the season, 1-2 in the Aggies’ last three games with a win and loss against Maryville University, followed by a blowout loss to No. 1 Lindenwood 12-0.

The first period saw minimal action, as neither team scored a goal or established any true offensive momentum.

However, the Tigers went on the offensive in the second period, forcing senior goalie Jake Sirkis to string together three saves in the period before finally allowing the first goal of the game at the 15:14 mark. ETBU would follow that up with another goal at the 10-minute mark.

“We kinda got off to a slow start,” junior forward Robby Sours said. “Really, I would say our main problem is we kept taking pen-

alties, spending a lot of time killing penalties, then trying to get back into a five on five.

It’s kind of difficult to do those transitions and keep offensive pressure.”

The Aggies had their best looks of the game around the 14-minute mark in the third period, as a power play gave A&M multiple solid looks at the net, but the Aggies could not capitalize on any of their scoring opportunities.

Tempers also flared in the third as, after a few rough body checks by Tiger defenders, freshman forward Nate Polinsky brought an ETBU defender to the ice before being separated by the referees.

A&M would not go down quietly, however, as Sours would score a backdoor goal with 8:31 to play to bring the Aggies within one.

A five-minute penalty on freshman forward Nicholas Leone seemingly put A&M down one man for the majority of the rest of the match, but a Tiger penalty evened the teams at four players a piece. However, despite ramping up the offensive intensity, the Aggies could once again not capitalize on scoring opportunities.

To add salt on the wound, after A&M committed six to the attack with one minute left, ETBU would score one final goal with 14 seconds left to give the Tigers the decisive 3-1 victory.

“We know we can beat them,” Sours said.

“We played them in Shreveport, [La.,] earlier this year, we split the series with them. It’s really just taking less penalties and coming in here and working just a little bit harder. Give it 5% more every time you’re on the ice and that way we can put more pressure on them.”

Robert O’Brien— THE BATTALION

Senior forward Daniel Dufresne skates after the puck during Texas A&M Club Hockey’s game Texas on Friday, Sept. 30, 2022.

Comeback slips away for A&M In second weekend matchup, Aggies take second loss to Tigers

By Andrew Paredes @andrewparedesss

Robert O’Brien— THE BATTALION

Texas A&M’s hockey team finished the fall semester with a 2-3 overtime loss to East Texas Baptist on Dec. 3rd.

The Aggies go into the break with

a 9-6 record with their last four games being losses.

This matchup marked Game 2 of a back-to-back competition between the Aggies and the Tigers as the Fightin’ Farmers lost Game 1 to the Tigers 3-1 on Friday, Dec. 2nd. Both games were held at the Spirit Ice Arena in College Station.

After the first 20-minute mark, the Aggies had a 1-0 lead. They were able to follow that up with another score to make it 2-0.

With 20 minutes left, the game was tied 2-2 with the Tigers being able to come back and force overtime. The Tigers scored in sudden-death overtime to win the game as the Aggies couldn’t capitalize on their 2-0 lead.

The Aggies will start the winter semester slate of games with a matchup against the University of Colorado on Thursday, Jan. 11.

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Robert O’Brien— THE BATTALION

Sophomore Aviv Barzelay competes in the 200 yard backstroke during Texas A&M’s meet against Rice at the Rec Center Natatorium on Saturday, Dec. 3, 2022.

Aggies make a splash against Rice Owls in final swim & dive meet of 2022

By Neomi Brown @neomib_03 The Texas A&M women’s swim and dive team finished off its final competition of 2022 with a 156-101 win over the Rice Owls as the Aggies had top finishes in 11 out of 14 events

on Saturday, Dec. 3 inside of the Rec Center Natatorium.

A&M started off the matchup with its first top finish in the 200 medley after juniors Jordan Buechler, Charlotte Longbottom, Olivia Theall and Chloe Stepanek swam for a 1:41.17 time. The maroon and white continued filling the top places as they competed in the 1,000 free where junior Abby Grottle (10:01.94), freshmen Duru Tanriverdi (10:02.25) and Rachel Love (10:04.63) finished in the top three.

