An attainable goal
Frogs ready to work for WAC Championship
By Chad Carey
staff reporter
Each August, head football coach Dennis Franchione and his team sit down and map out their goals for the upcoming season. Each goal is ranked on a triangle that has the most attainable goals on the bottom, and the goals that are the most difficult to achieve on the top.
One of the goals the Frogs have ranked close to the top of their list for the season is the phrase “Win the WAC Championship.” When Texas-El Paso comes to Amon Carter Stadium Saturday, the Frogs will have a chance to come a step closer to at least a share of that goal.
UTEP (8-2, 7-0 Western Athletic Conference) will bring the conference’s only undefeated record to Fort Worth. The Miners are riding a seven-game winning streak and have already clinched a share of their first conference championship since 1956. A win by TCU (8-1, 5-1 WAC) would allow the Horned Frogs to earn a share of the WAC championship with a victory over Southern Methodist Nov. 24.
Offensively, the Miners are led by senior quarterback Rocky Perez. For the season, Perez has thrown for 2,444 yards and 24 touchdowns. Perez has also thrown for over 200 yards in each of the Miners’ last nine games. Franchione said if the Frogs are going to have a chance to win, they must put pressure on Perez.
“Perez has not been pressured much this year,” Franchione said. “He is a very solid quarterback who doesn’t make bad plays. He’s probably the best quarterback we’ve faced this year.”
Perez’s favorite two targets on offense are wide receiver Lee Mays and tight end Brian Natkin. On the season, Mays has 14 touchdown receptions, which is a UTEP record, and is averaging 105.1 yards receiving a game. Natkin has been named one of the eight semifinalists for the inaugural John Mackey Award, which is given to the nation’s top tight end by the Nassau County Sports Commission. On the season, Natkin leads all tight ends nationally with 59 catches for 735 yards.
“Mays and Natkin are very explosive players and are both having great seasons,” Franchione said. “They’re going to get their catches, but the key is not to let them beat you.”
Defensively, the Miners are led by a trio of players. Senior linebacker Trey Merkens has 96 tackles, 12 coming behind the line of scrimmage. Mason Holloway, a senior defensive lineman, leads UTEP with 9 1/2 sacks. Sophomore defensive back D.J. Walker has five interceptions.
If the Miners need any incentive defensively heading into Saturday’s game, they only need to think back to what senior tailback LaDainian Tomlinson did to them one year ago. Tomlinson racked up 406 yards rushing, a Division I-A record, and six touchdowns, while averaging 9.4 yards a carry.
“I don’t know what they’re going to do to try and stop me,” Tomlinson said. “They said this week that they will shut me down, but every team has said that.”
With Tomlinson almost certainly being the focus of UTEP’s defense, sophomore quarterback Casey Printers said he must step up and be ready to make big plays for the Horned Frog offense.
“There’s going to be some pressure on me,” Printers said. “But it’s really no more pressure than I’m used to dealing with this season.”
Chad Carey
chadcarey@mindspring.com
Swim teams start with impressive wins at Louisville
Frogs prepare to take on Southwest Missouri, Western Illinois in dual meet
By Colleen Casey
skiff staff
A recent sweep of Louisville and Saint Louis in a three-team dual meet gave the men’s and women’s swimming teams a stepping stone to build the rest of their season upon.
Because TCU’s swim teams dominated the opposing teams throughout the Louisville, Ky., meet, they were able to choose the option of swimming some of the remaining events as non-scored exhibition events. TCU had gotten out to such a big lead in the competition, the remaining events would not have affected the final scoring.
The women’s team defeated Saint Louis 69-34 and had 11 first and second-place finishes out of the 12 scored events.
 |
|
Hillary Morgan/ASSISTANT PHOTO
EDITOR
Sophomore swimmer Scott Cessac practices his backstroke technique Tuesday at the Rickel Building. The men’s and women’s swimming squads compete Saturday in Springfield, Mo. against Southwest Missouri State and Western Illinois. |
The women’s team did even better against Louisville and took first place in 10 of the 12 scored events to win 71-33.
The men’s squad took a 62-36 lead through 10 events against Saint Louis, taking first place in every event but one. They also took first in all eight of their scored events in a 64-48 defeat of Louisville.
The wins for both the men’s and women’s teams against Saint Louis and Louisville were their fourth consecutive wins.
Melissa Powell, a sophomore breaststroker/individual medley swimmer, said both teams should be ready to compete at the same level Saturday at the dual meet against Southwest Missouri State and Western Illinois.
She said the team expects Saturday’s dual meet to be a more difficult fight for both the men’s and women’s teams, but Powell said the swimmers would be ready to take on such a challenge.
“Southwest Missouri should give us more competition than (Western Illinois),” Powell said. “But we know we have to remain focused against both teams. We can never afford to slack off against any competition.”
Sophomore distance swimmer Nicole Paquette said she expects Southwest Missouri to have gotten faster as a team from last season.
“They’re definitely a better team than last year,” Paquette said. “I think there’s a chance this meet could be a bit more competitive on the men’s side. Our women’s team, I think, is faster than Southwest Missouri. We’ll take advantage of that.”
Aaron Ewert, a sophomore backstroker/sprinter, said the TCU men, unlike the women, don’t have any clear-cut advantages.
“Our times are closely comparable, and the teams are so even, especially for the men,” Ewert said. “It’s going to be a tougher meet, at least for us.”
Ewert said no matter what happens this weekend, the teams must remain confident about the season and focus on goals that include quality showings at the Texas Invitational, held Dec. 1-3 at the University of Texas at Austin and the Western Athletic Conference Championships in February.
“Teams in the Texas Invitational are higher ranked, which gives us motivation to see how good we can be,” Powell said. “Physically, you’ll become a faster swimmer if you swim against people who are faster than you.”
Long-term goals like the WAC Championships, Paquette said, are always on the minds of the swimmers. She said that even during this week’s preparation for the trip to Missouri, the teams were still thinking about what had to be done to swim well in February.
Colleen Casey
c.m.casey@student.tcu.edu