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Talking about swine flu and high school sports

In this special edition of the El Paso Times high school sports podcast, it's all about the swine flu.

Aaron Bracamontes and Lenny Jurado talk about how the UIL has reacted to the swine flu and what is now scheduled to happen with track and field, baseball, softball, golf and tennis.

To listen to the podcast, click here. (right click and save-target-as to download)

Runners to your marks

The UIL announced today that it will plan on going on with the regional meets on a new schedule. Originally it planned to cancel the meets and take only the top four times in the region at district to state. However, it appears that with more time they are trying to find a way to get our athletes a chance to run.

To read more about this pick up tomorrow paper or click here to read Lenny Jurado's story.

No more regional track and field meets?

On Wednesday the UIL, faced with the swine flu outbreak, made a decision that will affect the careers of several local high school athletes. While baseball and softball will now have their seasons pushed back, officials ruled that the regional track and field meet will be cancelled and only the top four times/marks at district in each region will go to state in a now three-day meet. 

As of right now this is the status, however, as reported by Lenny Jurado earlier today, the UIL is moving towards re-instating the regional meets at a later date. (You can read the story in today's paper or click here ). This is one of the biggest events to ever affect athletics here in Texas and if the UIL does not bring back the meet it will end the season for several athletes, many of whom are seniors. Looking at the district results, here are the list of athletes who would go to state. (Remember the UIL rules are the top four marks at the district meets in each event, so if someone had a faster time earlier in the season or in a prelim, then it does not count).

5A Boys

300-Meter Hurdles

Isaac Spoon, Eastwood — 39.28 (3rd in region)

200 Meters

Chris Pitts, El Dorado — 22.02 (3rd)

Discus 

Brandon Lira, El Dorado — 166-09 (2nd)

Adam Clark, Franklin — 162-09 (3rd)

High Jump

Roman Romero, Americas — 6-04 (Tied-4th)

Carlos Hernandez, Franklin — 6-04 (Tied-4th)

* Six are tied at 6-04

Pole Vault

Emilio Arias, El Dorado — 14-06 (Tied-4th)

Oscar Flores, El Dorado — 14-06 (Tied-4th)

* Seven are tied at 14-06

5A Girls

High Jump

Victoria Claytor, Hanks — 5-06 (Tied-2nd)

* Five are tied at 5-06

Long Jump

Rachel Mack, Franklin — 18-02.00 (3rd)

Triple Jump

Rachel Mack, Franklin — 39-00.25 (1st)

Victoria Claytor, Hanks — 37-07.00 (4th)

4A Boys

100 Meters

Miguel Edwards, Irvin — 10.65 (1st)

400 Meters

Miguel Edwards, Irvin — 48.41 (2nd)

Mike Davis, Parkland — 49.72 (3rd)

Leo Arroyo, Mountain View — 49.87 (4th)

3200 Meters

Isaac Spencer, Austin — 9:48.49 (2nd)

Mile Relay

Austin — 3:22.68 (3rd)

800 Meter

Ramon Garcia, Austin — 1:55.12 (1st)

Danny Tarango, Burges — 155:34 (2nd)

Danny Cuevas, Austin — 1:56.60 (4th)

4A Girls

800 Meters

Marissa Paz, Chapin — 2:20.75 (4th)

100-Meter Hurdles

Evonne Britton, Chapin — 14.08 (2nd)

300-Meter Hurdles

Evonne Britton, Chapin — 44.55 (3rd)

Triple Jump 

Kayla Thornton, Irvin — 37-10 (2nd)

High Jump

Hannah Williams, Chapin — 5-04.00 (Tied-1st)

* Three are tied for first

Shot Put

Lidia Hernandez, Chapin 38-04.50 (2nd)

Now are here some positives and negatives.

For starters if the UIL decides to have regional meet, only the top two finishers in each event get to go to state, so that means that in the 4A boys 800 or 400 meter run, where we have three athletes in the top four, a person will be left out. So in a way this helps get some of out top students to the state meet.

However...

Notice anyone missing?

If you have been keeping up with track and field all season you know there are several who have hit higher marks than they did at district, or have been to state once before and have the capability to do it again.

Marcus Calhoun is one name that comes to mind, and you can read more specifically of why he would be missed in Lenny's story. 

So what happens, if an athlete is in several events at district to help their team get points and know that at regionals they are going to focus on one even? Or what happens if it was just a bad day, personal or weather wise? Here's a good example especially in the running events, more specifically the distance ones: what if there simply was no one there to push the star athlete, but at regionals they can keep up and beat the best as they've done in the past?

