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Newspaper and Travel Guide
for Pecos Country of West Texas
Friday, February 4, 2005
Eagle girls get 2nd place spots at powerlifting meet
Two Pecos Eagles powerlifters picked up second place awards in girls’ competition this past Saturday in Odessa, while one Eagle earned a fourth place and two others finished seventh on the boys’ side in competition at Odessa High School.
Freshman Ashley Ornelas and junior Michelle Wein took second place in their divisions at the meet, which was the second of the season for Pecos, though the first overall for a couple of Eagle lifters.
“We only had five (lifters), but we’ll have more next time,” said Eagles’ coach Patrick Willis, whose team has this week off before going to Big Lake on Feb. 12.
Ornelas, who finished second on Jan. 22 at Monahans, in the 114-pound weight class, picked up another second place award this past Saturday, lifting a total of 470 pounds, 30 pounds more than the previous week. Blayne Adams of Odessa High won with a combined 515 pounds for the bench press, dead lift and squat thrust competitions, while she beat out McCamey’s Janet Ybarra by five pounds for second. Adams also beat out Ornelas the previous week in Monahans
Wein took second at 148 pounds with a combined 595 pound total for her three lifts. That was 110 pounds behind winner Jacey Vasquez of Grandfalls, and 155 pound ahead of both Alpine’s Roxie Valenzuela and Monahans’ Heather Schuler.
On the boys’ side, Ruben Salgado earned the fourth place finish, in the 242 pound weight class. Salgado had a combined lift of 1,170 pounds and placed behind lifters from Odessa, Andrews and Plainview. Along with placing fourth in the meet, Willis said, “I think that puts Reuben fourth in the region.”
Odessa’s E.J. Cannon won the division with a 1,430 combined total.
Michael Lee placed seventh in the largest overall weight class, the 220-pound division, where there were 17 lifters competing. Lee finished with an even 1,000 pound total for his three attempts, which was 70 pounds better than the previous week. Alan Pender of Midland Christian won with a 1,270 pound total, while Andrews, Odessa and Plainview lifters took the other five spots in front of Lee.
Another sophomore, Chris Navarette, slipped slightly from his opening week’s totals in Monahans. Competing in the 275-pound weight class, Navarette lifted a combined 995 pounds, 25 less than at Monahans, and placed seventh in the division, which was won by Odessa High’s Wes Brightman with a 1,310 pound total.
Monahans was the only other District 4-3A team entered in the Odessa meet, while along with both Odessa schools, Andrews and Plainview, the other sub-Class 4A teams competing were Midland Christian, Alpine, Kermit, McCamey and Grandfalls.
Eagles hunt more players sa baseball practice starts
The Pecos Eagles will have both a veteran and a young baseball team in 2005, coach Elias Payan said on Monday, the day preseason workouts began for the Eagles and other high school teams across the state.
“We’ve got seven starters returning, so there will be high expectations, but we’re still a young team,” said Payan, after the Eagles came on last season following a struggling first month of play to finish second in the District 4-3A standings behind Presidio. “We don’t have any returning seniors, and of the ones coming back, only Josh (Anchondo) has played more than one year on the varsity.”
Presidio, which have been under UIL investigation over the residency of some players from their 2004 team, will still have several other starters back in 2005 from last season’s district winners, as will Seminole, the team that knocked Pecos out of the playoffs last season and who will be a member of 4-3A this season.
Anchondo, who beat Seminole in the playoffs two years ago but was ineligible for post-season play in 2004, joins infielders Edward Valencia, Isaiah Rayos and Robert Nunez as returnees from last year’s team, while Pecos also gets back outfielders Eddie Vela and Miguel Estrada and designated hitter Jonathan Garcia, though their positions could change in 2005.
Right now, Payan has a little over two dozen players out, and is expecting more to arrive over the next few weeks. “We had 42 kids sign up, but some are still in basketball and are not able to come out, and some kids we’re still working on their grades,” he said.
Anchondo and Estrada are both members of the Eagles’ varsity basketball team, but both were able to make Monday’s opening workout. “Coach (Art) Welborn is helping me out. He’s got them in (basketball practice) early, where they’re able to come out here after they’re done.”
However, Payan added he doesn’t plan to do any major work with his pitchers this early in the pre-season. “We just want to take it easy. We don’t have our first scrimmage until the 18th, so we just want to get them out there to get used to playing,” he said. “If they go off the mound this week it will just be mechanics.”
As of now, the Eagles are planning to have varsity, JV and freshman baseball teams as usual, though Payan said grades may determine whether or not they have to combine the JV and ninth grade squads.
“They still have three weeks left in the six-weeks to get their grades up, and I’m hoping we can get three teams together when the season starts,” he said.
The varsity will start off its season for the first time at the Midland Greenwood Tournament on Feb. 25-26, while the sub-varsity squads will start play a day earlier, as both teams host Fort Stockton on Feb. 24. The teams also will get scrimmage play started before the varsity, as they go to Crane on Feb. 14, four days before the varsity scrimmages Odessa High.
