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Newspaper and Travel Guide
for Pecos Country of West Texas
Friday, March 4, 2005
JV girls 2nd in own tourney, varsity girls play
The Pecos Eagles junior varsity girls golf team placed second on Tuesday in their own 18-hole tournament, while the varsity Eagles will be in Midland on Friday and Saturday, competing in the Tall City Invitational.
Pecos shot a 388 to finish second to Andrews, which won with a 357 team score. Monahans’ junior varsity and freshmen teams were next with 410 and 414 scores, while Kermit shot a 430, Seminole had a 447 and Alpine finished with a 566 score.
Stephanie Galnido finished with a 90, the third-best round of the golfers competing on Tuesday, while Maressa Lyles shot a 97, Evelyn Flores shot a 98, Melissa Mendoza a 103 and Kayla Natividad a 105.
“The girls who didn’t play today will be the ones I take over to Midland,” coach Tina Doan said of this Friday and Saturday’s Tall City Invitational. Pecos’ girls placed third last weekend in the rain-shortened Fort Stockton Invitational.
The Eagle boys, who finished 10th a last week in Midland, are off this week, while both teams will be in action next weekend.
Bustamantes, Morales earn all-3-3A spots
Pecos Eagles’ junior post Lupito Bustamantes was named to the All-District 3-3A boys basketball team, while the Eagles’ other junior front-line player, Ricardo Morales, was selected to the All-Defensive Team, in voting by the district’s seven coaches.
The team was selected two weeks ago and released on Tuesday, following Seminole’s 53-48 loss to Abilene Wylie in the Region I-3A quarterfinals.
Bustamantes missed the first part of the 2004-05 season, but led the Eagles in scoring during district play with an 11-point average. Morales was the team’s leading rebounder during the past season both on defense and offense with 131, and was second on the team in steals with 29, as a second-year starter . He was also second on the team I scoring with a 8.7 average.
Eagles’ coach Art Welborn also said senior guard Saul Pina was named to the team as an honorable mention selection. Pina was third in scoring on the team behind Bustamantes and Morales with a 7.8 point average, and first in steals, with 48.
The Eagles finished sixth in district this season with a 2-10 record, while going 5-23 overall for the 2004-05 season, which saw Seminole, Greenwood and Lamesa qualify for the playoffs.
Juniors and seniors split the all-district selection list on the first team squad, with Seminole Junior Micah Clay earning Most Valuable Player honors. Two other juniors, Seminole’s Lance Sheets and Fort Stockton’s J.J. Hickman, were named the Newcomers of the Year, while Greenwood senior Bronson Valencia was the Defensive Player of the Year.
The Indians, who won the District 3-3A title, had two other first team selections, in seniors Matt Castleberry and Cal Hughes. Runner-up Greenwood put senior Andrew Zachary and junior Ryan Beeler on the team, while Lamesa, which finished third, had a pair of juniors selected, in Adam Salinas and Seal Slade.
Presidio put two players on the squad, in senior Jacob Ramirez and junior Hector Rodriguez, while the other first-team spot went to Fort Stockton senior John Gonzales.
Joining Morales on the all-defensive team was Presidio junior Jesus Martinez and four other seniors; Fort Stockton’s Matt Garcia, Lamesa’s Austin Hunter, Monahans’ Tyson Carter and Seminole’s Kenny Getchell.
Pecos Relays open track season for Eagles
A week after the Pecos Eagles junior high teams started off their 2005 track seasons at Eagles Stadium, Pecos’ varsity squads will be doing the same thing, as they host eight other teams on Friday for the West of the Pecos Relays.
The meet will be the opener for the Eagles and several other area teams who saw last week’s Comanche Relays in Fort Stockton rained out. Conditions should be much drier and temperatures about 30 degrees higher than a week ago, when the meet begins with the field events at 1:30 p.m. Running finals are scheduled to start sometime around 6 p.m.