Now well everyone should always go hard, all the time, there are reasons why someone may not run their best time at district, injuries or otherwise. Maybe some might say you have to be prepared and if your time wasn't in the top four then you may of had a slim chance to get in, and now we have three in some events going to state. True.

I would love to see more than just two of El Paso's own make it, but I do know, from going through results district by district, there are some on the cusps of making it and who knows what one more race could have done for them.

But here's the real reason why this reporter think the regional meet MUST go on...

As a former mile runner in the Sun City, I didn't have the talent to make it to regionals and if I did it would have been the race of my life, mixed with luck to get there. If by some way I was able to qualify to regionals as a senior I would be ecstatic, but would know that if I barely slipped into the top two (it changed to top three after I graduated) at district, then there was no way I was making it to state. 

So a regional trip would be my moment in Fenway Park. Now to have some officials yank that away would be devastating. I know from being at meets and talking to these runners, jumpers and throwers that there are those who are looking for their moment in the spotlight and that was regionals. For them and everyone else it would be an injustice to ruin their last race, because win or lose or even fall, that was going to be the one they remembered forever.

As of right now the above listed athletes (and if I miscalculated on them, let me know) are going to state, but the UIL is leaning towards bring back regionals. If they do I believe it will make thousands of athletes very happy, even if they have to extend the season a couple of weeks into the summer. 

We here at the Times will work to find out what their final decision is and we will break the news when we do find out. Nothing is set in stone except for the fact no high school sporting events, aside from practice, will be held until May 11. 

So stay tuned because it may not be game over, it may just be paused.

More highlights from the 2009 high school track and field Meet of Champions at Horizon High School

First off, I'd like to highlight Horizon High School for hosting the Meet of Champions the past couple of years because it's a competitive-yet-fun meet for area kids. I'm not sure how many other track and field programs - if any - would be willing to give up their weekend (I know how much you coaches cherish your weekends) heading into the regional meets.

As it was, I still noticed Friday (April 24, 2009) that some successful El Paso programs (I won't name names) didn't have even one kid entered. I'm sure not ALL of your athletes wanted or needed to rest this weekend. I can understand some who are nursing injuries, but zero qualifiers from your school? ... If anything, this could have been an opportunity to cross-train, such as running a hurdler in a sprint event like Chapin's Evonne and Elijah Britton did in the 100- and 200-meter dashes.

Still, there were a good number of athletes competing at Horizon, and it was yet another successfully run event.

Most kids love running, love competing, and the Meet of Champions gives them another opportunity to showcase their skills.

Not only that, it offered athletes from smaller schools, such as Clint, to strut their stuff against those from larger, and in some cases much-larger, schools.

One such race was the boys 300 hurdles, where sophomore John Herrera from Clint (Class 3A) pushed city-leader Isaac Spoon - who literally looks like a man among boys out there - to his limits. Spoon, a senior out of Eastwood (5A), won in a personal-best 38.89 seconds (all times Friday were fully automatic), only .17 ahead of Herrera. Herrera's fastest time is a hand-timed 38.91, which was provided to me by local track and field statistician/historian Terry Gent.

Gent, by the way, is the city's authority on everything track and field. If you ever run into him - he's a short, stocky middle-aged man with a foreign accent and an unmistakable mustache and who always has his laptop with him - at a meet, give him a nice pat on the back because this guy goes through incredible pains to track down marks and names dating back to the 1920s. He's chock full of school records, athletes' personal records, city records and so on. I first met him about five years ago, and he stunned me by knowing my fastest times in the hurdles, way back in 1996.

But back to the meet.

I wasn't able to record the dizzying multitude of school and personal records set Friday, but I'll mention some highlights I was NOT able to get into Saturday's (April 25, 2009) article. The El Paso Times will have complete results in the coming days ...

For any records or other noteworthy nuggets I don't include, feel free to mention them in comments on this blog. 

•GIRLS POLE VAULT

Coronado went 1-2 with Jenna Doddridge and Sarah Salas. Doddridge cleared 9 feet, 7 inches to win, and Salas took second with a personal-best 9-1.

•BOYS POLE VAULT

El Dorado went 1-2 with Emilio Arias and Oscar Flores at 13-1. Both passed on earlier heights. Arias took only one attempt, while Flores took two.

•BOYS LONG JUMP

El Dorado's Brandon Barrs won at 20-6, four inches ahead of Eastwood's Edward Smith.

