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Newspaper and Travel Guide
for Pecos Country of West Texas
Tuesday, January 8, 2008
Help sought for powerlifting meet
Pecos Eagle powerlifting coaches Jeff Green and Thomas Hughes are seeking volunteers to help out at this Saturday’s meet, which will run from 8 a.m. until about 3:30 p.m. at the old Pecos High School gym.
Green said helpers are needed with several activities during the meet, which will be the first of the season for Pecos and will have between 180 and 200 contestants. Anyone interested in volunteering should call the Pecos High School field house at 447-7220 and either speak to one of the coaches or leave a message.
Pecos snaps loss streak with Saturday win
Pecos Eagles’ coach Sammy Soliz said his team didn’t have much energy Friday morning in their opening game of the Brian Wilson Memorial Tournament in Alpine, and were still struggling Friday afternoon against the Alpine Bucks.
Pecos dropped a 46-36 decision to Nazareth in the tournament opener, then fell to Alpine later in the day by a 58-46 score before going to a more aggressive defense on Saturday morning against Van Horn and coming away with a 60-38 victory to end a six-game losing streak.
“The first two games we came out with no energy,” Soliz said. “We tried to do a couple of things and put in our energy guys off the bench to try and spark us, but we couldn’t do anything, especially in the first two quarters against Alpine.”
Pecos managed just nine points in the first half of their tournament opener, but were still in the game, as Nazareth only managed 13 points. But the Swifts outscored the Eagles by a 15-6 margin in the third period to go up by 13, and were able to hold off a fourth quarter rally.
J.R. Lujan led Pecos with 12 points and Chris Sotelo added 10. Ricky Rowland’s 21 for Nazareth led all scorers.
“I didn’t really think they hurt us or anything, but our guys had zero energy and we just weren’t playing our normal defense and didn’t force many turnovers,” Soliz said.
Against Alpine, Pecos again struggled to score points over the first three quarters, but unlike their early game, the Bucks didn’t have the same problem, going up by as many as 24 points in the third period.
“It started out and they were up 11-0,” Soliz said. “We just really didn’t find our rhythm offensively, and defensively they put a lot of pressure on us and forced a lot of costly turnovers.”
Timo Reyes was the only Pecos player in double figures with 14, while Marcos Ramos has 16 to lead the Bucks, who have beaten the Eagles twice after Pecos won in Alpine to open the 2007-08 season.
In the win over Van Horn, the first half results were reversed, as Pecos held their Eagle rivals to 12 points while scoring 13 in the opening period and 18 in the second quarter to go up by 19 at the half.
“Against Van Horn we changed up and went with the press from the get-go. We were picking up man-to-man to see could get some energy from our guys,” Soliz said, adding that every player on the team scored at least one point.
“Chris Sotelo came off the bench and played real well, Timo really controlled the game and Paul (Zubeldia) and Jermiah (Soto) really helped us down low,” he said. Sotelo finished with 13 points while Lujan led Pecos in scoring with 14.
Fabens ended up winning the tournament over El Paso Immanuel Christian, 41-36, while Lydia Patterson Institute defeated Nazaerth for third place, 57-40. Monahans won fifth place by a 51-42 score over Fort Davis, after earlier wins over Kermit and Tornillo. Fort Davis edged Fort Stockton, which also defeated Alpine and lost to LPI, while the other District 2-3A team in the tournament, Presidio, lost to Kermit, Seminole and Tornillo.
The win on Saturday gave the Eagles a 5-11 record going into their game at home on Tuesday night against the Crane Golden Cranes
Swimmers sweep through Stockton meet
The Pecos Eagles swim team competed in their second straight “mini-meet” this past Saturday, and first of 2008, going down to Fort Stockton and coming away with first place in both divisions at the Coker Invitational.
