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Archive 2002

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Daily Newspaper and Travel Guide
for Pecos Country of West Texas

Sports

Monday, February 25, 2002

Eagles place ninth, 18th at state swim meet

By LEIA HOLLAND
Staff Writer
The Pecos Eagles swim team came away with a ninth place finish on the boys side, and the girls ended up in a tie for 18th place on Saturday, at the UIL Class 4A Swimming and Diving Meet, held at the Jamail Center at the University of Texas in Austin.

The team traveled to Austin to participate in the 4A and Under State Swim Meet, which was held on Friday and Saturday.

Coach Terri Morse said that the Pecos did very well and she thought they had a good meet and are already preparing for next year.

The boys finished with a total score of 77 points for ninth place in a meet won by Southlake Carroll High School who finished with 300 points. Austin-Cedar Park was next with 205 points and Texarkana Texas High School finished third, with 181 points.

The boys had placed fifth and seventh at state the past two years, while Pecos girls' team was ranked for the first time this season, tying Corpus Christi Calallen High School for 18th with a total of 29 points.

Dallas Highland Park High School placed first with a total of 263 points, 1½ points ahead of Southlake Carroll . Conroe Oak Ridge High School was third with 202 points.

"I thought the meet went very well," Morse said. "We had some good races."

The Pecos teams knew that they would have a tough meet going into the state meet however they still gave it their best, Morse said.

"It was a fast meet," she said. "We knew it would be fast."

Morse said that she was satisfied at how the meet turned out, since her team pulled through with some personal bests and even a new school record in the girls 200-yard medley relay.

"You can't be disappointed in that," she said.

"I'm just real proud of the kids," she said. "It's been a tough year, a hard year with a lot of pressure but they handled it well."

Morse said she was also proud of the representation that Region I made at the meet especially in the boys' 100-yard butterfly event in which three of the regions swimmers made it to the finals on Saturday.

In that event, Pecos swimmer Will Oglesby was able to place fifth with a time of 54.47 beating Omar Alba of the El Paso Ysleta team who finished eighth.

Morse said that passing Alba was a goal that Oglesby had made for himself.

Abilene Wylie swimmer John Ouimette represented the region well when he took home the gold medal in that event with a time of 52.16, the first gold medal for a Region I swimmer since the Class 4A competition began in 2000.

Oglesby also placed 16th in the 100-yard backstroke with a time of 1:00.30.

The Pecos team of Gary Garcia, K.W. Winkles, Oglesby and Max Key placed seventh in the 200-yard medley relay with a time of 1:45.48.

Cedar Park, Texarkana Texas and Richardson Pearce High Schools took home the top three spots in that event.

The 400-yard freestyle relay team of Winkles, Patrick McChesney, Oglesby and Key placed fifth with a time of 3:28.48 behind Dallas Highland Park, Southlake Carroll and Richardson Pearce finished first, second and third.

Sophomore Michael Juarez was able to finish 10th in the one-meter diving competition with a score of 259.05.

Winkles placed 14th in the 100-yard breaststroke with a time of 1:05.46.

On the girls' side, Teddie Salcido, Rachelle Eisenberg, Kelsey Holt and Susan Moore were able to set a new school record in the 200-yard medley relay with a time of 2:01.43 placing 12th.

In that race the girls' teams from Dallas Highland Park, Cedar Park and Southlake Carroll took the top three spots.

The Pecos girls' team of Betsy Lujan, Jessica Minjarez, Holt and Salcido also placed 12h in the 400-yard freestyle relay.

Dallas Highland Park, Conroe Oak Ridge and Grapevine took home the top three places in that race.

Salcido, who is a freshman, placed 14th in the 500-yard freestyle with a time of 5:44.59 and 15th in the 200-yard freestyle with a time of 2:10.57.

Freshman Catherine Minjarez placed 16th in the 100-yard butterfly with a time of 1:09.82.

Eisenberg, who was one of only two seniors on this year's team, finished 14th in the 100-yard breaststroke with a time of 1:14.65.