•BOYS TRIPLE JUMP

Eastwood's Edward Smith won at 44-4.25. He passed his final three attempts.

•GIRLS HIGH JUMP

Mountain View's Patty Rodriguez, a senior, tied three other girls at 5-0 but was declared the winner. It was a personal-best, beating her previous best of 4-10, which she jumped in winning the District 2-4A title last week. 

Eastwood's Kayla Nolan and Andress' Valerie Mendoza tied for second, while Eastwood's Jessica Salazar was fourth.

•BOYS DISCUS

Parkland's Howard Lance won at 153-4, which came on his very first attempt.

•GIRLS DISCUS

Mountain View's Adriana Arrieta won at 99-3.

•GIRLS SHOT PUT

Kimberly Najera of Horizon won at 33-5, two inches ahead of 1-5A champion Kassy Angeles of Montwood.

•GIRLS 3,200-METER RUN

Horizon went 1-2 with Vanessa Moreno (12 minutes, 13.0 seconds) and Adrian Jurado (12:45.00).

•BOYS 3,200-METER RUN

Horizon's Adrian Anaya won at 10:32.31, roughly 32 seconds ahead of second place.

•GIRLS 400 RELAY

Andress outclassed the field in a time of 49.64. Second-place was 50.87.

•BOYS 400 RELAY

Run in two heats (timed finals). El Dorado's time of 42.91 took first, followed by Irvin at 42.97. Both won their respective heats. The Rockets, who out-distanced third-place Hanks (43.49) on the anchor leg of their heat, were irked by being placed in a separate heat from the Aztecs.   

•GIRLS 800 RUN

Clint's Sonia Vasquez won in 2:24.76.

•BOYS 800 RUN

Eastwood's Juan Blanco out-kicked Clint's Luis Fuentes in the final stretch to win in 1:59.98. Fuentes' time was 2:01.05.

•BOYS 110 HURDLES

Isaac Spoon won in 14.65, giving him times of 14.50 and 14.56 - all FAT - over his last three races.

•GIRLS 100 DASH

Chapin senior Evonne Britton, by far the city's top hurdler in both races, won the day's closest race in 12.96. Next were Andress' Savanna Henderson (12.98), Montwood's Stephanie Sazo (13.02), Andress' Alisha Monnette (13.18), Mountain View's Paula Gutierrez (13.24) and Del Valle's Vivian Apodaca (13.31).

•GIRLS 800 RELAY

Burges won in 1:46.33 to hold off El Dorado, which crossed in 1:46.86. The Mustangs got a tremendous boost from third leg Isabella Gay, who took them from fourth to first by the time she handed off the baton.

•BOYS 800 RELAY

Eastwood won in 1:29.74.

•GIRLS 300 HURDLES

Eastwood's Jessica Salazar, the District 1-5A champion, won in 46.71, barely more than a tenth of a second off her personal-best. Parkland's Alexandria Dudley, a freshman, was second in 47.70, a school record.

•GIRLS 200 DASH

Freshman Lisa Bennett of Andress continued to make a name for herself, winning in a personal-best 25.56. She out-kicked Chapin senior Evonne Britton (26.21) in the last 90 meters.

•BOYS 200 DASH

Canutillo's John De La Rosa, an all-city running back, won in 22.85.

•GIRLS 1,600 RUN

District 1-5A champion Kim Martinez comfortably won in 5:33.89, roughly two seconds off her personal-best.

•BOYS 1,600 RUN

Socorro went 1-2 with Josue Nunez (4:38.50) and Juan Salazar (4:40.75).

•GIRLS 1,600 RELAY

Eastwood's depth helped it win in 4:08.21. Meanwhile, freshman Paris Ware, the 1-5A champion and M.O.C. quarter-mile winner, edged Parkland by a mere hundredth of a second to clinch silver for Hanks, 4:09.28 to 4:09.29. 

•BOYS 1,600 RELAY

A treat to watch and El Paso's fastest boys mile relay of the year. Eastwood won in a season-best 3:20.10, just ahead of Canutillo (3:20.86), which held off Parkland (4:09.29).

Talking high school sports

The latest high school sports podcast is now available.

Lenny Jurado and Aaron Bracamontes talk about high school track and field, golf and tennis.

To listen to the podcast, click here. (right click, save target as, to download)

Extra's from District 2-4A track and field meet

Here is a more in depth look at the District 2-4A track and field meet, hosted at Riverside High School on Friday night.

Your district champions were Canutillo on the boys side who finished with a commanding 182 points. Parkland came in second with 113, while Horizon was third with 97.

