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Daily Newspaper and Travel Guide
for Pecos Country of West Texas
Sports
Monday, January 29, 2001
Pecos swimmers sweep district titles
By LEIA HOLLAND
Staff Writer
PECOS, Jan. 29, 2001 -- For the first time since 1995, both the Pecos High
School boys and girls swimming teams won the District 3-4A Championship
titles this weekend in Big Spring.
Head Coach Terri Morse said she knew the team would do well but was not
prepared for what happened.
"I knew we would have a good meet," she said. "I just didn't know how
good."
The Pecos boys won their 10th title in 12 years, finishing
with a total 142 points ahead of second place Andrews, which finished with
57 points. The Pecos girls ended up with 123 points to beat out Abilene Wylie
with 54 points and win their seventh title in 11 years.
Morse said that she was happy that both teams won and was glad that the
seniors were able to pull off the wins before they graduated.
"I was really happy to see the girls win," she said. "The girls have been
there all year, I'm really happy for them."
Senior Co-Captain Grant Holland said that both teams have been working
toward winning the district titles at the same time for a long time and happy
that it happened this year.
"It's been a long time since that's happened," he said. "And the girls
deserved it, they've been working harder than I've ever seen anybody work."
"I think the girls really pulled through," Senior Co-Captain JoAnn Wein
said. "We did a lot better than we expected to do, especially Becca (Wein)
and Lauren (Wein)."
Morse said that the results of the meet exceeded her expectations especially
some unexpected first place finishes from junior Rebecca Wein and sophomore
Lauren Wein.
Rebecca Wein was able to out touch the competition to take home first
place in the 100-yard butterfly with a time of 1:14.02, just two tenths of
a second ahead of Kelli Wallace of Andrews.
Lauren Wein exceeded Morse's expectations and her own when she gave a
very emotional performance pulling just slightly ahead of the pack and finishing
first in the 100-yard backstroke with a time of 1:12.10, to beat out Paula
De Carli of Andrews by .22 second.
In addition to the two district champion titles the Eagles brought home
three more awards.
Two of them belong to Morse herself after she was named District 3-4A
Coach of the Year for both the boys and girls teams.
Senior JoAnn Wein also received the honor of being named Female Swimmer
of the Year.
"It was my goal from last year and I was happy to get it," she said.
"There were a bunch of girls that deserved to get it."
The boys A relay of Cortney Freeman, Jason Lopez, Holland and Randall
Reynolds broke the district record in the 200-yard freestyle relay with a
time of 1:34.68.
Holland said they were surprised by the race because it was supposed to
be a tight race between them and the Monahans team, which finished two seconds
behind.
"That was cool cause the last time we swam it we couldn't break 1:40,"
he said.
The 1999 Pecos team set the previous record when they finished with a
1:34.98.
Senior Tye Edwards set a new school record for the 100-yard butterfly
that was set by Pecos' Evan Bates in 1995. Edwards placed second in the race
to Wylie's John Ouimette, who broke Bates' 55.75 district record with a 53.79.
After a great day of swimming during preliminaries on Friday the diving
teams started off finals on Saturday morning.
Senior Jenny Alvarez helped the girls by diving well during the eight
dive prelims making it into finals, where she placed third with a total of
202 points behind second place Lareina Partain of Andrews winner Haylee Hall
of Abilene Wylie, who 263.15 points.
On the boys' side senior Wesley Roberts finished in fourth place while
Michael Juarez and Leroy Rodriguez followed with fifth and sixth. All five
of the Pecos divers will advance to the regional swim meet in Lubbock.
The swimming finals opened with the girls' A team of JoAnn Wein, Rachelle
Eisenberg, Rebecca Wein and Sarah Flores wining 200-yard medley relay with
a time of 2:06.50.
JoAnn Wein continued to gain momentum for the girl's team by winning the
200-yard freestyle with a time of 2:13.81, 4 ½ seconds better then
teammate Jessica Minjarez, wo was second Lauren Wein finished sixth in the
race.
Eagles survive struggles to get past Wildcats
By JON FULBRIGHT
Staff Writer
PECOS, Jan. 29, 2001 -- It may not have been pretty -- and at times it may
have been pretty ugly -- but in the end, the Pecos Eagles' game Friday
night against the Fabens Wildcats did what the Eagles hoped it would
do: Get them back into sole possession of third place in the District
2-4A girls basketball standings.
