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February 10, 1997

Warbirds take 7-of-8 Golden Gloves bouts


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By JON FULBRIGHT
Staff Writer
PECOS, Feb. 10 -- Pecos-Barstow Warbird boxers scored wins in eight of
nine fights over the weekend, and took home seven Junior Olympic
Division titles from the Third Annual West of the Pecos Golden Gloves,
held at the Reeves County Civic Center.

The eight fighters earned the tournament's team trophy, but Warbirds'
manager and tournament director Fred Martin turned it down as the host
team. Andrews and Snyder ended up sharing the trophy.

"It turned out to be real good," Martin said of the team and the
tournament, which attracted full houses to the Civic Center both nights.
"I was real proud of those guys.

"We had a few lopsided decisions, but overall, we had some exciting
fights," he added.

No fight was more lopsided than Jacob Nunez' one-punch victory over
Joseph Armendariz on Saturday, as the Andrews boxer came out and knocked
the Rankin fighter to the canvas five seconds into the first round. But
in other fights on Saturday, boxers who took standing eight counts early
in their bouts came back to earn victories.

That included two Pecos fighters, Jaime Montano and Jesus Marruffo.
Montano took a count in the first round of his 16-year-old bout at 140
pounds against Keenan Stringer of the Twin City Tigers, then came back
to stop the taller fighter on a disqualification in the third round.

Marruffo got into trouble in the second round of his bout with Joe
Charles of the Lubbock Warriors. He was stunned by Charles, but was able
to earn the decision in the 135-pound bouts in the 15-16 year old class,
one of the two most controversial decisions of the night.

"The second round he did lose," said Warbird manager Roy Juarez. "He
came out and got him, and after that he didn't see much. He was just
numb the rest of the round. But he came back in the third, and in the
second half, he got a few good combinations in."

Juarez said he was about to toss in the towel on Montano, when Stringer
was disqualified when he lost his mouthpiece for the second time in the
third round. "I told him to do his stuff, but he didn't throw his
punches the way he was supposed to," Juarez said.

In between those two bouts, Ricky Rubio scored a victory by decision
over Jose Gonzales of San Angelo Luna in a 130-pound bout in the
15-year-old division, while Gilbert Plasencia defeated Steve Benitez of
Sundown in a 119 pound fight in the 15-year-old bracket.

"In the first round Ricky did all right, but in the second round he was
just watching his opponent. But in the third round he came out and did
what I told him -- stick and turn," Juarez said.

Plasencia came out strong against Benitez, who took a standing eight
count in the first round. He would come back later, almost forcing
Plasencia out of the ring in the third round, but the Warbird boxer was
able to maintain control throughout.

Earlier, Isiah Juarez won his second bout in as many nights, downing
Anthony Bernal of the San Angelo Marshal Arts Association to win the
title in the 8-10 year old bracket at 70-75 pounds. Juarez had defeated
Santos Martinez of Fort Stockton on Friday night.

Also winning, after a slow start on Saturday, was Peter Juarez. Fighting
at 80-85 pounds in the 12-14 year old division, he downed Jaime Gonzlaes
of San Angelo Luna. "He dropped his hands a little (in the first round),
but in the third round, he did real good," Roy Juarez said. "Isiah went
in there and threw punches. He was a little wild, but he threw punches."

Also winning by walkover was Michael Vasquez, over Daniel Rivera of
Rankin in the 11-12 year old bracket at 80-85 pounds. Vasquez reached
the finals be defeated Henry Castillo of the Lubbock Warriors on Friday.

Plasencia won later that night by walkover against Albert Luna of San
Angelo, while Paul Juarez lost his Friday night decision to Joseph
Martinez of Snyder in the 12-14 year old bracket at 90-100 pounds.

None of the Warbirds fought in the Open Division of the tournament,
whose winners will advance to the State Golden Gloves Tournament on
March 4-8 in Fort Worth. There was one championship bout in that
division on Friday, with Humberto Zubia defeating Matta Franco in the
139 pound bracket, while five others were decided on Saturday.

The closest, and the most controversial decision of the night, saw Jesse
Luna of San Angelo lose to Juan Ernest Zamora of Andrews. But Martin
said Luna will represent West Texas at the state tournament. "The other
kid realized he had lost the fight and conceded, which was a real good
thing to do," Martin said.

That bout was in the 119-pound division, while Shavonn Price of the
Lubbock Warriors defeated Steve Acala of Colorado City in the 132 pound
division, David Sanchez of Odessa Top stopped Roy Abalos of Rankin in
the second round in the 156 pound division, Chris Molina of Monahans
beat Cesar Ortiz of Fort Stockton on a disqualification in the first
round of their Light-heavyweight bout, and Larry Guevara of San Angelo
Pumas recovered from a standing eight count in the first round to stop
Rankin's Chris Rodriguez in the second round of their heavyweight
matchup.

Five other weight classes were decided by walkovers in the tournament,
as the Open Division again had fewer fighters than hoped for this year.
But overall, Martin said he was happy with the results of the two-day
tournament.

"It seemed like the crowd was picking up. Hopefully, we can continue
getting support from our local people, and will keep getting the out of
town people to come in like they did this year," Martin said.

Pecos' faster times not enough to earn state trips


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PECOS, Feb. 10 -- Faster times didn't translate into more points or any
state berths for the Pecos Eagles' swim team, but coach Terri Morse was
still happy with her team's performance at the Region I Swimming and
Diving Championships in Lubbock on Friday and Saturday.