Canutillo got several points from the field events on the previous two days. Jesse Rose, Ibn Caraveo and Josh Silvas finished 1-2-3 in the shot put. Rose also won the discus with a throw 140-06. Chris Corral, who also won the 300-meter hurdles, got Canutillo big points by winning the triple jump and placing second in the long jump behind Ysleta's Michael Armendariz.

The Scorpions also did well in the field, with Richard Chavez winning the pole vault and Norberto Solis took home gold in the high jump.

On the track, no one showed dominance in the relay races. Mountain View won the 4x100, Del Valle won the 4x200 and Canutillo won the 4x400.

Mike Davis, who easily won the 100, and Leo Arroyo had a great duel in the 400, with Davis notching a 49.72 and Arroyo finishing at 49.87.

But it was Del Valle's Rudy Tueckmantel who came away from a closer race with a gold. He won the 110-meter hurdles with a 15.82, but second place Luis Carlos (Canutillo) and third place Tommy McCoy (Parkland) were not far behind with a 15.98 and 15.99.

"My coach always tells me to block out everyone, because that's one of my flaws," Tueckmantel said. "This time I just focused on the finish line."

Horizon was more than well-represented in the distance races. First Adrian Anaya, Rudy Flores and Daniel Flores went 1-2-3 in the 3,200, then Luis Fuentes wins the 1,600 with Anaya in second. Fuentes also finished third in the 800, but that race belonged to Canutillo's Miguel Garcia who out kicked Ysleta's Alonso Diaz in the end.

On the girls side, several athletes had double golds.

Del Valle's Monica Lopez won the long and triple jump, which she set a record in with a mark of 37 feet and four inches.

Meanwhile Mountain View's Adriana Arrieta won the shot put, was second in the discus and then went on to win the 300-meter hurdles, while teammate Patty Rodriguez took home the gold in the 100- hurdle and high jump. 

Also medaling in different events was Horizon's Adriana Jurado who won the pole vault and then struck the first blow in the "distance wars" between the Scorpions and Conquistadors, by winning the 3,200 meter run with teammate Vanessa Moreno in second, followed by Del Valle's Adriana Rosales in third.

Then in the 800 meter, Sonia Vasquez notched another victory for the Scorpions by defeating Maria Esquinca. Vasquez ran a 2:26.17 while Esquinca was close behind at 2:26.93.

Esquinca and the Del Valle runners got revenge in the 1,600. Esquinca won the race by pull ahead of Moreno and Jurado. But, two more Conquistadors would place top six.

Not to be overlooked in the 800 was Parkland's Nicole Dudley who placed third and then came back to win the 400 meter run. Her teammate Zuleika Hernandez edged out Del Valle's Lopez by .19 of a second in the 100.

Riverside's Rio Salazar had a breakthrough performance, taking the gold, with a smile, in the 200 meter run with a time of 26.52. She also anchored Rangers 4x200 relay team and passed three others on the curve to lead her team to victory.

Parkland, who finished second in the 4x200, won the 4x100 and then once again was runner-up in the 4x400 to Horizon.

However, that right there goes on to show how good of a night the Matadors had. While they may have not won several events, only three golds, they 13 medals and got back-points to win with 156 point total. Horizon win in the 4x400 propelled them to a second place finish, with 116 points, just ahead of Del Valle who had 113.

Overall, for a chilly night it was hot competition on the track and in the field during the two previous day. But when it came down to it, Parkland got it's amazing eight straight title and Canutllo got its second consecutive championship.

Congratulations to both. 

Tough decisions

It may be one of the toughest decisions Oscar Loy has made all season long. The Del Valle multi-sport athlete just finished as the individual runner-up in the District 2-4A golf tournament, qualifying him for the regional tournament.

But there was a problem.

A week earlier Loy was the District 2-4A tennis tournament runner-up in boys singles. Well, on almost any other occasion it would be double the celebration, but unfortunately the 4A tennis and golf regional tournaments conflict with each other. 

So Loy had the choice, go to Regional in golf or go in tennis?

After much deliberation with himself, he chose golf, which now opens the door for Ysleta's Juan Ferenandez to go to regionals in tennis.

"Tennis is in my heart," Loy told his coach after making the decision. But in the end golf was the one he felt he needed to compete in and represent El Paso and 2-4A for.

A situation like this doesn't happen very often, but at the same time it is not unheard of. It is unfortunate that with eight different sports going on in the spring, many seasons seem to overlap. Making decisions hard for student-athletes at times.

