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Sports

November 6, 1997

Cowgirls gallop toward playoffs

Grandfalls-Royalty's Cowgirls roll into the bidistrict round of
the playoffs today after stopping Wink in a tough two-game match
on Saturday, Nov. 1, and winning the District 7A volleyball
championship.

It was the second time Grandfalls, who finished the regular season
at 23-6 (6-0 in district), had beaten Wink (15-15 and 4-2) this
season.

"If things go as expected, we'll probably meet Wink again (in the
regional volleyball playoffs)," says Cowgirl Coach Laura Moses.

Moses says Wink Coach Danna Flat's volleyball squad is excellent
and a challenge. The two-game win over Wink, although it was a
two-game set, shows how close the contest was - 15-13, 15-12.

Winning district championships is getting to be a habit for
Grandfalls volleyball.

Everyone knows about repeat. There even is a sports cliche called,
"three-peat." How do you say five consecutive district
championships? "Five-peat" just doesn't have the proper ring.

"I've only been here for the last two district championships,"
says Moses. "The reason we win is the girls, the team. Our girls
realize that. The team wins and the team loses and in Grandfalls
the team usually wins."

Within an hour or two after winning the 1997 district crown on
Saturday, the Grandfalls Cowgirls were in a Monahans restaurant
celebrating. They cheered and yelled and generally were happy.
Even Grandfalls-Royalty Superintendent Charles Carter carried the
district trophy around the room, proud of what his school
district's volleyball team has done.

Wednesday, the Cowgirl Volleyball team was back at work. They open
bidistrict with District 8A runner-up Miles (12-10) at Midland
Greenwood. Wink is playing at the same venue, meeting Water Valley
(11-18), the district 8A champion.

Moses notes the championship victory over Wink was an example of
Cowgirl volleyball and team cohesiveness. Literally every player,
she notes, contributed.

That can readily be seen from the game's statistics. In a game
that puts six players on the floor at a time, eight
Grandfalls-Royalty volleyballers made the statistics sheet.

And statistics don't tell the whole story. Defensive ability
sometimes is not wholly assessed by the defensive numbers.
Grandfalls volleyball has depth.

The reason Grandfalls has beaten Wink, a team Moses respects
greatly, twice this season, says Moses: "The girls usually get up
for Wink. We're ready for Wink. We know what Wink does."

In the championship match with Wink, as usual, a Cowgirl stepped
forward to lead the charge. It isn't always the same one or ones

This time, this championship game, says Moses, everyone
contributed and "We had a couple of girls that stepped up - Misty
Stocks up front and Donna Olivas on the backline."
Tonight the bidistrict starts against Miles.

"We'll be getting ready, making sure the girls eat well and get
plenty of sleep. Everyone is healthy and ready to play," says
Moses. "We have to win four more matches to go to the state
championship in Austin."

Cowboys corral Sanderson 72-28

SANDERSON - By the time the referees threw in the towel in the
third quarter and mercifully invoked six-man football's 45-point
mercy rule, the Grandfalls-Royalty Cowboys had corralled Sanderson
72-28 and proved football prognosticators to be beings without
redemption.

Although it won't be official until this Friday night, Nov. 7,
when Grandfalls meets Marathon, winless in the district and 2-7
for the season, the Cowboys are the District 8-1A champions.

They have won the district crown for the second straight season.
They did it although a coach's poll in the district and a covey of
misguided sportswriters really thought Balmorhea would take the
district. This happened although Grandfalls was returning
essentially the same team that won the district title in 1996. The
Cowboys came within a few inches of the final eight in the race
for the 1996 state championship.

After the Cowboys stopped Balmorhea in Balmorhea, Sanderson was
the pundit's pick to derail the Big Red Express.

It didn't happen.

It wasn't even pretty.

Running back Roy Vasquez, lightning and all, scored five
touchdowns. Alfonso Marquez had three. The whole game against
Sanderson was a mismatch, something that was not supposed to
happen.

Marquez gained 176 yards on 11 carries. Vasquez had 161 on 13.

Overall, the Cowboys literally romped. They had 421 rushing yards
on 32 plays. First downs? None were reported for Grandfalls. Every
series they ran seemed to end in a score. No first downs required.
None were reported for Sanderson.
They didn't make any because of Cowboy defense..