The freshman will have seven home games, including their final four in Pecos, while the JV will play 11 games at home this season, including four doubleheaders and will play a district schedule the final month of their season.
Pecos golfers in San Angelo
The weather is supposed to be a little more cooperative this weekend that it has been earlier this week, when the Pecos Eagles golf teams open up their 2005 seasons with tournaments in Monahans and San Angelo.
Temperatures are supposed to be in the 50s on Friday and Saturday when Pecos’ boys go to Monahans, while the girls compete at the San Angelo Girls Classic. It’s the first of nine tournaments this season for the boys’ including their three rounds of District 4-3A play, while the girls will also have nine tournaments, including the district opener at the Reeves County Golf Course on March 30.
Pecos’ girls have advanced to regional team competition for the past six seasons, finishing second in district play a year ago to Monahans. Coach Tina Doan said for the 2005 season, she has 10 golfers competing, including three returning players from last year’s ‘A’ team.
“I’ve got Jennie Canon, who is my senior, Shelly Martinez, Eleanor Mason, Stephanie Galindo and Rica Pina, “ Doan said of the five girls she has back this season. Martinez was runner-up medalist in district a year ago, while Canon and Mason are the other two returning ‘A’ team players from 2004.
Caroline Briones, Evelyn Flores, Melissa Mendoza, Marissa Lyles and Kayla Natividad are Pecos’ other golfers. Doan said the 10 girls would be competing during this week to see which five would make the trip to San Angelo.
The remaining five will be part of the Eagles’ junior varsity team, which will also compete in district and have their own home tournament scheduled for March 1 in Pecos. The JV also has a tournament scheduled later this month in Andrews, while the other two rounds of district competition will be in April at Hogan Park in Midland and in Fort Stockton.
The boys won’t have a home tournament this season. The closest they’ll get to a tournament in Pecos is this Friday and Saturday at Monahans and on April 5, when the Eagles return there for the second round of their three-round tournament. New district rivals Lamesa and Seminole will host the first and final rounds of the 54-hole tournament.
Boys’ coach Kim Anderson said he also has 10 boys out right now, but added, “I’ve got two still in basketball. They’re both on the varsity, so they won’t be ready.”
“Other than that we’re just going up there to see what we have,” he added.
The boys missed a regional team berth for the first time since 1998 this past season, finishing third in district to Monahans and Fort Stockton. But Pecos did send two golfers to the regional meet, including Michael Nichols, who won the district medalist title and missed by one shot going to the Class 3A state tournament as runner-up regional medalist.
“Right now I’ve got Mikey, (Joseph) Tarin and Zack Morton, and Jake Weinacht is playing better than he ever has as a senior, so we might have a shot at them,” Anderson said. “Right now it looks like Stockton is bringing back the strongest team, but we ought to be competitive with Monahans and Seminole, so it should be a four-team race for those two regional spots.”
Bad weather has Eagles playing back-to-back games
The snow was gone in Pecos by early Tuesday afternoon, but the threat of bad roads that night was enough to cancel the Eagles’ basketball games at Midland Greenwood, along with the other two District 4-3A boys and girls’ match-ups set for that night.
All the teams were making up their games on Thursday, with the Eagles traveling to Midland to face the Rangers and Rangerettes, before returning home on Friday to host the Lamesa Golden Tornadoes, in what will be the final home game of the 2004-05 season for Pecos’ girls.
Both Pecos varsity teams have been off for over a week, since the girls defeated Presidio at home on Jan. 26 by a 59-39 score, while the boys were edged by the Blue Devils, 74-70. The girls are 3-6 in district play and the boys are 1-6 going into Thursday’s games against Greenwood.
Greenwood and Lamesa’s girls are battling Monahans for the final two playoff berths in district. Pecos still has an outside shot at post-season, but would have to win their final three games and get outside help. Monahans is 7-3, Lamesa 6-3 and Greenwood is 6-4 in the standings. On the boys’ side, Greenwood is 7-1 and a half-game up on Seminole for first place, with Lamesa a game behind at 6-2.
Pecos’ sub-varsity teams were in action last weekend in district junior varsity tournaments, though the JV boys started off play at Seminole against a non-district team, Denver City.
The girls lost their tournament games at Seminole, while the boys went 2-1 and won consolation during the two-day tourney. The boys fell to Denver City by a 51-44 final score on Friday, but after that, coach Michael Valencia said the boys defeated Monahans on Saturday, 52-48, then won consolation with a 34-30 win over Fort Stockton.
Valencia said Lucas Macha had 12 points, Joseph Tarin 10 and Chris Garnto eight in the win over the Loboes, while Macha led the Eagles with 13 in their victory against Fort Stockton.
Pecos Enterprise
York M. "Smokey" Briggs, Publisher
324 S. Cedar St., Pecos, TX 79772
Phone 432-445-5475, FAX 432-445-4321
e-mail news@pecos.net
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Copyright 2003-04 by Pecos Enterprise
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