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Semi-Weekly Newspaper and Travel Guide
for Pecos Country of West Texas
Sports
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
School providing physicals for students
Physicals will be offered through the Pecos-Barstow-Toyah ISD next month, for all students entering grades 7 through 12 in August.
Trainer Joel Birch said the physicals would be given on Thursday, May 8 starting at 5 p.m. at the Pecos High School gym. The physicals will be given by Dr. William Davidson of Monahans at a cost of $15 per student, and will be on a first-come, first-served basis.
All students are required to have physical forms completed and returned to their coaches in order to participate in athletics during the 2008-09 school year. Students can also have physicals conducted by their own doctors between now and the start of their athletic workouts, and forms are available through P-B-T coaches or local physicians offices.
Track teams fail to advance at regional meet
The results weren’t as good as hoped for over the weekend for the Pecos Eagle girls’ track team, at the Region I-3A meet in Odessa, despite some better times and distances from previous meets, while the boys also were able to lower their times overall despite problems with their relay teams during Friday’s preliminaries.
The Eagle girls, who won their first district title in six years earlier this month, qualified in only one event for the finals, where they placed sixth in the 400 meter relay. The boys failed to qualify for the final in any of their events, but came close in a couple, including one from a thrower who didn’t score a point at the District 2-3A meet.
The girls sprint relay team of Jasmine Rayos, Diana Parada, Brittany Quintana and Brittany Palomino ran a 51.36 in the finals, slightly faster than their winning time at district. They went into the final seeded eighth and finished there, but moved up two spots when Lamesa and Wichita Falls Hirschi were disqualified for dropping their batons at the finish line.
The results for the girls were mixed, as far as times and distances went. Some of the Eagles improved their results from the 2-3A meet, but others didn’t do as well as they had three weeks earlier.
“We did well at district, but I don’t think we were ready for this level of competition,” said coach Donna Gent. “We didn’t compete like we did at district.”
One of those who improved on their district results by failed to advance was sophomore Ally Salcido, who had dropped out of the 100-meter hurdles to focus on the 300 meter hurdles at regional, after winning both events at district. Salcido had qualified for the finals in the 3000 a year ago and ended up eighth, but failed to get in this time running against a stronger field, Gent said.
“Ally had her best time of the year with a 48.2, but she didn’t get in,” she said. Salcido did get an eighth place on Saturday in her other event, the pole vault, clearing 9-foor-6 before going out.
Gent was also disappointed that the mile relay team missed out on a finals spot.
“Olivia (Castilleja) ran extremely well, and the mile relay had their best time of the year at 4:14, but we didn’t get in,” Gent said. Castilleja, Salcido, Rayos and Quintana were edged out by one of next year’s district opponents, Clint, which qualified as No. 8 seed in the finals.
Rayos and Castilleja struggled in the 400-meter dash on Friday, as both ran slower times than at district, and Rayos also didn’t fare as well in the long jump and triple jump.
“She said her legs were hurting, and that she had pain in her knees and her hips,” Gent said. “As far as hitting the board, she was doing that, but she just didn’t get any oomph into it.”
Several of the Eagles had to compete on Friday after returning from Clint early that morning after Pecos’ softball playoff loss to the Lions. That included Palomino, who Gent said just missed qualifying for the finals in the 100-meter dash.
“We thought she had edged a girl at the finish, but the camera showed she was just edged out,” Gent said. “If she had beaten her, she would have made the finals.”
The boys, who went with no times seeded among the leaders, didn’t get anyone into Saturday’s finals, but coach Derek Price said most of his runners did improve of their district results.
“The mile relay ran a 3:35, which is the best they’ve done all year long,” Price said. “We were running 3:59 at the beginning o the year.”
The other two relays didn’t even get to finish on Friday. The 400-meter relay team had the baton knocked away during the second exchange, while the 800 race ended when Paul Zubledia pulled a hamstring muscle just before handing off at the halfway point of the race.
“Luis (Morales) said when he went to hand it off and put it in Isaiah (Patino)’s hand the team on the inside lane from Clint, their kid’s arm came up and knocked it out of Patino’s hand,” Price said. “That was a shame because we were right in the mix when we handed it off.”
Price said that in the individual events, Dillon Garcia ran an 11.4 in the 100-meters for his best time of the year, while Omar Medina in the pole vault and Morales in the 200 meters also had their best times this season, though none advanced to the finals.
“Omar went 10-foot-6,” he said. “I had Luis at 22.97, and they had him at 23.39, which is the best time he’s had all year.”
Garcia qualified due to a scratch after finishing fourth at district, while on Friday, Price said sophomore Robert Herrera fell just short of qualifying for the finals in the discus.
“He threw 133-6, and 137 got in,” Price said. Herrera had qualified for regionals last season, but placed seventh at district, after suffered a broken nose in March when he was hit in the face by a discus in practice. His 133-6 was about 10 feet short of his best throws early this season, by Price said, “At least he got to compete.”
Pecos’ other regional qualifier, Jeremiah Soto, also missed out on the finals with a 126-foot effort, just slightly shorter than his winning throw earlier this month at district.
Only one District 2-3A competitor, Monahans high jumper Katie Holly, advanced to state. Holly, who advanced to the state meet as a freshman last year, won the event on Friday with a 5-foot-8 inch effort. Fort Stockton junior Francisco Jaquez just missed a trip to state, placing third in the boys’ long jump on Friday.
Pecos pounds Alpine in playoff practice game
The Pecos Eagles’ baseball team had an easy time on Saturday, in what coach Eric Garcia hopes is the first of three pre-playoff practice games, as they came away with a 16-3 victory at Kokernot Field in Alpine over the Bucks.
