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Daily Newspaper and Travel Guide for Reeves County, Trans-Pecos, Big Bend of West Texas

Sports

Tuesday, February 10, 1998

Eagles look for 4-4A win in Stockton

PECOS, Feb. 10 -- The Pecos Eagles will try to bounce back on the road tonight from their worst loss in District 4-4A play, when they travel to Fort Stockton to take on the Panthers.

The Eagles face the Panthers in junior varsity and varsity games at 6 and 7:30 p.m. toinght. It's the next-to-last game of the season for Pecos, who wrap things up at home Friday against Sweetwater.

The Eagles are 0-8 in district and come off a 72-49 loss this past Friday in Big Spring, in which they were unable to hit an outside shot over the first 3½ quarters of play. However, most of their losses have been more like the one last month in Pecos against Fort Stockton, when the Panthers scored a 50-43 victory.

In that game, Pecos led 40-36 with six minutes to play and were still tied at 41-all midway through the quarter, but were then shut out by Fort Stockton until there were eight seconds to play.

The game was similar to Friday's loss in that the Eagles couldn't hit from the outside most of the way. Omar Hinojos, who had 19 in Friday's loss was the lone Pecos play in double figures last month with 13, while Eloy Fablea had 16 and Armiro Cabello 13 for the Panthers.

Fort Stockton is 3-5 in district after a 77-68 loss on Friday to Andrews. Combined with San Angelo Lake View's win over Sweetwater, it eliminated the Panthers from the 4-4A playoff race.

Skiers, snowboarders remain spectators

By TIM DAHLBERG
AP Sports Writer
NAGANO, Japan, Feb. 10 -- Snowboarders and skiers skidded and slid sideways today as heavy snow continued to wreak havoc with this Olympics. Inside, though, conditions were perfect to create a new Japanese hero.

On a day when the snow was too much even for the Herminator, the ice couldn't have been better for Hiroyasu Shimizu, who broke into tears as he crossed the finish line to win the gold in the men's speedskating 500.

An adoring crowd hoisted a sea of rising suns and blue signs imploring him to ``Race like the wind'' and Shimizu responded with his second Olympic record in as many days to win Japan's first medal in its own games.

The emperor's son, Crown Prince Naruhito, cheered from his seat in the front straightaway and Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto called to give him the country's best.

``When I told him it was more than I deserved to get a call from the prime minister, he said, `Gold medals have that kind of right,''' Shimizu said.

On the ski slopes they were barely racing at all.

``It was chaos,'' said Austria's Hermann Maier, aka ``The Herminator,'' who nearly fell before finishing a disappointing eighth in the slalom portion of the men's combined. ``It was too difficult. I've never seen anything like it.''

It was hard to tell who was more upset as the Olympics were enveloped for yet another day in a deep blanket of white: Those who got to play in the 2 feet of new snow or those who didn't.

``You want snow because it's a winter event, but it's like, `WE'VE GOT ENOUGH NOW, THANK YOU,''' U.S. skier Picabo Street said after postponement of the women's super-G left her with little to do other than watch flakes the size of 5-yen coins fall around her.

Indoors it was a different story as Shimizu thrilled his countrymen and the pairs skating competition neared its climax.

While skiers were frustrated by a third day of heavy snowfalls, the high hopes of U.S. women snowboarders were shattered as, one after another, they tumbled down the slopes in the first round of the giant slalom.

The four boarders blamed ``death cookies'' -- ice chunks mixed with powder snow -- and questioned whether the race should have even been run under the conditions.

``It's a terrible showcase for the sport,'' snowboarder Lisa Kosglow said. ``The women are not this bad.''

So far, terrible has been the operative word for the U.S. performance in the Olympics. While Russian cross country skier Larissa Lazutina gave her country its 100th Winter Olympics gold medal by winning the women's 5K classical, U.S. athletes were still looking for a medal of any color.

-- MEN'S COMBINED SLALOM: It wasn't only the U.S. women snowboarders who couldn't keep upright. All three American skiers failed to finish their two runs. Matt Grosjean of Aliso Viejo, Calif., was third after the first run, but buried his head in his hands after missing a gate on his second trip.

Austria's Mario Reiter was the leader after the first part of the combined, followed by Lasse Kjus of Norway and Andrzej Bachleda of Poland. Maier, the world's top skier, was more than 4 seconds behind, a nearly insurmountable margin going into Thursday's downhill portion.

-- SPEEDSKATING: Shimizu blazed from the start to win before an adoring crowd in the M-Wave arena, breaking the Olympic record of 35.76 seconds he set in the first run a day earlier. Admittedly nervous, he overcame one false start to finish in 35.59 seconds for an aggregate time of 1 minute, 11.35 seconds. Jeremy Wotherspoon won the silver, and fellow Canadian Kevin Overland took the bronze.

U.S. hopes for a medal faded as Casey FitzRandolph had to wait through three false starts before his run dropped him from third place to sixth.

-- CROSS-COUNTRY SKIING: The victory by Lazutina was made even sweeter after frustrating near-misses at Albertville and Lillehammer. Lazutina sliced through heavy snow, then broke down in tears when her win was assured. Katerina Neumannova of the Czech Republic was 4.8 seconds back for the silver, and World Cup standings leader Bente Martinsen of Norway was third.

-- SNOWBOARDING: While the Americans fell, French favorite Karine Ruby cut through a steady snowfall to win the first Olympic gold medal in women's snowboarding in a combined time of 2 minutes, 17.34 seconds. Germany's Heidi Renoth took the silver in 2:19.17 and Austria's Brigitte Koeck got the bronze in 2:19.42. Ruby, 21, won France's first medal of the Nagano Games and the first French gold of the Winter Games since 1992 in Albertville. Holding a lead of 1.96 seconds after the first run, she had only to complete the second to hold on for the victory.

-- LUGE: Germany, which already won a gold in the men's luge, threatened to make a clean sweep in the women's event. Silke Kraushaar was in first place after one run on the Spiral course, as Germans occupied three of the top four spots.

Eagles' baseball scrimmage moved to today

PECOS, Feb. 10 -- The Pecos Eagles' opening baseball scrimmage against the Kermit Yellowjackets was moved back from Monday to this afternoon, due to a conflict with Eagles coach Bubba Williams' schedule.

Williams and superintendent Don Love had to go to Clint on Monday for the first meeting of the new District 2-4A, which the Eagles were placed in last Monday by the University Interscholastic League. As a result, Pecos' scrimmage with Kermit will begin at 4 p.m. today at the high school baseball field, the same time Pecos' girls play their first softball scrimmage, against Monahans at Martinez Field.

The girls will also scrimmage Greenwood on Friday in Monahans, while the boys' next scrimmage game will be a week from today, Feb. 17, when they host Odessa Permian.

Pecos hosts Fort Davis-Wink playoff

PECOS, Feb. 10 -- The Wink Wildcats and Fort Davis Indians will be playing a boys-girls basketball playoff doubleheader this evening in the new Pecos High School gym.

Wink will play Fort Davis for the girls' District 32-A title starting at 6 p.m., followed by the boys at 7:30 p.m. The games will determine seedings for the bi-district round of the Class A basketball playoffs.



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