RATON GIRLS ROLL AT STATE TRACK/FIELD

The Raton Tigers Lady Track team at the NM State AAA Track/Field Championships did not have a lot of members, but what they lacked in numbers they more than made up for in performance. Etta Briscoe lead the team by winning a state championship in the Shot Put with a 35 feet, 10 inch heave to beat out fellow teamate Haley Ganz. Ganz who won the event last year, earned the silver with a 35 feet one and one half inch throw. Ganz also earned points for the Raton team with a second place discus throw and a fifth place Javelin throw. In the javelin, Raton's Michelle Guara earned second in the state in the Javelin with a 108' 5" effort. Raton's 4x100 and 4x200 relay teams both qualified for the finals after Friday's prelims. The 4x100 team consisting of Brittni Garcia, Arissa Maldonado, Callie Wilson and Dominique Zamora finish fourth to overall champion Hope Christian and the 4x200 team took seventh place. In the individual sprints: girls 100M Dominque Zamora finished 6th; 200M Arissa Maldonado was fith; 400M Brittni Garcia was seventh. As a team Raton earned 35 points for an outstanding fifth place finish. Hope Christian was first followed by Pojoaque with 55, Socorro with 43 and Sandia Prep with 35.5. Following Raton was Robertson with 29, St. Mikes with 24, Portales with 20, Lovington 19 and West Vegas with 18. Congratulations!! from KRTN and Billy D.

Tiger Moms Honor Student Athletes

Student Athletes honored by Tiger Moms

By Marty Mayfield

KRTN Multi-Media

            Each year about this time of year Raton High student athletes are honored at a banquet put on by a small-dedicated group of Moms who spend the school year tirelessly fund raising just to put on this event.

            The athletic banquet has been a yearly tradition for many years where students often receive their first athletic letter and a pin for each year of play in a given sport. It gives the coaches an opportunity to thank those who have helped or supported each team during the year.

            The Tiger Moms put on this great banquet through various fund raising activities each year and support the kids in various other ways. This year they also presented the 27 athletic seniors with plaques provided by First National Bank and a great meal catered by Mr “C’s”.

            Yet the future of the banquet may be in question, as it seems harder and harder for Tiger Moms to put together a dedicated group of moms after their kids graduate. The logistics for such a banquet takes the better part of the year to prepare and set up. Like many other organizations Tiger Moms needs volunteers.

Each year I see the smiles on those moms’ faces and see the joy and pride they take in what they do. Yes quite often they don’t get a thank you for the many things they do, but when they do get that thank you I know it makes them feel it is worth the trouble.

            There are well over 70 athletes that participate in sports at Raton High School yet this year only 12 moms came together to put on the fund raising to make this event possible.

            How many volunteers will step up and help out next year? I sure hope there are a bunch because when it comes to honoring the accomplishments of our student athletes at the end of the year this event makes it all that much more special.

             It is a pleasure to work with these ladies and I hope to see them again next year.

To you, Tiger Moms, Thank You, Thank You for all you do through out the year.  

Tiger Moms Thank You so very much!!  Jennifer Valentine, Michelle Valdez,Stephanie Jansen, Wanda Henson, Lillian Maldonado, Vicki Walton, Aimee Feldman, Shelly Wood, Kathy Parker, Bernadette Romero.  Not pictured are Bonnie Sanchez and Wendy Mileta

Weekend Shutouts move teams on in State Tourney

Picture perfect weather Friday evening only made it that much more enjoyable as the Tigers took off in the second inning and over the next three innings made it look easy as they shut out the Shiprock Warriors 10-0 in five innings.

That was the first of a best of three in the first round of state tourney playoff action. Game two action started Saturday morning at 10:00 a.m. to another great day. Again the boys started connecting while the Raton pitchers did their job. During Friday's game Blake Washburn racked up 10 strikeouts and Saturday morning Cam Baird followed with several of his own strikeouts.

Saturday's game took six innings but the Tigers did it once again with a 10-0 shut out while at the other end of the Raton sports complex the Lady Tigers walloped the softball for eight runs in the first inning against the Hatch Valley Lady Bears. The Lady Bears starting pitcher Rebecca Hays helped out the Lady Tigers with walks and she struck two batters for two scores in the inning. The next two innings were slow defensive battles then the Lady Tigers bats connected again this time for seven runs to end the game 15-0 in four innings.

The wins move both teams on to Rio Rancho for second round action. The girls will be at Rio Rancho field 3 Thursday at 10:00 a.m. where they will play West Las Vegas Lady Dons who have beat Raton three times in the regular season.

The boys will play Cobre at noon Thursday at Volcano Vista High School. 

Mayor Charles Starkovich throws out the first pitch to start the ball game Friday afternoon.

Its a picture perfect bunt except the umpire called Blake Washburn out as he stepped out of the batter's box

Safe at home!! Dylan Query slides in safe as the Shiprock pitcher can't hang on to the ball Friday afternoon at Gabrielle Field

Brackets for the state tourney can be accessed at the NMAA Web page:  for the boys   http://www.nmact.org/baseball_brackets/     
for the girls its http://www.nmact.org/   then click on the link to the PDF Files for the brackets.

Raton golf scores District Titles

By Marty Mayfield
KRTN Multi-Media

What a beautiful chamber of commerce spring day it was as Raton hosted the District 2AAA golf tourney and when it was ll over and the scores were tallied it was the Raton Golf teams that came out on top to earn the district title.

