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Newspaper and Travel Guide
for Pecos Country of West Texas
Friday, April 27, 2007
Eagle netters fall in openers at Region I-3A tournament
The Pecos Eagles tennis team saw all three of its entries at the Region I-3A Tournament lose out in opening round matches on Wednesday at the Ratliff Stadium Tennis Complex.
The Eagles’ doubles team of Amber Pando and Kristal Ikeler, which placed first at the District 2-3A Tournament on April 3, lost their first round match to Tornillo’s Marina Soto and Vanny Olivas, 6-4, 6-4; while the boys doubles team of Jesse Hanks and Jerris Rayos were beaten by Levelland’s Jeff Ludlam and Zachary Gill, 6-0, 6-4. That duo’s teammate, Andy Cariens, was a winner in boys singles over Francisco Ornelas, 6-0, 6-1.
Ornelas, along with Hanks and Rayos, advanced to regionals after placing second at the district tennis tournament. Cariens was the No. 1 seed in the boys singles division, while the teams that defeated the Eagles in doubles were then beaten by the No. 1 seeds in quarterfinal round play.
None of the regional qualifiers out of District 2-3A advanced past the opening round of play on Wednesday. The tournament was scheduled to conclude with semifinals and finals on Thursday.
Mason earns 11th place finish at Region I-3A golf tourney
Pecos Eagles senior Eleanor Mason finished in a tie for 11th place at the Region I-3A Golf Tournament, held Monday and Tuesday at the Nueva Vista Golf Course in Midland.
Mason had an opening round of 86 and cut that total by two strokes on Tuesday, shooting an 84 to finish at 164, tying with Graham’s Cyndi Joyer, one shot out of a Top 10 finish.
The senior had placed fourth at the District 2-3A Tournament in Pecos to earn a regional medalist berth, shooting a 259 for the 54-hole tournament, but ended up in second out of the 11 2-3A golfers competing at the regional tournament.
Andrews and Snyder ended up winning the two regional berths to the Class 3A state tournament. The Mustangs captured the Region I-3A title in their first season at the 3A level, with a 623 team score, 17 strokes ahead of Snyder, which has won three of the past four 3A state titles and beat out Pecos for first at regionals a year ago. The Tigers’ 640 score was 35 strokes ahead of District 2-3A champ Monahans, which placed third with a 675.
Monahans ‘B’, which beat out the Eagles by one stroke for the second place berth at regionals, ended up in ninth place out of the 16 teams in Midland, with a 36-hole total of 722.
Monahans’ Paige Shaw, the District 2-3A medalist, was the only Loboes golfer to place in the Top 10 individually, finishing one stroke ahead of Mason for 10th place, with a 163 score. Snyder’s Ashley Rodriguez won a playoff over Andrews’ Jennifer Joyce for regional medalist, after both had 36-hole totals of 151.
Pecos’ boys had been scheduled to compete at the Region I-3A Tournament as a team on Wednesday and Thursday, after rallying from 20 strokes down in the final round to win the District 2-3A title. But failing grades ended up forcing the Eagles to forfeit their regional berth, and Fort Stockton ended up joining district runner-up Monahans for the two-day tournament at Nueva Vista.
Both those teams shot 340s in the opening round of the tournament on Wednesday and were tied for 12th place going into the final round of the 36-hole tournament. Graham and Bridgeport held the top spots after the first round of play with 314 and 317 scores, with Sweetwater, Andrews, and Burkburnet all within 10 strokes of the lead and four teams tied for sixth, with 324 totals.
Crockett boys hold first in area golf, girls still in third
High winds made for higher scores last Saturday in the second round of the area junior high golf tournament. But the Crockett Middle School boys were able to add to their lead at the halfway point of the tournament, while Crockett’s girls lost a little ground to host Monahans in the battle for second place behind Andrews.
Playing at the Ward County Golf Course, Pecos’ boys shot a 398 for a two-round total of 775 adding seven strokes to their eight-shot lead over Andrews following the opening round of play in Kermit. The Mustangs shot a 398 and are at 790 after 36 holes of play.
