Loboes Walk Away with Title at Sandhills Relays
    By Randy Hogan, Staff Writer ~~ The Monahans News, March 21, 2006

The Monahans Lobo track team left no doubt they wanted to keep the Division I team title at the 48th Annual Sandhills Relays Saturday, as they amassed 201 points in route to the 2006 meet championship at Estes Memorial Stadium.

Monahans outscored the nearest competitor by 104 points.  Big Springs, led by former MHS track coach Mitch Woodard, finished in second with 97 points.  San Angelo Lakeview accounted for 91 points, followed by Midland Christian (73), San Angelo Central (60), Seminole (43), Kermit (31), Pecos (2), and Presidio (0).

As has been the formula the entire season, Monahans jumped out to a huge lead in the field events, then ran away from the competition in the running events to close out their third team title in four appearances.  The Loboes' only second place finish was to Abilene Wylie in last week's West Texas Relays in Odessa.

Josh Truex started the day by winning the Division I boys' discus with a throw of 135-10.25.  Truex's monster launch was over 5 feet better than the second place finish from San Angelo Central.

Michael Murphree collected fourth place in the discus throw with a toss of 127-111.50.

The Lobo iron men once again owned the shot put, going one-two-three to claim all medals in the event.

Truex claimed his second gold medal of the morning with a throw of 45-4.50. Steven Richardson took the silver medal with a toss of 50-5.75, and Michael Murphree snatched third place with a throw of 50-00.24 to sweep the medals in the event.

Monahans added two more medals to their count in the long jump as Chris Bates soared 19-6.25 to win the gold in the event.  Chris Roberson collected third place with a jump of 19-2.75.

The Loboes continued their dominating performance by winning all three medals in the triple jump.  Russell Covington won first place with a leap of 49-9.00, followed by Devon Fann's jump of 40-8.50 for second place and Todd Cosby claimed third place with a jump of 39-9.50.

Jarod Till led MHS in the high jump with a second place jump of 6 feet.  Colby Latham took third place with a jump of 5-8, followed by Chris Collins' mark of 5-8 for sixth place.

Ben Banegas claimed fourth place in the highly competitive pole vault with a vault of 13 feet.  Andrew Arredondo finished fifth with a vault of 12-6 to close the field events for Monahans.

The Lobo sprint relay team kept the momentum rolling with a first place finish in the 4x100 relay.  MHS won the event with a time of 44.43, edging out San Angel Central and Lakeview.

Josh Munoz posted a time of 2:11.90 for sixth place finish in the 800 meter run, and Colby Latham clocked a time of 16.27 to claim fourth place in the 110-meter hurdles.

Chris Roberson added a gold medal in the 100-meter dash.  Roberson cruised to the first place finish with a time of 11.15.  Chris Bates finished in fourth place with a time of 11.47, and Devon Fann took sixth place by posting a 11.50 in the event.

The Monahans 4x200-meter relay team won the gold medal with an impressive time of 1:29.96, outrunning Midland Christian and San Angelo Lakeview for the title.  The Loboes just missed the Sandhills meet record of 1:29.87 set by MHS in 2005.

Oscar Ruiz claimed third place in the 400-meter dash with a time of 53.52.

In the 300-meter hurdles, Chris Collins added a gold medal to his daily count with a winning time of 40.06, followed by Todd Cosby in sixth place with a time of 43.69.

Chris Bates finished in second place in the 200-meter dash with a time of 22.78, just behind Jon Hibler of Midland Christian with the winning time of 22.75.

Miguel Garza added a sixth place finish in the event with a time of 23.30.

The Monahans 4x400-meter relay team concluded the day with a second place finish behind Midland Christian.  The Mustangs' time of 3:29.40.  Chris Collins made up for a lot of ground on the final leg for the Loboes, but MC withstood the push and continued their 2006 unbeaten streak in the event with the win.

For former MHS track and field coach Mitch Woodard said the Sandhills Relays were bitter-sweet.

"It was good for us to come here and see where we stack up," Woodard said.  "We are rebuilding a once prominent program in Big Spring, and this is a good measure for us."

Woodard's Steers finished second behind his former Lobo team, who he led to the State track and field championships in Austin just last spring.

Monahans will compete in the Wildcat Relays in Wink on Friday.

Keyed by Chino Arsiaga, Senior