The boys, who placed first in a five-team meet at Abilene Wylie just prior to the Christmas break, easily won first out of four teams at Fort Stockton, beating Monahans by a 456-216 margin. The girls, who were edged by Wylie three weeks earlier in the Bulldogs’ home pool, came back to beat out Abilene this time, wining by a 370-311 margin.
Coach Terri Morse said the Eagles won while switching around a few swimmers from other events.
“I wanted to look at a them as far as preparing for district,” she said. “I’m considering some other options to see if we can score a few more points, and get a few more people into the finals. Plus, I didn’t want them to swim the same events in Lubbock (this coming weekend), and I don’t want the other teams to know where I’m going to put everyone in district.”
“By putting them in different events, they were ready to get out there, and because they aren’t sure what they can do themselves they may push themselves a little more,” Morse said.
Pecos’ girls swept all three relays on Saturday, and the ‘B’ relay also picked up a second place finish in the final event of the day, the 400 freestyle. Conner Armstrong, Adriana Roman, Anatalia Hernandez and Alyson Reynolds won first with a 4:16.15 time, while the ‘B’ team of Neyva Rodriguez, Stephanie Lucas, Maggie Hernandez and Niki Lindemann was second, with a 4:41.42 time.
Armstrong, Reynolds, Roman and Anatalia Hernandez had opened the swimming finals with a win in the 200 medley, finishing with a 2:11.61 time, while Rodriguez, Lucas, Lindemann and Dakota Hagar took first in the 200-yard freestyle relay, with a 2:01.98 time.
The girls also won the eight individual swimming events at Fort Stockton. Anatalia Hernandez took the 200 freestyle with a 2:19.50 time and later won the 500 free with a 6:20.70 time; Armstrong won the 200 individual medley with a 2:41.72 time and later won the 100-yard butterfly in 1:18.58; Reynolds won the 100-yard freestyle with a 1:01.48 time and took the 100-yard backstroke in 1:10.10; while Lindemann took the 50 yard freestyle in 29.50 seconds and won the 100-yard breaststroke in 1:29.51.
The Eagles’ other finishes included a second by Lucas in the 200 medley; a fourth by Hagar in the 200 free; a second by Roman and a third by Rodriguez in the 50 free; a second by Maggie Hernandez in the 100 fly; a second by Roman and a third by Rodriguez in the 100 free; a third by Maggie Hernandez and a sixth by Hagar in the 500 free; and a third by Lucas in the 100 backstroke.
Like the girls, the boys had no divers competing in Fort Stockton, and they also swept the individual races, while winning two of the three relays on Saturday.
Josh Elliott, Carlos Navarro, Matthew Florez and Derek Teague won the 200 medley with a 1:52.10 time, while the ‘B’ relay of Brian Carrasco, Oscar Machuca, Abraham Lujan and Tye Hegar was fourth; and in the 400 freestyle relay, Florez, Elliott, Teague and Gus Mendoza won with a 3:44.15 time, while Carlos and Edward Navarro, Frankie Morin and Luke Serrano placed second, with a 3:56.23 time. In the 200 free relay, the ‘A’ team of Morin, Mendoza, Edward Navarro and Serrano placed second, 1.4 seconds behind Monahans, while the ‘B’ relay of Carrasco, Hegar, Lujan and Machuca took third.
In the individual events, Florez won the 200 free with a 1:55.32 time and the 100 butterfly with a 58.55 time; Elliott took the 200 individual medley with a 2:11.81 time and won the 100 free in 54.59; Teague won the 50 free with a 25.77 time; Morin won the 500 free with a 5:40 time; Serrano won the 100 yard backstroke in 1:06.81 and Edward Navarro won the 100-yard breaststroke with a 1:14.99 time. In the other races, Teague was second in the 100 free; Serrano was fourth in the 200 free; Morin was fourth in the 100 backstroke and Edward Navarro was also fourth in the 100 free.