Sanderson was 4-2 in district but it had been stopped by Balmorhea
which Grandfalls came within only a few points of mercy-ruling.
All of this means the Grandfalls-Royalty Cowboys are the district
champions, even if the football Gods do something unexpected and
they lose to Marathon. If they did lose, they still would be
champions because they beat Balmorhea. The Cowboy roundup in
Sanderson leaves the Ward County football team with 19 straight
regular season victories dating to last year

Teague breaks 16 year old record

BIG SPRING - Candice Teague, a sophomore Lobo swimmer who has been
swimming competitively since she was six years old, burned a trail
in the water at the Big Spring Invitational, Saturday, Nov. 1.

She won the 100-meter backstroke challenge but she also shattered
a 16-year-old Monahans High School women's record for the distance
by nearly a full second.

"She's only a sophomore," says her father, Mark. "She went in the
water to win but no one expected her to break the record like
that. We didn't. She didn't. She did."

Teague's time in the 100-back was 1:04.79.

That clocking eclipsed the old backstroke record of 1:05.73
established for Big Green women swimmers by Cynthia Ferguson in
1981.

"Teague turned on the steam," reports Coach Doug Ward, "as she
swam to a 1:04.79 breaking the old record of 1:05.73."
In the men's competition, Lobo backstroker Brandon Sutter swam a
personal best of 1:03.97 in the 100-back. It was good for 12
points of the 38 points won by the Monahans swimmers in the
invitational.

Thirteen swim teams participated in the meet. Monahans finished
eleventh with 38 points. Green women swimmers finished sixth with
135 points. The combined total of 173 points was good for a tie
for seventh with Fort Stockton.

Lobo Swim Summary

Women

200 Medley Relay - Fifth, Monahans A (Candice Teague, Lindsay
Fredericks, Marina Martin, Fonda Moore 2:07.17). Twelfth, Monahans
B (Jamie Butters, Karen Robertson, Audrey Cox, Reberah Robinson.
2:36.06
200 Free - Fourth, Teague, 2:15.84; Sixth, Moore, 2:26.77.
200 IM - Fourth, Martin, 2:37.86.
50 Free - Tenth, Cox, 31.16.
100 Fly: Fifth, Martin, 1:15.20.
100 Free - Sixth, Fredericks, 1:03.89.
500 Free - Twelfth, Robinson, 7:45
200 Free Relay - Fifth, Monahans A (Moore, Martin, Fredericks,
Teague) 1:55.4. Eleventh Monahans B (Robertson, Amy Bowman, Jenny
Waggoner, Cox) 2:10.32.
100 Back - First, Teague, 1:04.79 (Monahans High School Record)
100 Breast: Sixth, Fredericks, 1:19.82. Seventh, Cos, 1:26.28.
400 Free Relay - Twelfth, Monahans A (Butters, Waggoner, Bowman,
Robinson) 5:13.45.

Men

200 Medley Relay - Ninth, Monahans A (Clayton Cunningham, Carlee
Heuman, Brandon Sutter, Josh Oliver) 2:03.60
50 Free - Eleventh, Oliver, 00.26.06
100 Free - Seventh, Sutter, 00.56.20
200 Free Relay - Ninth (Cunningham, Heuman, Oliver, Sutter)
1:49.57.
100 Back - Third, Sutter, 1:03.97. Twelfth, Cunningham, 1:13.74

Mean green splatters Presidio 69-0

Getting better every week is the goal of every football team. The
Monahans Loboes have pursued that goal every week and last week
was no exception

The Monahans Loboes defeated the Presidio Blue Devils 69-0 to
improve to 4-0 in district play on Halloween Night, Oct. 31, at
home and set up this Friday night's, Nov. 7, game with Alpine in
Alpine for the District 3-3A championship.

Monahans was in complete control of the Presidio game on both
sides of the ball. The Lobo offense ran the ball 43 times for 372
yards and ended the night with 472 yards of total offense. The Big
Green defense demolished the Presidio offensive attack allowing
(-13) yards rushing on 14 carries and only three completions for
28 yards passing for a net of 15 yards of total offense. That
anemic Presidio offense had only three first downs, two of which
came by penalties.

"We came in saying we weren't going to take them (Presidio)
lightly," said senior lineman T.J. Bustos. We wore down a little
but we picked it up in the fourth... that is our quarter."

Although the score was a bit lopsided, the Blue Devils did not
give the game away.

"They were the hardest hitting team we have played this year,"
said Senior quarterback Brandon Stephens. "They may not have all
the talent but they were not scared at all."
"Coach told us all week that they were not going to be afraid of
us and we can't expected to roll a green helmet on the field and
win," said junior Benny Rodriguez. "The have heart... they have a
lot of heart and didn't back down one bit."