The Eagles jumped out to a 10-point first quarter lead on the poor-shooting
Wildcats, and then were able to come up with an answer for each Fabens comeback
attempt, eventually winning by a 47-39 final score at the Pecos High School
gym.
"It was much than Tuesday, except for some of the fouls," said Eagles'
coach Veronica Valenzuela, who was hoping her team would add to their lead
after the opening period, and then not try to add to it in the closing minutes,
when Fabens cut a 20-point deficit in the third quarter down to 10 points.
"When I wanted them to pass the ball around and take some time off the clock,
that's when they wanted to shoot."
Pecos would have foul problems in the second half, and stretches of turnover
problems at times during the game, but in each case they were able to come
up with a key basket top stop Fabens' run.
In the second quarter, after Fabens cut a 14-4 lead down to 14-10, it
was a Dee Dee Molinar basket off a pass from Christina Arenivas that stopped
the run and began a 10-1 streak by the Eagles that upped their lead to 24-11.
Jessica Rodriguez followed up Molinar's basket with a three-point play, and
Philly Fobbs, who had six of Pecos 12 points in the first period, then scored
on a steal and lay-up as part of the streak.
In the third period, after a 3-point shot by Naomi Magallanes cut Pecos'
lead back to 26-19, Marisela Arenivas hit a 3-point shot of her own and Christina
Arenivas then hit a pair of baskets, as the Eagles were able to break the
Wildcats' full-court press. Marisela Arenivas would then hit two free throws
and Christina Arenivas put in two more lay-ups, and the Eagles' lead was
suddenly 39-19.
That's when the foul problems began to take their toll. The Eagles put
the Wildcats in the bonus before Fabens had committed their second foul of
the half. Lizzy Avitia closed the quarter back hitting four of six free throws,
and the Wildcats ended up taking 15 of their 21 free throws on the night
over a seven minute stretch of the third and fourth quarters, when they halved
Pecos' lead.
But the clock was on Pecos' side by then, going under the two minutes
mark by the time Olga Portillo rebounded a missed shot and scored to make
it 47-37. Fabens was forced to foul to put Pecos on the line, and Maricela
Arenivas hit two final free throws, while the Wildcats failed to connect
from 3-point range.
Every Eagle scored in the game, with Christina Arenivas' 12 points leading
Pecos, while Fobbs had 11. Magallanes and Rebecca Alarcon scored eight points
to top Fabens, which also saw all of its players score, but fell to 0-7 in
district play.
Although the game was better than Pecos' 60-43 loss at Clint last Tuesday,
Valenzuela said the Eagles still seem sluggish when they play at home. "I
don't know what it is — if they're nervous or what playing at home.
It's not like the stands are filled for them to be nervous, but they're more
aggressive on the road."
The Eagles will try to play well on the road this week, when they go to
face the teams just behind them and just in front of them in the district
standings, Canutillo and Mountain View. The 4-3 Eagles moved a game up on
the 3-4 Golden Eagles and stayed a game behind the 5-2 Lobos, after Mountain
View's 51-32 win at home over Canutillo on Friday. First place Clint clinched
a trip to the playoffs with a 37-30 win at San Elizario in Friday's other
2-4A game.
FABENS (37)
Alarcon 3 2-6 8; Martinez
1 0-1 2; Provencia 2 0-0 4; Montelago 1 0-0 2; Portillo 1 2-4 4; Magallanes
3 0-0 8; Garcia 1 0-0 2; Avitia 1 5-10 7. Totals 13 9-21 37.
PECOS (49)
C. Arenivas 5 2-3 12;
Rodriguez 2 1-3 5; Maldonado 0 2-2 2; Molinar 2 0-0 4; M. Arenivas 2 3-4
9; Terry 3 0-1 6; Fobbs 4 3-5 11. Totals 18 11-18 49.
Fabens 4 12
7 14 — 37
Pecos 12 14
13 10 — 49
Three-point goals: Fabens
2 (Magallanes 2), Pecos 2 (M. Arenivas 2). Technical foul: Fabens coach Castaneda.
Fouled out: Fabens, Provencia. Pecos, Rodriguez. Total fouls: Fabens 19,
Pecos 22.
Fabens' late explosion drops Pecos
PECOS, Jan. 29, 2001 -- With just over a minute left in the third quarter
Pecos Ezra Varela went into the lane and hit a 10-foot jumper, cutting the
Fabens Wildcats' lead over the Pecos Eagles to 50-40.