Aside from the Eagles, the other teams entered in Friday’s meet are Fort Stockton, Sweetwater, Presidio, El Paso El Dorado, Midland Christian, Alpine, Stanton and Sanderson.
The extra week before the start of the season has allowed coaches John Fellows and Veronica Valenzuela to fine tune their lineups for the various events a little more, though the boys will be running over half their entries in the meet’s junior varsity division.
“I’ve got a lot of young ones right now,” he said. “I’m going to move some of them up, but this is the first track meet.”
With 15 boys scheduled to compete in the JV division and only 12 in the varsity, Fellows said Pecos would field relays in only two of the three varsity races, the 800 and 1600 meters. The Eagles won’t field a 400-meter relay team on Friday, and Fellows will also be looking at some new faces in the sprint events, after losing senior Rashad Terry due to a school code of conduct violation.
Terry qualified for state in the 100 and 200 meters last year and for regional in the high jump. On Friday, the Eagles will have Matt Elliott running in the 100 and Larry Johnson and Pete Juarez in the 200 meters, while Johnson and Justin Hannsz will compete in the high jump. Elliott, Johnson and Juarez also will be in the 800-meter relay along with Luis Ortega, while Johnson, Juarez, Hannsz and Ortega will make up the 1600-meter relay team.
The only returning regional qualifier for the Eagles is their only senior Chad Evans, in the shot put. He and Julian Garcia will throw both in that and in the discus, while Ruben Salgado will be the Eagles’ third shot putter and Chance Fincher will be the other entry in the discus. Hannsz and Andrew Grant are the two pole-vaulters for Pecos, while Elliott and Grand will also compete in the long jump.
There is no JV division on the girls’ side of the meet, though coach Veronica Valenzuela said she’d have more than three entries in both the discus and shot put.
“We’re going to have the JV girls throw, but they won’t throw for points,” she said. “We’ll have Jessica (Florez) and Chantel (Mazone) throw for sure on the varsity, but the others are throwing off for the third position.”
Like the boys, Valenzuela said the Eagle girls would only run in two of the three relay events, the 400 and 800 meters. “We were going to try and run the mile relay, but some of these girls have been gone so long, I don’t think they’re ready to run the mile,” she said.
The 400 relay team will be all underclassmen, with Octavia and Shatavia Hightower, Ashley Ornelas and Adriana Armendariz, while the 800 will feature both Hightowers, along with Cheyenne Garcia and Jummy Akinyode, one of the Eagles’ two returning regional qualifiers.
Valenzuela said Akinyode would also run in the 200 meters, where she has won the district title the past two seasons, along with the 400 meters. “Cheynne is going to run the same, and we’re going to try Jennifer (Martinez) in the 800 this year,” Valenzuela said.
Martinez qualified for regionals in the 1600 and 3200 meter runs last April. She’ll still run the 1600, but Valemzuela said Deannady Herrera and Heather and Kathryn Lamka would run in the 3200 meters on Friday.
“I’ll have the Hightower twins in the 100 and Adriana in the 100 hurdles, and I may also stick her in the 200 for conditioning,” Valenzuela said. “The rest of them I’m still looking at.”
Pecos at Sandhills after loss to Tigers
The Pecos Eagles knew they were going to field a young baseball team in 2005, with no seniors coming back from last year’s varsity squad. But with three of their regular starters out of the line-up to begin Tuesday’s game against the Snyder Tigers, the even-younger Eagles were taken apart by the 16th-ranked Tigers in the second and third innings of play.
Snyder scored five times in the second inning and then had 11 men cross the plate in the third inning, while Pecos ended up giving up 11 unearned runs on the night. The situation got so bad coach Elias Payan did something he wasn’t planning to do - use No. 1 pitcher Josh Anchondo, and while the junior threw 1 2/3 innings of scoreless ball, the Eagles managed just a single run off a trio of Tiger pitchers and lost by a 16-1 final score.
