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Newspaper and Travel Guide
for Pecos Country of West Texas

Tuesday, February 14, 2006

Little League starts registration, sets tryout times

Registration for the 2006 Pecos Little League is underway, and will run through March 6, with opening day of the season scheduled for April 1 at Chano Prieto Field.

Registration and medical release forms can be picked up at Gibson’s on Walthall Street, or at Auto Zone on South Cedar Street. Registration fee is $35 for one child and $25 for each additional child. Registration is open to boys and girls between the ages of 8 and 12.

Completed forms and a copy of the child’s birth certificate should be returned to Gibson’s, 810 Walthall St., between now and March 3. No late registrations will be accepted and tryouts and the league draft are scheduled for Saturday, March 11, at Chano Prieto Field.

Rec dept. holds volleyball, softball sign-ups

The Reeves County Community Sports and Recreation Department ‘s is singing up boys and girls now through March 11 for its spring soccer league and spring volleyball programs. The soccer program is open to boys and girls ages 4 1/2 to 9, with a sign-up fee of $10 per child. Volleyball is for children in second through eighth grades, and also carries a $10 sign-up fee.

Registration forms are available at the RCCRD office at the old Pecos High School gym. A copy of the child’s birth certificate and signatures from both parents are required with the returned registration form. For further information, call 447-9776.

Eagles seek better hitting, defense in softball opener

Softball season opened Monday afternoon for the Pecos Eagles, and coach Tammy Walls will be hoping to see some improvement in the Eagles hitting from their scrimmage on Saturday, in their opener against the Crane Golden Cranes at the Pecos High School softball field.

Pecos, which defeated Crane in a scrimmage two weeks ago, will face the Golden Cranes at 5 p.m., followed by the junior varsity season opener for the Eagles, starting around 7 p.m. The games come after the Eagles’ combined varsity and JV teams defeated Kermit while losing to Alpine in scrimmages on Saturday in Pecos.

“There are a lot of things we need to work on,” Walls said. “We really didn’t hit the ball all day.”

Walls said juniors Amalie Herrera and Cassandra Terrazas probably had the best days at bat for the Eagles, who had their regular line-up in place for the first time with Monday’s opener. Herrera and freshman Gabi Garcia, who pitched most of the way on Saturday, were among several players just out from basketball, and Pecos was without senior catcher Jessica Florez.

“The pitching was a little rusty. We didn’t get ahead of the hitters like I’d want them to, but they’ve only been out three days,” Walls said.

“Defensively, we had some errors at shortstop that hurt us, and we just didn’t seem very sharp. We weren’t very decisive with where to go with the ball when we got it,” Walls said. The Eagles had 22 players overall participate in Saturday’s scrimmage, and Walls said half of those, along with Florez, would be on the varsity squad for Monday’s opener, while the remainder would play in the JV game. Following Monday’s games with Crane, the Eagles will go to Andrews this coming weekend for their first tournament of the 2006 season.

While the girls opened their softball season on Monday, Pecos’ boys were holding their first varsity scrimmage of 2006, in Kermit against the Yellowjackets. Coach Elias Payan said he would have all his non-basketball players out for the 5 p.m. scrimmage, and was hoping those players might be able to make the 50-mile trip to Kermit after basketball practice ends.

Pecos’ purple and gold sub-varsity teams scrimmaged last Thursday in Kermit, and defeated the Jackets by a 10-6 score. “Coach (Pat) Gent said the three pitchers he pitched did a good job, and they saw some things they needed to work on,” Payan said.

Girls snare Pecos tourney doubles title

Pecos Eagle doubles players Mimi Ornelas and Crystal Ikeler picked up first place in their division on Friday of the three-team tournament between the Eagles, Monahans Loboes and Greenwood Rangers, held at the Pecos High School tennis courts.

Monahans ended up first and Pecos second in the overall point totals, coach Mike Ortiz said Ornelas and Ikeler defeated Monahans’ Emily Acker and Madison Murray to win the finals in girls’ doubles, 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (12-7), for the Eagles’ lone division win of the day.

Placing second in his division was Francisco Ornelas, who advanced to the finals before falling to Greenwood’s James Evans, 6-1, 7-6 (7-3). In girls’ singles, Amber Pando finished second to Monahans’ Laura Ramirez, with Greenwood’s Alyshia Campbell taking third.

Greenwood’s Kelly Durum and Matt Chandler won boys doubles, 6-2, 6-3 over Monahans’ Damian Nichols and Daniel Heslin, while Pecos’ Cody Zamarippa and Jesse Hanks won third place, defeating Ryan Day and Andrew Orona of Monahans.

In mixed doubles, two Monahans teams ended up in the finals, with John Wilhelm and Tiffany Bean defeating Michael Derrick and Cheyenne Smith, 6-0, 6-1. Pecos team of Derek Barron and Hope Mora won third place, defeating teammates Jeremy Ramirez and Daniella Bustillos.

Ortiz said two of the matches for consolation involving Pecos players would be finished on Monday. Paul Zubledia was scheduled to face Curtis James in boys’ singles, and in girls’ singles Elva Martinez will face Domicia Marquez for the consolation title.