The Eagles will know take a short weeklong break to recover from the season but will soon be at it again.

"We're going to take the week off and get all the meet stuff turned and then start trying to get ready for next year," Morse said.

Morse said that she and the team appreciate the support they have been given by the parents and community members in Pecos.

"I felt we had a good season," she said. "Now we'll go back to the drawing board and try to get better next year."

Eagles, Loboes again open with road wins

By JON FULBRIGHT
Staff Writer
For the second year in a row the home team came out on the short end of both weekend opening games between the Pecos Eagles and Monahans Loboes.

Last year, it was Monahans winning the season opener in Pecos before the Eagles came back to defeat the Loboes on their home field. This time, it was Pecos that picked up the opening win, scoring twice in the 10th inning Friday night to defeat Monahans, 3-1, before the Loboes came back on the road Saturday afternoon, using a pair of home runs by Dimas Porras and Josh Robinson to rally from a 3-0 deficit and defeat the Eagles, 6-3.

Pecos will try to do better on their home field tonight, when they host Fort Stockton in a 7 p.m. start. It's the first of at least four games this week for Pecos, who'll be at the Sandhills Baseball Tournament in both Monahans and Kermit this coming weekend.

Barney Rodriguez tossed a four-hitter in going the distance on Friday night, while Noah Miles picked up the win on Saturday in relief of Les Eason, collecting nine of the 13 strikeouts of Pecos batters in the game.

"We didn't have the hits when we needed it with the bases loaded and with runners on second and third," said Eagles' coach Bubba Williams. "Noah was just blowing it by us and we didn't hit the ball. They brought him in and he just shut us down."

Porras' solo shot to centerfield in the fifth inning tied the game, after Monahans had scored twice in the fourth off pitcher Richard Rodriguez, while Robinson's home run came with one out in the sixth and went over the fence in left, after Mark Fuentes had fouled off a series of pitches from Rodriguez before singling to left. Monahans then added an insurance run in the seventh on doubles down the line in left by Martin Brito and Mitch Barron.

Pecos got all their runs in the bottom of the third. Eason walked Oscar Parada, and saw him score on a sacrifice bunt by David Elkins and a wild pitch by Eason and a passed ball by Robinson. Rigo Ramirez walked on the passed ball and moved up on a stolen base and single by Abila, before Barron stumbled and dropped Barney Rodriguez' fly ball down the line in right.

Miles then came on to pitch and allowed a sacrifice fly to Richard Rodriguez, but allowed only three hits the rest of the way, two coming with two outs in the seventh inning.

Meanwhile, after surviving some early errors by his defense, Rodriguez got himself in trouble in the fourth, hitting Porras with an 0-2 pitch, then walking Barron. Elkins and Ramirez were able to throw out Porras at home plate on a single to right by Adrian Dominguez, but Fuentes then blooped a single to right field and Robinson followed with a two-run single to center.

Rodriguez ended up striking out eight batters and allowing 10 hits in going the distance for Pecos.

In Friday's game, Barney Rodriguez pitched out of a couple of jams, allowing just one run in the fifth after Monahans loaded the bases with none out, and then surviving a pair of leadoff singles by Martin Brito and Porras in the bottom of the ninth to get Robinson to ground into a fielder's choice put out at second with the bases loaded.

Brito pitched the first seven innings for Monahans, allowing only a Joey Ortega RBI double in the fourth, before Joey Aguilar came on in the eighth inning. He ended up taking the loss when Ramirez walked to lead off the 10th, went to second on a passed ball by Robinson and scored when Aguilar threw low to first base on a sacrifice bunt by Abila.

Miles then booted Barney Rodriguez' grounder to shortstop and Abila scored when Robinson's throw to second on a steal by Rodriguez bounced into center field.

"We had trouble on offense, but we didn't let our offense affect our defense," said Williams. "They made some good plays and we made some good plays and Barney did a great job pitching against a good team."

Williams said Matthew Levario would probably start tonight's game against Fort Stockton, whom the Eagles scrimmaged three weeks ago on the Panthers' home field.