Pecos' boys ended up eighth at the regional meet, finishing with nine
points in a division won by El Paso Eastwood, with 72 points. Pecos'
girls, meanwhile, were shut out of the Top 6 in finals this season, with
El Paso Franklin taking the title with 94 points and Monahans ending up
as the highest-ranked District 4 team, finishing with 16 points and in
eighth place.

"Everybody did pretty good, but it was just a real fast meet this year,"
Morse said. "We may not have gotten as many points this year as in the
past, but the kids cut their times from district to regionals, so in
that way it was a successful meet."

Unlike other University Interscholastic League sports, all schools from
Class A to 5A compete together at regionals, and this year, the 5A teams
not only swept first place in all the events, they took the top three
positions in each race on both the boys and girls sides.

"We did figure out at regional that out of 192 swimmers there were 22
swimmers from 4A schools and under in the final, ad out of those 22,
eight were from Pecos, so I was real proud of that," said Morse, who
added the UIL is expected to look at splitting the state meet into 5A
and sub-5A divisions during their March meeting.

Individually, Morse said freshman Kevin Bates broke his own school
record in the backstroke set two weeks ago at district, going 100 yards
in 57.36 seconds while placing sixth. The Eagles' 200 freestyle relay
team of Bates, Seth Whitworth, William Kiefer and Dennis Harris also set
a new record with a 1:33.49 time for a fifth place finish, and in that
race, Whitworth's 22.39 second leg over 50 yards broke the old school
mark held by Jon Sperl.

"I had them check the time on the 200, because it was so far off what I
had for them," Morse said. The team was originally clocked at 1:33.86, a
10th of a second off the school mark, before the change was made when
problems were found in the touch pad.

Whitworth also took sixth in the 200 individual medley with a 2:05.57
time, and the senior later placed seventh in the 100 breaststroke. The
boys' other points came from Bates, Harris, Al Tillman and Kenneth
Friar, who were sixth in the 200 medley relay, and from freshman diver
Scott Pounds, who also placed sixth.

The Eagles' 400 freestyle relay team was seventh in the final event of
the meet, while the girls' lone final berth came in the 200 free relay,
where Dionnie Munoz, Megan Freeman, Christi Whitworth and Liz Parent
also took seventh.

The top eight finishers in Friday's preliminaries advanced to the
finals, where points were scored for the top six finishers. The winner
for each event is also the only automatic state qualifier, while other
state berths are based on times.

"If they had a separate finals for 4A and under, we would have sent all
three boys relays to state, and possibly one girls relay, depending on
the times," Morse said. "What they want to go to is a 5A heat and a 4A
and under heat at regionals. That's going to come up in March, and
hopefully, we can get that changed.

Shorthanded Eagles beaten to end season


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PECOS, Feb. 10 -- Playing the district champions in their own building
to close out the regular season is tough enough. Playing them without
two of your three leading scorers is really tough.

That's what the Pecos Eagles tried to do Friday night in Sweetwater,
when they came out on the short end of a 95-51 final score.

Pecos played without starting posts Omar Hinojos and Fabien Adame, both
of whom Eagles' coach Mike Sadler said were out for disciplinary
reasons. That was more than enough for Sweetwater, which was minus
starter Robert Reed for the final regular season contest.

Jason Blueford, Sherdick Williams and Derrick Franklin combined for 40
points, as Sweetwater built a 21-7 lead after one period, then broke
things open with a 29-11 run in the third period.

Even without the 6-foot-7 Reed, the Mustangs were able to control things
inside due to the absence of the Eagles' posts. Pecos had to rely on
their outside shooting, but their six 3-point baskets was more than
offset by the Mustangs' 36 2-point field goals and 20-for-27 foul
shooting.

Jacob Chavez had a trio of 3-pointers and led Pecos with 14 points,
while Eric Abila had 11 in his final game on the Eagles' varsity. The
loss ended the Eagles' season with a 2-8 record in District 4-4A, 9-15
overall.

Sweetwater won its second straight district title (last year's crown
coming as a member of District 5-4A), and earned them a first round bye
in the playoffs. They finished 9-1 in 4-4A play, and 22-7 overall.

Big Spring clinched second place last week, then edged Fort Stockton
68-67 to close out their regular season on Friday. Combined with
Andrews' victory over San Angelo Lake View, it created a three-way tie
for third place, forcing first a coin flip, and then two playoff games.

The Mustangs won the flip, forcing Fort Stockton and Lake View to play
on Saturday at Greenwood, where the Panthers downed the Chiefs, 69-59.
They'll go back to Greenwood to face Andrews tonight, with the winner
moving on to the bi-district round of the playoffs this weekend.

PECOS (51)
E. Abila 4 2-2 11; J. Abila 1 0-0 2; Luna 2 0-0 5; Martinez 3 1-2 7;
Garcia 1 0-0 3; Marquez 0 1-2 1; Navarette 2 4-4 8; Chavez 3 5-6 14.
Totals 16 13-16 51.

SWEETWATER (95)
Blueford 7 0-0 14; Boatright 2 1-2 5; Williams 2 8-8 12; King 2 0-0 4;
Rhodes 7 0-0 15; Bishop 5 1-2 11; Franklin 6 2-2 14; Barnes 0 6-8 6;
Brim 3 1-2 7; Wright 3 1-1 7. Totals 37 20-27 95.

Pecos 7 15 11 16 --51
Sweetwater 21 19 29 26 --95

Three-point goals: Pecos 6 (Chavez 3, Garcia, Luna, E. Abila),
Sweetwater 1 (Rhodes).
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State and Regional Sports Pages--San Angelo Standard-Times


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