The loss dropped Pecos to 1-3 going into their opening game on Thursday against the Big Spring Steers at the Monahans Sandhills Tournament. The Eagles were to
start at 12 noon against the Steers, who dropped a 10-2 decision to Odessa Permian on Tuesday.
“Right now we’ve got three starters out and one potential back-up who could help us injured as well,” said Payan. “We’ve got people playing out of position, but that’s no excuse for the way we played. We’re still making too many mental mistakes, and I was hoping we were better than that.”
The Eagles started two juniors, four sophomores and three freshmen on Tuesday, and at one point had four freshmen in the game, after Geno Leos came on to replace Isaiah Rayos on the mound.
Rayos started and retired the side in order in the first inning. But in the second, Ryan Mitchell singled and Eric Martinez then reached on a fly ball single that Juan Garza lost sight of in short left field. Zack Garcia was up next, and he worked the count full before sending a 3-2 pitch deep over the fence in left for a 3-0 Snyder lead.
The defensive problems continued after that. Cole Lancaster would reach on a two-out throwing error by Miguel Estrada at third base and later scored on a balk by Rayos. That came after Brent Bollinger walked, and he scored on a single by Hadley Hurt.
Rayos got out of the inning after that, but then walked Mitchell and Martinez to open the third. Garcia then hit a potential double play grounder, but after Jose Chavez forced Martinez at second, the relay throw from Jonathan Garcia got past Kenny Rayos at first, and Mitchell scored. Chris Smith then got on after Estrada’s second error, and then after Rayos’ second balk, Cade Simpson singled both runners home to make it 8-0.
Lancaster then reached on Garcia’s second error and Bollinger followed with a two-run double. Hirt then reached when Garza dropped his fly ball and Neal then scored Bollinger on a line-drive out to Eddie Vela in center field. Mitchell would walk and move up as Hirt scored on a pickoff throw by Chris Garnto that got into left field, and scored on a bloop double by Martinez to left field.
Leos came on after Rayos walked Zack Garcia, but Martinez would then score on a wild pitch and after a single by Smith, Simpson closed out the scoring for Snyder with a two-run single.
Leos got out of the inning after that, and got Bollinger to open the fourth inning, but after Hirt singled and pinch-hitter Barrett Bowling walked, Payan decided to cut off another big inning by the Tigers and bring in Anchondo, who lasted just two innings in the Eagles’ season opener last Thursday against Monahans due to a bad knee. He struck out Mitchell and Martinez to end the inning, then allowed just one hit while fanning three more batters in the top of the fifth.
“We went over some different pitches that wouldn’t put as much pressure on his knee,” Payan said of Anchondo, who had the knee examined by a doctor on Wednesday. “Josh has grown up a lot from last year. Last year he wouldn’t have wanted to go in and compete like he did.”
Meanwhile, Snyder starter Lance Day went through the first nine batters without allowing a baserunner, and with a 16-run lead, head coach Charles Bollinger replaced him with Neal in the fourth inning and Dustyn Williams in the fifth. Both those pitchers gave up two hits in their inning of work, but Neal allowed only a Kerry Rayos sacrifice fly after leadoff singles by Chavez and Vela, while Williams survived one-out hits by Garnto and Arredondo to retire the side and end the game under the 10-run rule.
“In order for us to get over the hump, we’ve got to be able to play with teams like this and beat teams like Snyder. Their kids are ranked up in the Top 20, and we just didn’t play very well,” Payan said.
He said Vela, who defeated Fort Stockton last Saturday, would start the Sandhills tournament opener, which was played in Kermit. The Eagles could see the Tigers again next weekend, when Pecos goes to the Snyder Tournament.
Pecos girls seek sweep over Bucks
Pecos Eagles’ coach Tammy Walls said things went “better, much better” for her softball team on Tuesday evening in Alpine against the Bucks, and will be looking for the same result against Alpine on Friday, when the Eagles host the Bucks in their final pre-district game.