Bears run by No. 6 Ira, face No. 2 Utopia next

By JON FULBRIGHT
Staff Writer
Slow starts on offense had been a problem in recent games for the Balmorhea Bears, coach Adolfo Garcia said last week. But when the Bears needed a fast start on Friday night against the Ira Bulldogs they got it, and they would also get a series of key defensive plays in the third quarter to help make that start stand up in their Class A-Division II area round playoff game.

The sixth-ranked Bulldogs never led in the game, as 10th-ranked Balmorhea jumped ahead of Ira early, 17-8, then withstood a series of comeback tries to score a 62-55 win at the Odessa Permian High School gym, sending the Bears into a regional quarterfinal game at 7 p.m. on Tuesday in Ozona against second-ranked Utopia.

"We usually start slow on offense, but we played at least average this time, which helped us a lot by not giving them any confidence," said Garcia. "But they're a good team. They wouldn't go away and kept coming at us and coming at us."

Ira used a nine-player rotation, while Garcia stuck with his five starters for most of the first half. At the outset, the Bears were able to use their quickness to come up with a series of turnovers and fast breaks to jump out to an early lead, but began to tire by the end of the half, allowing Ira to cut a 27-15 lead to 27-21 at halftime.

Baskets by Jerry Mendoza, Jourmain Matta and Isaiah Rodriguez got the Bears their early lead, and the Bears were able to steal the ball several times from guards Nathan Smith and Todd Wall, while the Bulldogs had trouble doing the same to the Bears' point guard Ivan Rodriguez. "At the point we have a mismatch with Ivan Rodriguez, because hardly anybody can stop him except himself," said Garcia.

Rodriguez and Matta were the ones who came up with three key defensive plays in the third period, after Ira cut the Bears lead to 30-29 on an Erick Dickerhoff basket. Mendoza found Isaiah Rodriguez for a lay-up to put Balmorhea back up by three, and then Ivan Rodriguez stole the ball from Wall and fed Matta for a basket, while Matta would block a shot by Wall the next time down, setting up an Ivan Rodriguez-to-Isaiah Rodriguez lay-up, then stole the ball to set up another Isaiah Rodriguez basket, this time off an assist from Mendoza.

Isaiah Rodriguez would hit a turn-around jumper after that, to put the Bears ahead by 11, 40-29, but Ira would have a couple more rallies in them.

Dickerhoff would heat up from the outside as the fourth quarter began, hitting a pair of jumpers, including a 3-pointer, to cut the lead to 45-40. Meanwhile, Ivan Rodriguez would pick up his fourth foul late in the third period, while Matta and Mendoza were whistled for their fourth fouls early in the final quarter.

In-between, Wall would pick up his fifth foul for the Bulldogs and was forced to leave the game, but Ivan Rodriguez would foul out less than a minute later for the Bears. Sammy Dominguez replaced him, but it was the combination of Isaiah Rodriguez and Mendoza that stepped up down the stretch.

Mendoza would do most of the ball handling and worked inside for a pair of lane jumpers after Ira closed to within 45-41, and Rodriguez would follow with a trio of lay-ups, two off steals, to put Balmorhea ahead 57-46 with 1:25 to play.

Ira still had one more rally left, as Jake Barnes got open for a couple of lay-ups and Smith hit a jumper and two foul shots. But Isaiah Rodriguez went 3-for-4 from the foul line in the final 35 seconds, and closed out the game with a lay-up just before the buzzer for the last of his game-high 27 points.

"Jerry Mendoza stepped us for us. We've had Ivan mostly at point guard, and nobody had really done it other than practice, so I was really worried," said Garcia. Mendoza finished with 20 points for Balmorhea, 22-1, while Barnes had 17 points and Smith 13 for Ira, which finishes with a 15 _ 11 record.

The Bears will now try and earn a trip to the Class A-Division II regional tournament against Utopia, which defeated Panther Creek on Thursday by a 44_35 final score. "It's going to be a tough game," said Garcia. "They've got a roster of 6-8, 6-4, 6-3, 6-3 and 5.



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Pecos Enterprise
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