In addition to a devastating running game the Loboes put up 100
yards passing on 10 completions with no interceptions.
"Our passing game has really picked up," said Stephens. "The
receivers are catching the ball and the line is doing a great job
up front."

In the first quarter the scoring was lead by senior running back
Robin Hanna who scored off two one yard runs and a 39 yard run.
Senior Chris Allen scored off a 22 touchdown pass to help bring
the score in the first quarter to 28-0.

The second quarter opened up the Lobo air attack with a nine yard
touchdown pass to junior end Ruben Sanchez and a 8 yard touchdown
pass to Allen. The pair of touchdowns moved the Lobo future ahead
at the half 42-0.

The lone touchdown in the third quarter belonged to running back
Mark Thompson whose four yard run increased the Lobo lead to 49-0
going into the final quarter of play.

Senior running backs Lucas Jaquez and Jerry Toscano ate up the
Blue Devil defense on the ground in the fourth quarter. Jaquez had
a 10 yard touchdown run and Toscano a 59 yard scamper to finish
the scoring for the offense. Rodriguez pulled down an interception
and ran it in for a touchdown with 2:40 left to play in the game.

The Loboes improve their district record to 4-0 (6-2 overall),
while Presidio drops to 0-4 (1-8). This week the Loboes will face
the Alpine Bucks for the District 3-3A championship in Alpine. The
Bucks were losing to Mountain View at the half. Alpine scored 21
point in the fourth to pull out a 42-21 win over Mountain View.

Monahans.........28 14 7 22 - 69
Presidio.............0 0 0 0 - 0

Presidio Monahans

First Downs............3 21
Rushing.........14-(-13) 43-372
Passing.................28 100
Total Yards...........15 472
C-A-I.............3-19-4 10-16-0
Punt-Avg. ......5-32.0 0-00.0
Fumb-Lost .........3-3 3-2
Pen.-Yards..........1-5 5-60

First Quarter
Monahans - Robin Hanna 1 run, (Gerald Lopez kick). 07:33
Monahans - Hanna 39 run (kick failed) 04:33
Monahans - Chris Allen 22 pass from Brandon Stephens (Hanna pass
from Stephens) 03:25
Monahans - 3:10, Hanna 1 run (Lopez kick) 03:10

Second Quarter
Monahans - Ruben Sanchez 9 pass form Stephens (Lopez kick) 08:55
Monahans - Allen 8 pass from Stephens (Lopez kick) 00:06

Third Quarter
Monahans - Mark Thompson 4 run (Joel Najar kick) 01:41

Fourth Quarter
Monahans - 7:36, Lucas Jaquez 10 run (kick failed) 07:36
Monahans - Jerry Toscano 59 run (Lopez kick) 03:39
Monahans - Benny Rodriguez 35 interception return (Lopez kick)
02:40

Special Olympic softball wins gold, 2 silvers

MIDLAND - Special Olympics softballer Sylvia Brito of Monahans
won a gold medal and two Monahans players - Amanda McKelvey and
Andrea Moore - won silver in area competition on Saturday, Oct. 25.

They won the awards in the individual skills venue of the Area 18
softball tournament. The three medal winners were part of Coach
Lisa Clower's individual skills group.

Coach Clara Edwards Monahans team, hoping for a third consecutive
championship, finished fourth in the tournament. She says the
competition was tough and she is proud of her team's finish and
their good effort. Edwards adds: "Just wait till next year." Team
competition included Midland Blue, Midland Red, Odessa Adults,
Ector I S D, Lubbock, Plainview, San Angelo and Monahans.

Members of the Monahans Special Olympics softball team are Jerry
Airla, Eddie Carrasco, Tommy Foster, Robbie Garcia, Lee Henson,
Ruben Hernandez, Chad Keyte, Shelley Kidd, Kandle Krhut, Ramon
Valenzuela, Floyd Walker, Cheyrice Wright and Holly Westerman.

The next Special Olympics competition takes place this Winter as
Head Coach Grist Benninger prepares his basketballers for Area 18
basketball in February at Fort Stockton. Frank Krhut, coordinator
of the Monahans Special Olympics, says it's through the local
individuals and groups who give their time or financial support
that the local program can continue. Special Olympics athletes
participate in bowling, softball basketball and track and field.
For information,call Krhut at 943-2647.

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