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Daily Newspaper and Travel Guide
for Pecos Country of West Texas
Thursday, February 5, 2004
Eagles eye fourth straight regional sweep
By JON FULBRIGHT
Staff Writer
The Pecos Eagles will be trying to follow up their fourth straight sweep of the District 4-4A swimming and diving championships two weeks ago with a fourth consecutive sweep of the Region I-4A event this weekend in Lubbock.
But while both the boys and girls are favored again to take the regional crowns, the state qualification system will put pressure on both the boys and girls teams to come in first in their individual events, beginning with this afternoon's 1-meter diving competition.
Diving was set for 1 p.m. today at the Pete Ragus Aquatic Center, while swimming preliminaries and finals will be at 9:30 a.m. on Friday and Saturday, Eagles' coach Terri Morse said. Pecos' Michael Juarez is the defending regional champion, but lost at district in Fort Stockton to Andrews' freshman Matt Culbertson.
Pecos Guthrie Long was third at district, and along with Andrews' Danny Mora, they will be the only divers competing in today's 1-meter event. Only four divers will also compete on the girls' side, none of them from Pecos.
The competition is the swimming events will be greater, and Morse said the Eagles will be under more pressure to win, especially on the girls' side, where Pecos swept all 11 events at district.
Morse said Chapin's Laura Jackson, a third place finisher at state in the 50 yard freestyle in Class 5A and Class 4A her first two years, will be the heavy favorite in that event, won by Susan Moore at district, and in the 100-yard breaststroke, where her district time is almost nine seconds faster than Lindsey Shaw, who took the 4-4A title for the Eagles at district.
"We've got several girls not in the Top 8 that I'd like to see cut their times in the prelims and get into the Top 6 to make the finals," said Morse, and times will be important for all the runners-up. Only the winner of each event automatically qualifies for the Class 4A state meet in Austin.
"Chapin is ranked ahead of us in the 200 (freestyle relay), and they're close in the (200) medley," said Morse. "The El Paso district competition on the girls' side has really gotten faster, so our girls are not up there like they've been. But I feel like we're strong enough to go out there and if we take care of things, get the job done."
Aside from the medley and freestyle relays, two other El Paso swimmers should challenge Pecos' girls for first at district, Chapin's Amanda Navarez in the 100 and 200 freestyle races and El Paso Jefferson's Mary Tooke in the 100 yard backstroke. Navarez is seeded just behind Teddie Salcido in the 200 free and behind Moore in the 100 free, while Tooke is seeded first by 21/2 seconds over Ashley Horsburgh in the 100 backstroke. Monahans' Mackenzie Miles and Andrews' Rachel Hogan and Jessica Farmer will be the other main contenders for regional titles.
The boys won nine of the 11 events at district, and will go into regionals seeded first in all nine. "There's an El Paso guy (Burges' Bobby Gamboa) seeded first in the 200, and Andrews is within two seconds of us in the 200 (freestyle) relay," Morse said.
"I've rested most of the girls for the last week-and-a-half, but the boys I didn't rest, because I feel like they can still have a good meet," she added. "So long as illness doesn't overwhelm us, we'll be OK."
Morse said several Pecos swimmers had been sick during the week, but she added that none of them should miss regionals.
May Key will go into the meet seeded first in both the 50 freestyle and 100-yard breaststroke, while Will Oglesby will be seeded first in the 500 freestyle and the 100-yard backstroke. The other top seeds are K.W. Winkles in the 200 individual medley, Matt Elliott in the 100-yard butterfly and all three of the Eagles' relay teams.
On the girls' side Salcido is seeded first in the 500 as well as the 200 freestyle, while along with Moore in the 100 free and the two relays, the other No. 1 seeds for Pecos is Catherine Minjarez, who is ranked first in both the 200 medley and the 100-yard butterfly.
Pecos earns seconds, one third in powerlifting
The Pecos Eagles' powerlifters picked up a couple of second place finishes on the boys' side and one third place finish on the girls' side last weekend, during competition in Monahans.
David Muniz and Max Miranda finished second in the top two weight classes on the boys' side, while Michelle Wein was third in her 124-pound weight class in the girls division last Saturday. However, coach Patrick Willis said overall, "We didn't do as well as I thought we would do."
"I took some kids to Monahans who never had participated before and made some mistakes, and three kids were one pound over their weights and had to go up a weight class, and that hurt us," he said.
Muniz lifted a combined 1,120 pounds to place second to Monahans' K.C. Williams at 275 pounds, and Miranda lifted 1,305 pounds to finish just behind Seminole's Roger Deleon in the Super Heavyweight division. The only other Top 5 finisher for the boys was Jesus Armendariz, who lifted 1,025 pounds to take fifth in the 242-pound division.
Wein was one of five girls to compete and placed third with a combined total of 475 pounds in her weight class. Jasmin Rodriguez and Savanna Ewing also had combined lifts of over 400 pounds lifting one weight class above Wein, while on the boys' side, Albert Lopez had a 1,015-pound total in the 242-pound division, and Adam Ybarra lifted 1,010 pounds in the 198-pound division.
Pecos Enterprise
York M. "Smokey" Briggs, Publisher
Division of Buckner News Alliance, Inc.
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 by Pecos Enterprise
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