Both Coach David Swanson and Joseph Quintana were chosen the coaches of the year for District 2AAA.

While most of the players struggled a little during the day Breanna Pais took third in the girls rankings overall and placed first in the Raton team scoring with a 92. Kevin Fissel scored a 3rd place overall with Dephen Chavez taking 4th. Both Kevin and Dephen were tied and it took scores from the third tie breaker hole score before Kevin finally took third.

Raton will be sending Johnathan Ford and Megan Holland to the state tourney next week as well as the girls team who barely qualified for state with a team score of 400 just under the 408 required for state qualification. The boys who scored a 341 were over the 21 strokes over the 320 that they needed to go to state as a team.

Congratulations Raton Golf and Coaches!!!!

The Raton girls get the before tourney briefing

Coach David Swanson gives the teams the before tourney briefing

Brianna Pais takes a look and prepares to make one of the puts that helped her score a 92 which gave her the best team score and individually gave her a 3rd place tourney finish

Coach Joseph Quintana strategizes with Kevin Fissel on the #9 green 

its a jump for joy after Taylor Hull made about a 100 foot chip shot that went in the hole to give her a par on Number 3

Megan Holland who has qualified for State works the long put on #3 green

Johnathan Ford sinks the put on #9 Green. Ford has also qualified for the State tourney

The score sheets for the District 2AAA Tourney

The banners tell it all Raton Golf has the District Title

Johnathan Ford signs the District Banner, it's a welcome treat for the RHS Senior

Game 1 

Portales 6

Raton 0

Game 2 

Portales 5

Raton 0

Lady Tigers finish home season with goose eggs.

By Marty Mayfield

KRTN Multi-Media

The Lady Tigers hosted one of the best teams in AAA softball Monday afternoon in the Portales Lady Rams and came up not just on the short end but posted goose eggs on the score board.

The Ladies were making contact with the ball and sending it sailing only to see it land safely in the glove of a Lady Ram. This not only happened in the first game of the double header but the second one too. 

The Lady Tigers also put up a good defense but all it took was a walk or a single that fell just short of an Lady Tiger outfielder. The Portales base runners played the ball smartly and didn't take the chances that could have lead to an out. 

The Lady Tigers will play West on Tuesday and Robertson in a double header on Saturday the 28th.

Seniors Pat Romero, Breanna Schutte, Sara Ortiz, Maggie Honeyfield were honored at the last home game of the season for the Lady Tigers Monday afternoon.

The bats made contact just like this one for Brylee Medina but it seems the ball always fell into a Lady Ram glove during both games Monday afternoon 

Conference at the mound as Coach Tina Dorrance talks to pitcher Shania Dorrance and Catcher Kalista Dorrance  Monday afternoon during a time when Shania was in a pitching slump

A Lady Ram just makes it back to 1st base as Sara Ortiz goes for the tag Monday afternoon 

Shania Dorrance makes contact only to be thrown out at first as happened often during the double header Monday afternoon against the Portales Lady Rams

Girls 

Game 1 

Taos 1

Raton 13

Game 2 

Taos 4

Raton 19

Boys 

Game 1

Taos 3

Raton 2

Game 2 

Taos 8

Raton 3

It was a long day for the Raton Tigers as Taos made plays like this one work for them as a Taos Tiger slides into 3rd base safe as the ball gets away from Cam Baird

Dylan Aragon makes the play at 2nd as he tags Noah Romero

Troy Hall goes for the tag at 2nd base Saturday afternoon at Gabrielle Field

Pitcher George Marquez a half a step ahead of Noah Romero going to 1st base for the out.

Lady Tigers drop two while Tigers take two

By Marty Mayfield

KRTN Multi-Media

It was double header day in Raton as both the girls and boys hosted the West Las Vegas Lady Dons and Dons on a cool and windy Friday afternoon.

The Lady Tigers didn't have problem making contact with the ball it was keeping the ball away from a Lady Don. Several hits in the first game took off and looked good but a Lady Don seemed to always be under the ball. 

The Lady Dons too made contact yet several of their balls fell just out side the reach of the Lady Tiger gloves. In game one a late rally fell short leaving the ladies with a district loss. Game two followed a similar theme yet saw Raton take an early lead yet unable to hold on. By the end of the game Raton was short by five. 

The Raton boys however completed a shut out in game one and pulled out a squeaker in game two. The Dons took the early lead in game two and and a two run rally in the third tied it. Raton again took the lead in the fifth with the Dons coming back and taking the lead in the sixth.

Raton ties it and in the seventh Troy Hall gets a single into left field to bring Dylan Aragon in for the win.

Both teams will host Robertson on Tuesday and host Taos on Saturday for another double header.

Girls 

WLV 7

Raton 5

WLV 13

Raton 8

Boys 

WLV 0

Raton 5

WLV 4

Raton 5

Sara Ortiz makes contact Friday afternoon at JimWade Field as the Lady Tigers hosted the Lady Dons in a double header

Safe at home is Breannon Trujillo as she gets in under the tag

Let's start a rally was the battle cry late in the game as the Lady Tigers trailed WLV  in game 1 of a double header

Maggie Honeyfield takes to the dirt at third as the ball goes toward 1st base.

Blake Washburn tries to make it safe at third during the second game of a double header with West Las Vegas

The call was out at third as Blake Washburn slides into third in a cloud of dust.

The ball stalls out in the dirt as the as WLV Don Adrian Vladez steals second

Easily out at second is Jose Juan Montano during the second game of the double header in Raton Friday afternoon.