Other finishes for the Eagles included a second by Machuca and a third by Carrasco in the 100-yard breaststroke; a third by Mendoza in the 100 back; a third by Carlos Navarro and a fourth by Lujan in the 500 free; a seventh by Hegar in the 100 free; a third by Mendoza, fifth by Carrasco and eighth by Lujan in the 100 fly; a 10th by Hegar in the 50 free; a fourth by Machuca in the 200 individual medley and a third by Carlos Navarro in the 200 free.
Pecos will be in Lubbock on Friday and Saturday for their final pre-district meet. Morse said all the District 4-4A schools except for Wylie should be at the event. The 4-4A meet will be held in Pecos on Jan. 25-26, after being moved from Andrews due to delays in completing their new high school pool.
Eagles’ scoring woes continue in 38-25 loss
The Pecos Eagles didn’t do badly scoring the first points of each quarter on Friday night against the Greenwood Rangerettes. They just didn’t score many points in the seven or so minutes after the start of each period.
Pecos scored quickly to start three of the first four periods, but allowed the Rangerettes to do most of the scoring overall, as they send the Eagles down to their fourth straight defeat, by a 38-25 final score.
“We only shot eight percent in the first quarter, 12 percent in the second, 27 in the third and 33 in the fourth from inside the paint area. You can’t win a game shooting that percentage,” said Eagles’ coach Donna Gent. “It would be different if we were shooting from the outside, but these were supposed to be high percentage shots.”
Pecos did play for the second straight game without leading scorer Gabby Garcia, who sat out due to the knee injury she suffered in the Eagles’ Dec. 21 loss at Midland Lee, and Gent said Garcia probably wouldn’t be ready to return until the end of this week.
“I hope to have Gabby back by next Friday at least. We’re not going to risk putting her out on the court before district until her knee is 100 percent,” she said.
Gent said several of her players, including Jenny Palomino, Diana Parada and Kristen Ikeler were suffering from illness going into the game. All three played, but that may have contributed to the Eagles’ problems.
“We just weren’t moving like we have to move. I kept screaming at them we were getting beaten downcourt. We didn’t transition well,” Gent said.
Jasmine Rayos, who led Pecos with 12 points, took a pass from Parada and scored from inside 30 seconds into the game, which turned out to be Pecos’ only points of the period. Kate Duran scored on a lay-up to tie the game, and Lindsey Hays, who led all scorers with 15, followed with a pair of short jumpers for a 6-2 lead, which grew to 10-2 by the end of the period.
The Eagles started the second period with a lay-up by Veronica Tarin, and a rebound basket by Claire Weinacht and two foul shots by Tarin would cut Greenwood’s led to 12-8 midway through the period before a foul shot by Duran and two more Hays baskets widened the Rangerettes’ lead to 10 points by the end of the quarter.
Greenwood would score first to open the second half, on a foul shot by Hays, but Pecos would cut the lead to 26-19 later in the period, after a Parada lay-up was followed by two baskets and two free throws from Rayos. But that streak was ended by Kendall Ivie, who hit a jumper with just over two minutes left in the period, and by the end of the quarter Greenwood was back up by 11, at 30-19.
Neither team scored much in the final period, and the Eagles never got the margin closer than nine in the fourth quarter. Pecos would have several shots blocked early in the period, while late in the quarter they were unable to get the ball back when Greenwood came away with a series of offensive rebounds.
“We were also hurt by our free throws,” Gent said of Pecos’ 7-for-19 shooting. “We missed 12 shots and lost by 13. It wouldn’t have made it all up, but we would have been a lot closer.”
The loss left Pecos with a 7-10 record going into their game on Tuesday night in Jal against the Panthers. The Eagles faced Jal at home earlier this season and came away with a 48-32 win. Pecos then travels to Rankin on Friday for a game against the Red Devils.
Greenwood also took Friday’s junior varsity game in overtime, winning by a 36-32 final score. Destiny Simmons led the Eagles with eight points.
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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