The Eagles will face a larger field this coming weekend, when they compete at the El Paso Americas Tournament.

Panthers outrun Eagles’ small flock

The Pecos Eagle boys’ basketball team was short of players going into Friday night’s final home game of the 2005-06 season, against the Fort Stockton Panthers. They were even shorter a few minutes into the game when coach Art Wellborn sat down Josh Anchondo after he was hit with a technical foul.

Anchondo, the Eagles’ second leading scorer, was hit with a technical foul with 3:17 left in the opening period, following a foul call against teammate Jeremiah Jurado. “I’ve got a policy I’ve always had; you get a technical, and that’s it,” said Wellborn, who had done the same thing 10 days earlier in a game at Lamesa. “Josh got a technical in the first quarter, and that was it.”

But with just seven players available, and two in foul trouble before halftime, the Eagles hung close to Fort Stockton for most of the night. Pecos rallied twice to tie the game and cut into leads in the second half, before running out of offense in the final minutes of an eventual 55-47 Panthers victory.

Anchondo was one of the only Eagles to do much on offense three days earlier, in Pecos’ 34-point homecourt loss to Seminole, so Wellborn said his loss less than five minutes into the game “really hurt us, because Josh has been playing well down low, and I was going to put him in there with Luptio (Bustamantes) and have him work inside.”

The call came with Pecos leading by a 4-3 score. J.J. Hickman would hit one of two technical foul shots to tie the game, and then hit a jumper to put the Panthers ahead 6-4, and a couple of 3-pointers by Omar Calderon would widen that lead to 12-8 later in the period. But the Eagles would come back in the second period, grabbing what turned out to be their final lead at 18-16 on a Luis Licon lay-up. Fort Stockton then ran off five straight points for a 21-18 lead, and after Pecos re-tied the game, closed out the half with an 8-0 run for a 29-21 lead.

Both Jurado and Francisco Ornelas also picked up their third fouls going into halftime, but the Eagles got back into the game on a 3-pointer by Licon and a rebound baskets by Luis Nunez and Ornelas to open the third period, but were never able to tie the score. They were within 37-34 at the start of the third period when it was Wellborn’s turn to get whistled for a technical foul, after no foul was called when Jurado appeared to get tripped while driving towards the basket.

“I can’t believe he gave me that technical,” said Wellborn. “I just told him to call it both ways.”

Hickman again hit one of his two foul shots, and Michael Rivera and Colby Terrazas combined for three straight lay-ups, the last coming off a steal, to increase the Panthers’ lead to 44-34.

Pecos made one more run at Fort Stockton, as Bustamantes hit a short jumper, then hit two lay-ups while being fouled. He converted his second chance at a three-point play after missing the first, which came around two foul shots by Calderon and left the Eagles trailing by a 46-40 margin with 4:11 to play.

But Calderon then scored on a rebound lay-up, and Rivera found Sergio Corral inside for another basket to widen the lead to 50-41. Licon would hit a jumper with 2 1/2 minutes to play, but the Eagles misfired on several other outside shots, and were unable to take advantage of the Panthers’ 3-for-8 foul shooting down the stretch.

“I thought our effort was a lot better, and we handled the press a lot better than we did the first time against them,” said Wellborn. “When we cut it to three at the end of the third quarter, I thought we had a chance, but we gave up way too many offensive rebound. They had eight at the half, and they probably had eight off of just one series (in the fourth quarter).”

Calderon, who had 34 points in last month’s 73-48 loss to the Panthers, led Fort Stockton again, this time with 22 points, while Bustamantes had 17 and Licon 13 for the Eagles.

Fort Stockton’s win put them at 7-4 in District 3-3A play, going into their final game on Tuesday against Greenwood, which lost to Seminole and fell into a tie for second in the 3-3A standings. The Panthers can win the third playoff spot outright with a win, while a loss would force a playoff for third with Lamesa, 7-5, which ended regular season play by beating Presidio.

Pecos saw its record fall to 1-10 in district and 3-20 on the season going into their final regular season contest, at Monahans on Tuesday night. The Loboes, who were idle on Friday, won at Pecos last month by a 48-35 final score.

Five swimmers earn trip to 4A state

Five members of the Pecos Eagles swim team earned trips to the Class 4A State Swimming and Diving Championships in Austin on Saturday, while Pecos’ boys placed second and the girls finished third in the team standings at the Region I-4A Championships at the Pete Ragus Aquatic Center in Lubbock.

Senior Lindsey Shaw won the 200-yard individual medley and was the only girl to advance to Austin for the Eagles, while Pecos qualified four boys for state after a controversial run-up to the regional competition. Junior Kyle Winkles won the 50-yard freestyle and 100-yard backstroke to earn trips to Austin in both those events, while freshman Josh Elliott won the 200 medley and earned an at-large berth by placing second to Winkles in the 100 backstroke.

The two were also members of the 400-yard freestyle relay team, along with senior Matt Elliott and sophomore Matthew Florez, which placed first on Saturday, while the same four qualified for an at-large spot in the 200-yard freestyle after finishing second to Andrews, which ended Pecos’ run of six straight Region I-4A titles.

