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

Sports

Tuesday, February 17, 1998

Pecos hosts Permian in scrimmage

PECOS, Feb. 17 -- The Pecos Eagles baseball team will host
the Odessa Permian Panthers this afternoon, in the second of
the Eagles' three preseason scrimmages.

Pecos and Permian will face each other at Eagle Field
starting at 4 p.m. At the same time, the Eagles' junior
varsity team will be playing the first of their two
preseason scrimmages, against the Panthers in Odessa.

Eagles' coach Bubba Williams will have his full team out
for the first time this season, with the conclusion of
basketball. Junior Oscar Luna and senior Moses Martinez are
the two main players coming off the basketball team, though
Martinez is unlikely to see any action at pitcher today.

Williams said two other players who didn't pitch a week ago
against Kermit, senior Jason Abila and junior Louis
Valencia, will be on the mound today against Permian. "I'm
going to pitch Jay, pitch Louis, Bird (Jason Aguilar), as
many as I can," Williams said Friday.

He'll also give Luna his first look at catcher this season,
after playing the outfield a year ago. Either Luna or the
Eagles' other returning starting outfielder, Cisco
Rodriguez, will take over at catcher this season.

After today's scrimmage, the Eagles will scrimmage
Permian's district rival Midland High, Saturday morning on
the Bulldogs' home field. Regular season play opens at home
for Pecos next Monday night, against the Monahans Loboes.

Track team raises funds with intra-squad meet

PECOS, Feb. 17 -- The Pecos Eagle boys track team will hold
their second annual intra-squad track meet this evening at 6
p.m., as part of a fundraiser for the boys' track program.

Track coach Mike Ferrell said donations are being solicited
either through set amount, or by sponsoring an athlete
during this evening's events. Those include the shot put,
long jump and high jump in field events, the 100, 400 and
800 meter runs, the 110 high hurdles and the 400 and 1600
meter relays. A coaches' relay and weight man's relay are
also scheduled, Ferrell said.

Donations are based on pledges either based on heights and
distances in the field events, or based on times in the
running events.

The Eagles' 1998 track season officially begins this Friday
afternoon, at the Comanche Relays in Fort Stockton. Both the
boys and girls teams will be entered at the Comanche, which
concludes Saturday afternoon.

Netters in quarterfinals in shortened tourney

PECOS, Feb. 17 -- The rains that hit San Angelo on Saturday
cost only one Pecos Eagles tennis player a match at the West
Texas High School Tennis Championships in San Angelo.

The Eagles had 15 players entered in the two-day
tournament, and coach Bernadette Ornelas said, "We had two
players advance to the quarterfinals before they were
beaten, and one, Alan Fleming, who was still playing in the
consolation bracket when it started to rain. So I'd say he
came home a winner."

Jeff Lam and Ty Graham won a pair of doubles matches before
falling in the quarterfinals. They defeated Pinon and
Alberst (no first names were available) of San Angelo
Central, 6-0, 6-1, and Barnes and Martinez from Reagan
County, 7-5, 7-5 before falling to Hemphill and Jackson of
Wall, 7-5, 6-7, 6-1.

David Lam drew a first round bye, then defeated San Angelo
Glenn ninth grader M. Montoya, 7-5, 6-3 before losing to N.
Gomez of Lubbock Estacado, 6-0, 6-0. Jonathan Fuentes won
his first match over Dickson of Lake View, 6-0, 6-0, then
downed Central's Jonathan Ramison, 6-2, 6-2 before losing to
J. Adams of Abilene Wylie, 6-1, 7-5.

"The boys played very strong. For them to advance that far,
I was very proud of what they did," Ornelas said.

Among the other Eagle boys, Anthony Casillas lost to
Estacado's Hernandez 6-0, 6-0, and Drigss of Lake View, 6-1,
6-0, while Fleming lost to Knepper of Lake View, 6-1, 6-0
before his next match was rained out.

The other boys' doubles team, Sonny Cylia and Craig Wein,
lost to Savel and Montecelo of Eldorado, 6-1, 6-1, and
Guerrero and Hodges of Lake View, 6-0, 6-1.

On the girls' side in singles, Teresa Minjarez lose to R.
Boies of Mason, 6-1, 6-0, then downed Meija of Central, 5-7,
6-2, 6-4 before a 4-6, 6-4, 7-5 loss to Brown of Reagan
County. Tiffany Jarrett defeated Spencer of Midland Lee,
6-1, 6-0, then lost to A. Boise of Mason, 6-3, 6-4, while
Vanessa Miranda downed Garza of Central, 6-3, 1-6, 6-4, and
lost to Salas of Lee, 6-3, 6-3.

In doubles, Erin Dominguez and Rachel Pharoah defeated
Garza and Carrillo of Ozona, 6-1, 6-1, then dropped a 6-1,
6-1 match to Trujillo and Talamantez of Reagan County. Sarah
Metler and Veronica Valenzuela fell to Stephen and Stephen
of Reagan County, 6-2, 6-4, and to Baca and Luna of
Carlsbad, 6-1, 6-2.

U.S. women claim Olympic hockey gold

By TIM DAHLBERG
AP Sports Writer
NAGANO, Japan, Feb. 17 -- Japan celebrated as a nation today
as Masahiko Harada soared to gold, then sobbed in relief.
The U.S. women's hockey team had reason to celebrate too --
its own version of a miracle on ice, Nagano-style.