Pecos defeated Alpine by a 9-4 score to improve their record to 3-5 on the season. Walls said the Eagles couldn’t hold onto a 3-0 lead after the first half-inning of play due to defensive problems, but improved as the game went on and scored in four of the game’s five innings.
“We gave up four unearned runs, which happened in the first two innings. We gave up three runs in the first and one in the second,” she said. “We had a couple of passed balls and an error at shortstop that hurt us. Bianca Baeza caught and she was a little nervous for the first couple of innings, but she settled down and did a fine job after that.”
Amalie Herrera allowed only two hits and struck out four batters, while going 2-for-3 at the plate. Walls said Jenny Palomino was 3-for-3, while Danielle Garcia was 2-for-3 with a two-run double.
Pecos came back to take a 5-3 lead in the second inning, then scored twice in the third and twice more in the fifth to pull away from the Bucks.
“We were able to get baserunners on, and make things happen,” Walls said. “That makes all the difference in the ballgame, when you can make things happen.”
The teams shortened the game in order to get a second game in, though Walls said that was more for practice purposes. “We didn’t keep score and just let everyone bat around,” she said. “We’re just trying to get as many kids out there as possible.”
The game also gave junior Hillery Hinojos a chance to pitch, after Herrera had pitched six of the previous seven games. “We called the pitches and she was able to get them in the different locations, so she settled down and pitched well,” said Walls.
The Eagles and Bucks plan to do the same thing in Pecos on Friday, when they teams play starting at 5 p.m. “We’ll play, and then we’ll let everyone bat through the lineup,” she said. After that, Pecos opens District 3-3A next Tuesday afternoon with a game in Lamesa against the Golden Tornadoes.
Local elections draw little interest as deadline nears
First-time candidates remained absent from local races this week, with the deadline to file for the May 7 city, school district and hospital district elections at 5 p.m. this coming Monday.
With just three days left to file, only one race is assured of being contested in May, after a former Pecos-Barstow-Toyah school board member and its current president joined another incumbent in seeking one of the two available three-year terms.
David Flores and Billie Sadler filed to run for the school board this week, P-B-T secretary Tracey Shaw said. Sadler, the current P-B-T president joins Paul Deishler, the other incumbent whose term is up in May. Flores served three years on the P-B-T board, but was defeated in 2003 in his bid for re-election.
In the Town of Pecos City Council and Reeves County Hospital District elections, all t he incumbents have filed, but as of Thursday there were not challengers for the seats on those two boards.
Gerald Tellez became the third and final incumbent to file for re-election to the city council last Thursday, joining Danny Rodriguez and Frank Sanchez, who filed during the first two weeks of the 29-day filing period. Tellez is the longest currently serving member on the city council, having first been elected 10 years ago.
In the hospital district race, board president Linda Gholson has filed for a new two-year term representing Precinct 2, while Pablo Carrasco has filed for another term as Precinct 2 representative. There have been no filings as of yet for the unexpired term in Precinct 3, which was left vacant last year after the death of board member Bill Wendt.
In the Balmorhea city elections incumbent Ike Ward is the only candidate to have entered the race so far. Along with Ward, the seats currently held by Sammy Baeza and Dora Woodruff on the council are up for election.
In the Balmorhea ISD elections, the terms of Jesse Matta, Javier Lozano and Jaime Barragan are up this year, and the three incumbents have filed for re-election, but as of yet no challengers have entered the race.
Barstow voters will be deciding four races in the May 7 vote. Olga Abila, Dora Villaneuva and Ted Porras won election two years ago to the seats that will be decided in May. They all have filed for new terms, as has Abram Flores, who was elected in 2004 to an unexpired one-year term, city secretary Jo Allgood said.
If there are no contested races in any of the local elections as of the March 7 deadline, those elections can then be cancelled by the group involved in order to save money. Early voting for the May 7 election will get underway on April 20 and run through May 3.
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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