“Our scores went up, but so did Andrews and everyone else’s,” said Eagles’ coach Jerry Parent.
Individually, Pecos’ Joshua Aguilar was able to cut his opening round score of 85 by one stroke, despite the high winds, and is in second place in the medalist race at 169, seven shots in back of Alpine’s Ryder Skillern. Coe Duke also was able to play through the wind, shooting a 95 for the second straight week to stand at 190 and in seventh place overall.
For the Eagles’ other ‘A’ team golfers, Pedro Cano shot a 103 and is at 199, Patrick Madrid shot a 109 and is at 226, and Dominique Vejil shot a 112 and is at 220 after two rounds of play.
“We play in Fort Stockton this week, but we’re going to have to add some more shots to the lead this week, because the last round is in Andrews, and they’ll probably shoot lights out on their course,” Parent said. “We’re at a disadvantage, because we’re the only team that doesn’t get a round on their home course.”
Parent said he took a different group of five golfers to Monahans for the Eagles’ ‘B’ team this past Saturday, and they were able to improve by 21 strokes over the opening round, shooting a 545 to give the ‘B’ team a 1111 total after 36 holes. Angel Valle shot a 131, Chris Martinez had a 132, Alonzo Hernandez had a 140, Chase Price a 142 and Bruce Salcido had a 147 for the Eagles’ individual totals. Pecos also had one individual golfer, Matthew Martinez, who shot a 138.
The ‘B’ team was 11th on the day and are ninth overall in the tournament. Trailing Pecos ‘A’ and Andrews ‘A’ were Kermit with a 410-857; Fort Stockton with a 414-860; Monahans with a 426-895; Andrews ‘B’ with a 465-947; Monahans ‘B’ with a 494-992; and Kermit ‘B’ with a 530-1045. Fort Stockton ‘B’, had a 513 on Saturday and Monahans ‘C’ had a 542, but did not compete in the opening round of play at Kermit.
The girls, who were one stroke behind Monahans for second after their opening round of play in Pecos, followed up their 209 there with a 225 on the Loboes home course and are a 434 after 18 holes of play. That’s nine shots behind Monahans, which shot a 217, while Andrews added to their lead with a round of 201, and are at 394 at the midway point of play.
Marissa Tarango had the best round on Saturday for Pecos, shooting a 51 for the third-best score on the morning. She’s at 107 after 18 holes and in ninth place in the medalist standings. First round leader Tatum Windham shot a 53, seventh best overall in Monahans, and her 18-hole total of 96 puts her second in the medalist race, one stroke in back of Andrews’ Kenzie Long.
Pecos’ other ‘A’ team scores were a 59 by Rina Pino, for a 116 total after two rounds; a 62 by Valerie Ybarra, who is at 123, and a 71 by Heather Mata, who is at 124.
Pecos’ ‘B’ team dropped one place to seventh, after the second round of play, shooting a 264 for a 521 total. Andrea Benavidez had the low round with a 62 and stands at 126 after 18 holes; Valerie Madrid had a 65 and is at 127 overall; Cynthia Ramirez shot a 66 and is at 129; Miren Hinojos shot a 72 and is at 137 and Andrea Rodriguez shot a 71 and is at 140.
In-between the Eagles ‘A’ and ‘B’ teams are Kermit, with a 477 after a round of 237; Andrews ‘B’ with a 249-479; and Monahans ‘B’ with a 252-517
Track teams shift relay lineups for regionals
The Pecos Eagles will have a few faces in different places on Friday, when the first day of the Region I-3A Track and Field Championships begins at Odessa’s Ratliff Stadium.
Girls coach Donna Gent has made a couple of changes to her lineup to try and strengthen the Eagles’ relays, while boys’ coach Robbie Ortega had to make one change in his relays due to grades, while saying that changes by other teams will allow a couple of more Pecos runners into Friday’s preliminaries.
Field event finals in the girls’ long jump and discus and the boys’ pole vault and high jump will start things off at 10 a.m. The finals in the 3200 meter run will start at 1:30 p.m., while the preliminaries for the other running events except for the 1600 meter run will start at 2 p.m. Saturday’s finals open with the boys’ high jump and girls triple jump at 9 a.m., while the running finals start at 1:15 p.m., with the girls 400 meter relay.