Theall and Stepanek kept dominating throughout the day as the former finished first in both the butterfly 100 (53.61) and 200

(2:01.28). Meanwhile, Stepanek took the top spots in the 50 (23.14) and 200 (1:47.95) freestyle events. The Aggies also took all three top spots in the 100 breast as Longbottom finished first (1:02.87) followed by junior Bobbi Kennett (1:02.99) and senior Caroline Theil (1:03.74).

Sophomore Aviv Barzelay took second in both the 100 (55.67) and 200 (1:59.30) backstroke events while fellow sophomore Joelle Reddin finished first in the 200 breast with a time of 2:15.91. The 500 free event saw another Aggie at the top as freshman Giulia Goerigk swam a time of 4:56.05. Right af-

ter, Goerigk helped A&M finish in first for the 200-IM as she clocked in at 2:02.48 while Theil (2:04.34), Reddin (2:05.58) and sophomore Alice Marini (2:07.91) took the next three spots.

The Aggies closed off the meet with a firstplace finish in the 400 free relay as graduate Mollie Wright, freshman Manita Sathianchokwisan, Theall and Buechler swam for a 3:25.54 time.

A&M will continue its season after the New Year in a dual meet against the Auburn Tigers on Wednesday, Jan. 4 at 2 p.m. in Auburn, Ala.

Aggies lose Battleground 2k22

A&M drops game to Boise State in Fort Worth

By Hunter Mitchell @HunterM1001 On Dec. 3, Texas A&M basketball made the trip up to Fort Worth and faced Boise State in the Battleground 2k22 double-header at Dickies Arena. The second game of the series features the University of Houston and Saint Mary’s College.

To start off the game, sophomore forward for the Broncos Tyson Degenhart made a 3-point jumper 26 seconds into the first half.

A&M held Boise State to a two-minute scoring drought toward the end of the first half. This was ended by a 2-pointer shot by redshirt senior guard Max Rice. Rice’s father, Leon Rice, is also the head coach of the Boise State Broncos.

“This was better, but it wasn’t enough,” coach Buzz Williams told 12thMan.com.

The Aggies had a 32% field goal percentage by the end of the first half. They also dunked six times by the end of the game.

In the last four minutes of the

Robert O’Brien— THE BATTALION

Freshman F Solomon Washington (13) gets up after being knocked to the floor during Texas A&M’s game against SMU at Reed Arena on Wednesday, Nov. 30, 2022.

game, the Broncos had no field goals. Boise State ended the first half with a 50% field goal percentage.

With a 76% first-half free throw percentage, the Fightin’ Farmers

made 11 out of 15 free throws.

A&M was given over double the amount of free throws, but Boise State performed better in percentage as the Broncos were awarded

seven and made six of them.

The blue and orange had sunk seven 3-pointers into the basket compared to the maroon and white’s one 3-pointer out of nine

opportunities.

“We’re not hooked up, we’re not flying around, it doesn’t really work,” graduate guard Dexter Dennis told 12thMan.com.

Sophomore guard Wade Taylor IV pleaded his case to the referee that the ball was last touched by a Boise State player’s foot, but, to the Aggies’ disdain, officials did not side with them.

“I love our players and I love our coaches, but we didn’t do enough to beat a quad one team,” Williams told 12thMan.com.

Once the game returned from a Boise State called timeout, freshman forward Solomon Washington dunked on the fast break.

The Aggies had a scoring drought lasting 2 minutes and 23 seconds in the second half. Taylor made a 3-point jumper also on a fast break.

At the opposite end of the court, fifth-year forward Naje Smith committed a personal foul against A&M. “We need this to learn how to respond. To act as though it didn’t happen is foolish,” Williams told 12thMan.com.

A&M basketball will play again Sunday, Dec. 11 at 5 p.m. in Reed Arena against the Oregon State Beavers.

CONGRATULATIONS

GRADUATES!

REMEMBER TO CARRY THE AGGIE SPIRIT WITH YOU WHEREVER YOU GO