Final score nine minutes later — Fabens 90, Pecos 55.
"We ran into a buzzsaw," said Eagles' coach Tino Acosta, who saw the Wildcats'
Abel Juarez go wild from 3-point range, hitting four of his five 3s in a
38-point fourth quarter after Pecos had used the shooting of Varela to cut
a 19-point lead in the second period down to 14 by the half, and then knock
14 points off a 50-26 lead in the third period.
Varela scored 17 points in the first half and had 25 of the Eagles' 40
points by the time they cut the gap to 10. But staying in the game came at
a cost for the Eagles, who had run out of time outs by the time the fourth
period began, leaving Acosta with no way to slow things down in the final
period, when the Wildcats got hot and the Eagles lost their composure against
the full-court press.
"I kind of felt bad about that. I wanted to call a time out but I had
used all of them just to keep within striking distance," Acosta said. "I
didn't see any point in saving the time outs if we were going to be behind
by 30 in the third quarter."
Juarez' explosion spoiled what had been a good defensive effort by the
Eagles against the Wildcats, who had racked up 86 points against Canutillo
in their last game, to move into a tie with the Golden Eagles and San Elizario
for first place in the District 2-4A standings.
"We tried pressing them early and they went right through it, so we got
out of that because I wasn't going to let them have a lay-up drill," said
Acosta. "I thought after that we played some of our best halfcourt defense
of the season.
"Ezra got hot and that got us going, but what got Ezra going was he busted
his hump on defense against (Manny) Solis and the rest of them started buying
into that," Acosta said. "Cesar (Coria) also did a good job inside. He caused
(Alonzo) Favela all kinds of problems."
The 5-10 Coria was able to do a good job keeping the 6-5 Favela away from
the basket, though he struggled at the other end from the foul line, while
Solis, the district's leading scorer, ended up with 23 points, but nearly
half of that came during the fourth quarter outburst.
But focusing on stopping Favela and Solis left Juarez open outside. He
was quiet in the first half, hitting just once from 3-point range, but hit
back-to-back 3s in the fourth period, the second off a steal, as part of
a 22-0 run by Fabens that turned their 50-40 lead into a 72-40 game just
3 1/2 minutes into the final quarter. His last 3-pointer gave the Wildcats
their largest lead, at 88-48, before Saul Garcia and Adrian Tarin hit a couple
of outside shots in the closing minutes of play.
Varela ended up with 26 points and Garcia finished with 11, while Juarez
had 17 points and Favela 15 for the Wildcats. Fabens' win put them at 4-1
in district and kept them tied for first with San Elizario, 49-35 winners
at Clint, and Canutillo, which beat El Paso Mountain View at home by a 40-31
final score.
Canutillo and Mountain View will be where the Eagles go this week, as
they begin the second half of District 2-4A play looking for their first
win, after an 0-5 first half.
Pecos did win Friday's junior varsity game, by a 52-49 score, while Fabens
won the freshman game, 51-44. Jaime Gomez led the JV with 15 points, and
John Parent topped the ninth graders with 18.
FABENS (90)
Solis 9 3-4 23; Ontiveros
1 2-2 4; Juarez 6 0-0 17; Estrada 6 0-0 13; Ihmud 1 0-0 2; Silva 0 5-6 5;
DeAnda 2 2-2 7; Loya 1 0-2 2; Favela 7 1-1 15; Tacker 1 0-0 2. Totals 34
13-17 90.
PECOS (55)
A.Garcia 0 0-0 0; S.
Garcia 3 3-5 10; Cervantes 0 0-0 0; Varela 9 7-10 26; Torres 2 2-3 4; Tarin
2 0-0 5; Ortega 1 3-4 5; Mora 0 0-0 0; Vasquez 0 0-1 0; Coria 1 0-6 2. Totals
17 15-29 55.
Fabens 17 23
12 38 — 90
Pecos 8 18
14 15 — 55
Three-point goals: Fabens
9 (Juarez 5, Solis 2, Estrada, DeAnda), Pecos 4 (S. Garica 2, Varela, Tarin).
Fouled out: None. Total fouls: Fabens 24, Pecos 19.
Pecos Enterprise
York M. "Smokey" Briggs, Publisher
Division of Buckner News Alliance, Inc.
324 S. Cedar St., Pecos, TX 79772
Phone 915-445-5475, FAX 915-445-4321
e-mail news@pecos.net
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Copyright 2000 by Pecos Enterprise
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