Garcia said the Eagles scored most of their runs in the first two innings while Isaiah Vela shut down the Bucks in his two innings of work.
“I think they were missing a couple of kids for regional track, but we did see a couple of their starting pitchers and we just hit the ball real well,” Garcia said.
He said James Garcia, Lucas Chavez, Timo Reyes and J.R. Lujan all had good days at the plate. “Lucas went 2-for-2 with a double and a single. Timo had a triple and I believe he went 3-for-4 and J.R. had a couple of hits,” Garcia said.
“We got to see a lot of our younger players, which is a good thing for us,” he added. We got three good innings out of Matthew Rodriguez, who pitched on the JV all year, and even some of the younger kids got some hits late in the game.”
“It was good for us to play at Kokernot, because we may end up playing Andrews there if we don’t get one of the fields in Midland,” Garcia said. The Eagles will play the winner of the bi-district series between Andrews and Brownfield. The Mustangs and Cubs will play this weekend, with the winner taking on the Eagles the weekend of May 8-10.
This Thursday, Garcia said the Eagles would travel to Kermit, for a 4:30 p.m. game against the Yellowjackets, whom they defeated in Pecos back in February. “I’m also trying to get another game for Friday or Saturday,” he added. “It’s just tough to find a team that’s available right now.”
The Eagles, now 20-7-1 on the season, won their first district title in six years with last Tuesday’s 7-4 win over Monahans. The Loboes ended up in third, thanks to Presidio’s 12-7 win over Fort Stockton in their final regular season play, and will take on Fabens in the bi-district round of the playoffs this weekend. Presidio will face Anthony in their bi-district playoff series, with the winner taking on Snyder, while the Monahans-Fabens winner faces Lubbock Cooper in the area round of the Class 3A playoffs.
Mauling by Lions ends Eagles’ softball season
The change from District 2-3A to post-season play didn’t produce any change in the recent problems suffered by the Pecos Eagles softball team, as they made a quick exit on Thursday from the Class 3A playoffs, in Clint against the Lions.
Pitcher Gabby Garcia again had control problems in the early going, and the Eagles’ defense and reliever Brittany Palomino had fielding problems after she came on to pitch in the third inning. Meanwhile, Clint pitcher Kayla Black would limit Pecos to only one run and one hit on the day, as the Eagles’ former and future district rivals crushed Pecos by an 18-1 final score.
“It was all the stuff we struggled with all year long,” said coach Tammy Walls, who originally had won a coin flip for a best-of-three series, with Games 2 and 3 on Saturday in Pecos. But due to a conflict with this weekend’s Region I-3A Track and Field Championships in Odessa, those games were cancelled, leaving Pecos with only the one game playoff.
Walls, who was unhappy about the change, had four starters Thursday also competing in regionals and one other, centerfielder Ally Salcido, who did not make the trip due to the regional track meet.
Garcia struggled to throw strikes at the start of the season, but then seemed to get the problem under control until three weeks ago. On Thursday, the junior was charged with 11 runs allowed on only three hits, one of which was erased in the second inning when catcher Carissa Cerna threw Black out trying to steal.
Black had opened the bottom of the first inning by doubling down the line in left, after which Garcia hit Annabel Rios and wild pitched Black to third and home. Vero Rodriguez then walked and after Garcia came back to strike out Cindy Cordero, she hit Suzie Esparza and walked Isela Diaz to force home a run.
Rodriguez then came in on another wild pitch and Esparza would score on a Veronica Cazares sacrifice bunt. She was safe when first baseman Jayme Galindo dropped the ball trying to make the tag, but Garcia then came back to strike out Dawn Oglesby and Priscilla Hernandez, then retired the next two batters in the second after Black’s single.
Black had opened the game by hitting Palomino with her first pitch, but wouldn’t walk a batter the rest of the way. The only hit she allowed was a leadoff single in the second to Garcia, who would score to make it 4-1 on ground outs to second by Galindo and Marlene Salgado.
But Black retired the Eagles in order in the third, and Garcia opened the bottom of the inning by walking Cordero, Esparza, Cazares and Oglesby around hitting Espuma with a pitch to make it a 6-1 game. Hernandez would single home the seventh run and Black then received the fifth walk of the inning, scoring Cazares to make it an 8-1 game.
Palomino came on to pitch and was greeted with a two-run single by Ramirez, and would allow two more hits and three more runs before the inning was over, making it 13-1.
Clint’s final five runs came in the fourth on only one hit, a double by Black. This time, it was errors instead of walks that hurt Pecos, as Palomino and Galindo, who had injured her throwing hand during pre-game warm-ups, had two errors apiece in the inning, resulting in all five runs being unearned.
The win moved Clint into the area round of the Class 3A playoffs next week against District 4-3A champ Levelland, while the Eagles finish their year with a 12-16 record. For Clint, which finished second behind Fabens in District 1-3A next year, it was their first win over Pecos since 1998, the first of four years the teams were part of District 2-4A.
Both teams will be members of District 4-3A next season, and Walls noted that the Eagles will only lose starting shortstop Diana Parada and reserve outfielder Lily Jaramillo off this year’s squad.
“They’re young. We had four freshmen players on the field today, three sophomores and two juniors. So that’s pretty good for who we had out there,” she said.
Fort Stockton, which beat out Pecos for second place in District 2-3A, also won by a wide margin, shutting out Tornillo, 18-0. They’ll face Andrews in their second round game, while district champ Monahans will take on Greenwood, which won a pair of 2-1 playoff games over Seminole after finishing second to Andrews in the District 3-3A standings.
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