While Harada thrilled his country with a jump that helped
seal the team ski jumping gold, an American hockey team used
to playing second fiddle to Canada beat the Canadian women
3-1 in the biggest game ever in women's hockey.

Players tossed sticks and gloves in the air and piled on
each other on the ice as the United States snapped Canada's
seven-year reign as world champions behind the strong
goaltending of Sarah Tueting.

``It's everything I thought it would be, and I can't think
of 19 people I'd want to share this with more,'' forward
Alana Blahoski said.

Sandra Whyte scored on an empty netter with 8 seconds left
after Canada pulled its goalie to make one final desperate
rush. Gretchen Ulion and Shelley Looney had given the U.S.
team a 2-0 lead, which Canada cut in half on a goal with
4:01 left in the game

``They know us, we know them,'' Blahoski said of the
Canadians, who had beaten the United States four times for
titles in the 1990s. ``There were not a lot of tricks left
to pull.''

Earlier, Harada sobbed uncontrollably as the weight of a
nation finally was off his shoulders. The tears were of
relief and joy as Harada had an Olympic gold medal and Japan
had its best Winter Games ever.

With some 50,000 of his countrymen cheering wildly and
millions of others glued to television sets in homes,
offices, and even on buses, Harada sailed through a steady
snow with a record leap to set up the gold.

When Kazuyoshi Funaki clinched the win with his final jump,
the teammates fell on each other in the snow and the
celebration began. Japan not only had the gold medal in a
sport it is passionate about, it also had eight Olympic
medals -- breaking its previous mark of seven at
Albertville.

``I did it, I did it,'' Harada exclaimed.

The disgrace of Lillehammer -- where Harada needed only a
mediocre jump to lock up the gold but mistimed his approach
-- was wiped away when he jumped so far that he landed past
the markers and his leap had to be hand-measured.

The crowd -- which included the emperor's daughter, Princess
Sayako -- blew horns and cheered in triumph when the
scoreboard flashed 137 meters, matching an earlier leap by
teammate Takanobu Okabe. Then the pressure fell on Funaki,
who responded with a leap of 125 meters to give Japan the
win. Germany took the silver; Austria the bronze.

The medal put Japan (4 gold, 1 silver, 3 bronze) into a tie
with the United States (3-1-4) for seventh place in the
medal competition topped by Germany. The Germans have 22
medals (7-8-7), followed by Norway with 16 (5-7-4) and
Russia with 13 (8-4-1).

-- SKIING: Katja Seizinger did something Picabo Street
couldn't -- win a second skiing gold in the Nagano Games. It
was also the second n two days for Seizinger, who led a
German sweep of the women's combined event.

It was the third time a nation had won all three medals in
an Alpine women's event since 1964, and gave Seizinger a
record-tying third Olympic gold medal.

``Three Germans on the podium. It's unbelievable,'' said
Martina Ertl, who won the silver. ``It's never happened
before.''

Seizinger, who also won the downhill at the 1994 Lillehammer
Olympics, had two nearly flawless slalom runs through steady
snow. Ertl took the silver and Hilde Gerg the bronze.

American teen-ager Caroline Lalive watched as the three
Germans accepted their medals, then ran up to the stands and
threw flowers into the crowd. Lalive, a rising star from
Steamboat Springs, Colo., had the best U.S. finish in
seventh place.

``We were thinking how awesome it would be to have three
Americans up there in 2002,'' Lalive said. ``I think it's
not at all out of our reach. I think it's definitely
possible.''

-- SPEEDSKATING: The question wasn't whether a new world
record would be set in the 10,000-meter race, but rather how
much the old record would be broken by. Gianne Romme
provided the answer by obliterating the 4-year-old mark held
by Johann Olav Koss by more than 15 seconds for his second
world-record of the Nagano Games. The 25-year-old from the
Netherlands skated in 13 minutes, 15.33 seconds to erase one
of the last record holdouts from the traditional skate era.
Romme, knowing he was one a record pace from the first lap
on, didn't even bother to look at the scoreboard as he threw
his arms up in triumph at the finish. It was a sweep for the
Dutch, with Bob de Jong taking the silver and Rintje Ritsma
the bronze.

-- BIATHLON: The weather continued to play havoc with the
games, this time in the sport that combines cross country
skiing and shooting. In a rare move, officials halted the
men's 10-kilometer biathlon when a curtain of snow and fog
made shooting too difficult. It was good news for one strong
medal contender, Norway's Frode Andresen, who missed four of
five targets during his first shooting. The event will be
restarted Wednesday.

-- ICE HOCKEY: The men had the day off before moving into
quarterfinal play Wednesday. That left the ice to the women,
who played for the first women's hockey medals in Olympic
history. Finland beat China 4-1 to win the bronze before the
United States and Canada took the ice in the gold medal
match.

When the men return to the ice, the NHL all-stars
representing the United States (1-2) will have to regroup
quickly to challenge for the gold. The American men play the
Czech Republic on Wednesday while Canada, now clearly the
team to beat, plays Kazakstan.

Sweden will get to keep its two wins in round-robin play,
but will not keep Ulf Samuelsson. Samuelsson was booted from
the Olympics not for dirty play but because he's technically
not a Swedish citizen.

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