Pecos returns one state qualifier from last year, in Chantell Mazone, who won the regional title in the discus a year ago and ended up finishing sixth at state.
“I know Chantell is still first in discus in the region, and believe she’s sitting third in the shot put,” Gent said. Mazone won both events at district two weeks ago, and last year threw 130-feet-1 to win the Region I-3A title. She won district with a 120-foot-7 effort in the discus, and threw 37-foot-11 1/2 to win the shot put title.
Pecos’ girls placed second overall to Monahans at district, while getting a break on the 800 meter relay, which dropped its baton but was allowed to advance to regionals because Presidio failed to field an 800 meter relay squad, which would have left one of the three regional berths open in the four-team district.
Gent said outside of Mazone, the Eagles other times and distances are on the borderline of making the finals, which will take eight out of the 24 entries.
“We’re probably around eighth to 10th the other events, but I’ve made some changes in the other relays to help us out,” she said. “I took Jasmine Rayos and Bianca Baeza out of their individual events, so they can run in all three relays, and we can focus on getting in in those.”
Rayos won the 200 meter dash at district, while Baeza was third in the 100 meters. Both will be added to the 400 meter relay, and will continue to run the 800 and 1600 meter relays.
The Eagles still have Brittany Palomino entered in the 100 and 200 meters She finished second to Monahans’ Jordan Latham in the 100 and was third in the 200 meters.
Palomino and Baeza are also entered in both the long jump and triple jump. They were second and third to Latham in the long jump while Rayos won the triple jump at district.
“We’re sitting about eighth with Jasmine in the triple jump, and we’re about ninth in the long jump with Brittany,” Gent said.
The Eagles’ other double event qualifiers include freshman hurdler Allyson Salcido in the 100 meter low and 300 intermediate hurdles, and sophomore Gabby Garcia in the pole vault and high jump. Pecos also has freshman Olivia Castilleja in the 100 meter hurdles, Brittany Quintana in the 400 meter dash, Kathryn Lamka in the 1600 meter run and Heather Lamka in the 3200 meter run.
It’s the first trip to regionals for most of the Eagles. Rayos went to regionals along with Mazone last year, qualifying in the 200 meters, while the Lamkas qualified for regionals in the 1600 and 3200 meter runs in 2005.
Pecos’ boys have no returning regional qualifiers among the 11 to 12 they’ll take to Odessa. The Eagles qualified all three of their relay teams for regionals, along with Robert Herrera in the discus, Elias Valenzuela in the pole vault and Larry Johnson in the 400 meter dash. They also had several fourth place finishers who are regional alternates, and Ortega said two already have gained spots in Friday’s prelims and there is a chance they could add a few more spots, if other teams pull competitors out of individual races to focus on relays or other events.
“So far right now we’ve had Eli added to the 100 and Vincent Palomino added to the 200 because of some scratches,” he said. “We’re still waiting to see if there are some more scratches, but we won’t know for sure until Thursday.”
Ortega said the relay change would be in the 400 meter relay. “We lost one to grades, but we were able to replace him,” he said. “I figure if we get our handoffs down we’re certainly capable of making the finals in the sprint relay.”
He said the 1600 meter relay improved on its second place time at district, during a regional qualifiers meet last Friday in Iraan.
“We ran in the same type of wind we did in Fort Stockton and cut six seconds off our time,” Ortega said. “The kids changed the order of the relay themselves, and liked it, so we’ll just have to wait and see whether we can make the finals.”
The boys’ best shot at a finals berth going into regionals should be Johnson in the 400. He ran a 50.63 time at district, and while he finished third, behind Fort Stockton’s Adrian Navarez (50.01) and Sam Franklin (50.19), Ortega said, “Larry should be seeded fourth or fifth, and there could be some scratches, so he could be as low as fifth or as high as third.”
He added that Herrera, who placed second at district in the discus, also has a chance to advance to finals. “He’s seeded in about the middle of the pack,” the Eagles’ coach said.
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