Winkles appearance at the regional meet came only after an injunction was granted in a suit filed by his parents against the Pecos-Barstow-Toyah ISD and its school board members to allow him to participate in this past weekend’s races. Winkles and junior Matt Oglesby had been suspended from participation in extracurricular activities for violations of the school’s code of conduct, as the result of a Jan. 31 incident.

“I thought the kids responded well. We had a good meet, barring all the other stuff,” said Eagles’ coach Terri Morse, who said she only found out at 2:30 p.m. on Thursday that Winkles would make the trip to Lubbock for the regionals due to the injunction.

The junior didn’t match his district record time in the 50-yard freestyle, but won with a 22.09 time, which was two thirds of a second ahead of Andrews’ W.D. Brannan. In the 100-yard backstroke, he won with the exact same time as at the District 3-4A meet in Big Spring on Jan. 28, 57.13 seconds.

Oglesby had won the 200 medley and 100-yard butterfly races at district. Josh Elliott, second at district, moved up to first, winning with a 2:08.32 time, four seconds ahead of El Paso Del Valle’s Joseph Delgado. He again placed second to Winkles in the 100-yard backstroke, where his 58.04 time was good enough to earn him the seventh at-large spot at the state meet. It was also a second ahead of his time at the district meet.

The 200 freestyle relay team’s 1:33.38 finish was good enough for the No. 4 at-large spot, of the eight handed out around the state based on fastest time. Andrews won the race with a 1:32.97 time, and earlier took the 200 medley relay in 1:44.24, after Morse adjusted her relay line-ups due to the changes in available personnel.

“We didn’t have the personnel for the medley,” Morse said. “We might have gotten third of fourth, so I changed it up.”

Matt Elliott, who was second to Oglesby in the 100 fly at district, was second this time to Justin Kepple of El Paso Burges, who won with a 54.85 time. Elliott’s 56.53 time was three-quarters of a second off an at large berth. In the 200 freestyle, which Elliott won at district, he placed second with a 1:52.72 time, .41 second behind El Paso Chapin’s Bryan Jones, and was just under two seconds off an at-large berth at state.

“I was pleased that the Josh in the fly and the 200 free relay got picked up. I was kind of expecting the 200 free to get picked up,” Morse said.

Winkles, Florez and Matt Elliott also qualified for state last year with Oglesby in the 200 medley and 200 freestyle races. Elliott also qualified individually a year ago in the 100 fly, but has been recovering this season from a knee injury suffered in Pecos’ football game against Midland Greenwood in late October.

The boys also had one other medal winner, freshman Hector Roman, who placed third in the 1-meter diving competition with a 272.30 score. Andrews’ Matt Culberson win that event on Thrusday with a 456.90 score, while teammate Danny Mora beat out Roman with a 305.20 total.

“The divers did well. I was just that everybody stepped it up a couple of notches, and some of the older divers had more 2-point dives. So they may not have done as well, but they scored more.”

The boys ended up losing to Andrews y a 124-103 margin, after beating out the Mustangs by 16 points at the district meet, Meanwhile, on the girls side, the Eagles reversed a 3-point loss to the Mustangs at district, beating out Andrews for third by a 64-55 margin. El Paso Chapin repeated as Region I-4A champ with 102 points, while El Paso Burges was second with 92 points.

Shaw, who qualified for state a year ago as an at-large selection in the 100-yard breaststroke, won the medley with a 2:22.76 time, just under 1 1/2 seconds ahead of Marcela Erives of El Paso El Dorado. “I think two or three girls were ahead of her after the backstroke leg,” Morse said, adding that Shaw pulled ahead during the breaststroke leg and was able to widen her lead after that. “I was surprised she was able to do that because two of the girls were in the butterfly and freestyle, but she ended up winning going away.”

Later in the meet, Shaw placed third in the 100-yard backstroke, one of three third place finishes at the meet for the Eagle girls. Senior Ashley Mendoza had the other two, in the 500 yard freestyle, with a 6:00.39 time, and the 200 free, with a time of 2:17.38. Chapin’s Amanda Navarez won that race with a 2:07.11 time, while Burges Nancy Gamboa took the 500 free, with a regional record time of 5:42.23.

Chapin and Burges also were the teams that beat out Pecos’ 200 medley and 400 freestyle relay squads for first place and a trip to state. Shaw, Mendoza, Cassandra Mata and Neyva Rodriguez swam a 2:07.48 in the medley, while Chapin won with a regional record time of 1:59.58, and in the 400 free the same group had a 4:12.83 time, while Burges won with a 4:01.08 time.

Chapin’s record time was still slower than the eight at-large times for the 200 medley relay, as was the winning time by Burges in the 400 freestyle race.

Other state qualifiers out of District 3-4A on the girls side, include Monahans’ Catherine Cutbirth, who won the 50-yard freestyle race and Andrews Alison Mohr, who won the 100-yard breaststroke. For the boys, the others district swimmers advancing to state include Andrews’ Trevor Williams, who won the 100 free and Fort Stockton’s Denver Freeman, who earned the final at-large berth in the 100-yard breaststroke.

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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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