Well it is unfortunate that Loy or others in similar situations cannot go to both, it does not take away from the fact that he is a regional qualifier in two different sports, and not many can say that.

To him and any others players who could not do both, keep your heads up, because one day you will look back and be able to talk about how much you enjoyed playing, and either way you still got to keep your season going.

Franklin beats Hanks softball

It was billed as a pitchers duel, and it lived up to the hype. 

Franklin, ranked No. 2 in the city, defeated No. 1 Hanks, 2-1 in the seventh inning after an error resulted in the game-winning run.

In the bottom of the seventh with one out, Kassie Dominguez struck out, but the catcher couldn't handle the ball and Dominguez beat the throw to first. She then stole second and was bunted over to third. 

Next at bat was Marcie Emler who hit a smoking liner that the second baseman was able to handle, however a bad throw let Dominguez come in to end the game.

"It was a hard ground ball that took a hop," Franklin coach Rick Perez said. 

Hanks had taken an early lead in the second inning when pitcher Adriana Garcia hit a one-run homer off Leslie Ericson. 

After the homer Ericson settled down and allowed only six hits for the entire game.

Franklin tied the game up in the bottom of the fourth when Abby Cohen came in from third base after a bad throw from the shortstop third baseman to second base.

While Hanks only two errors resulted in two runs for Franklin despite giving up only three hits. The Cougars also committed two errors.

Hanks (11-2), who has not had their second bye yet, remains in first place ahead of Franklin (10-2) by half a game.

"It's going to be tough (to win the district)," Perez said. "We got four tough games left."

Perez said the duel between Ericson (14-4) and Garcia (23-4) was one of the best all season.

Meanwhile, El Dorado, who was in fourth place, defeated Montwood, who was in third place.

Remembering the 2009 girls soccer season

On Tuesday the city's last two girls soccer teams were eliminated from the state playoffs. Well it is unfortunate that another season has come and gone, there were some notable teams this year.

Del Valle and Chapin were the last two teams to fall. 

Del Valle had one of the best records in town and went the majority of the season without giving up a goal. When you think about it, no matter what level, what league or district or what gender they are that is a hard feat to accomplish. Their reward for it was another District 3-4A championship and a trip to the regional quarterfinals.

Chapin made its first appearance in school history to the regional quarterfinals and they did it under of first year coach Amber Mack, a former UTEP El Paso prep star herself. The Huskies were co-District 1-4A champions and survived probably the most intense game of the year: a 2-1 sectional round win over Ysleta that saw overtime, a five-round shootout and four more extra shootout rounds. Look for Mack to take Chapin to new heights.

But don't forget about the other team in that bout:  — Ysleta. To sum up this year's Indian squad I would have to defer to coach Erik Nevarez who said to his team "you girls have nothing to be sad about. You put Ysleta soccer on the map. People know you are a force to be reckoned with."

And its all TRUE. At the beginning of the season Ysleta went from a surprise team in the San Elizario tournament championship against eventual No. 1 in the city Franklin, to a legit contender. 

Another standout team was Austin. This year the Panthers were co-District 1-4A champions, giving coach Martha Celaya her first title. It is still not certain if Celaya will retire or not, but if she does it will be a memorable image of her raising the championship trophy over her head.

Soccer didn't get much better than District 1-5A ball. There we saw three teams continually slug it out for the district title.

Franklin emerged as the eventual champion defeating Coronado in a (to put it simply) heated season finale to take the title. While at the beginning of the season, coach Scott Gilmore said his squd was not as good as it had been in the past. But lo and behold the Cougars emerged as the definite No. 1 team in El Paso.

The Socorro Bulldogs start the season ranked No. 1. While they quickly lost that title, they remained in the top 3 the rest of the way. However the thing to remember about this team of returning talent was they did not fall easy. Socorro was the last District 1-5A team in the playoffs. And in case you never saw her they had a scoring machine in Alexandria Carpio who scored a amazing 34 goals this season. She will be playing college ball next year.

Coronado had a break out season and were one win away from a three-way tie for the district title. Their speed seemed to bamboozle their opponents. While the T-Birds fell short to rival Franklin, who knows what next years team could achieve.

Overall it was a great season for soccer. There were SEVERAL other teams that were impressive and had impressive players. However there is never enough time to mention them all. SO, once again I call on you fans to share your best moments of the year. We've discussed the ugly of the sport in previous blogs but lets talk about the "great's" the "amazing's" and the fun parts of the year. Let hear it.