Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
A pair of area teams took top division prizes at this weekend’s Hike It Spike It flag football tournament in Roswell, and 17 teams in Curry, Roosevelt or Bailey counties finished with some level of trophy.
The tournament, billed as the world’s largest flag football tournament, has been held annually in Roswell for 22 years. Nearly 600 teams and 4,000 players show up each year in the charity tournament, and this year’s field featured 46 different divisions playing in a double-elimination format at the Cielo Grande Recreation Area.
Top local winners, both in the boys divisions, were Los Sanchos of Muleshoe taking the 17-18 top high school trophy, and Clovis’ Beast From the East winning the 13-14 oldest bracket.
It’s the second-straight title in the division for Beast From the East. Players include Chance Harris, Blake Muscato, Justin Webskowski, Ernesto Acuna, Pacer Hill, Adrian Gonzales and C.J. Gutierrez. The team went 5-0 on the weekend.
“Athletic ability has helped them to begin with, and they have a good work ethic,” said Loran Hill, who coaches the team along with Evan Baker. “They start work in February, along with everything they’re doing with track and basketball. They’re competitors.”
Five local teams finished as runnersup. Two Clovis-based squads named Beast from the East took second, with the finishes in boys 10 and under (bracket 1) and girls 11-12. Portales’ Mean Machine (10U bracket 2) and Tunnel Vision (men 19-14 experienced, bracket 2) and Eight-o-Six of Muleshoe (girls 13-14) rounded out local second-place finishers.
The C-Cats of Clovis finished third in boys 17-18 top high school. They are comprised of Lane Kelley, Micah Gray, Sebastian Roanhaus, Juan Alvarez, Taitt Kuchta, Rheal Kuchta, Tyler Damron. The nucleus has been together since sixth grade, and has won its division three times while finishing second two other times.
The C-Cats and the Warhawks of Portales (men’s 19-24 experienced) both came away with their division’s Character Counts awards.
Along with the C-Cats, local third-place finishers were Muleshoe’s 806 Trucking in boys 15-16 No Experience and WTA of Muleshoe in 17-18 boys youngest.
The area had eight winners of the “Down and Out Bowl,” an award given to teams that win a bracket comprised of everybody who started the tournament 0-2. The Down and Out winners in boys were the Lil’ Rams of Portales in 8U, the Young Guns of Muleshoe in 8U (youngest), the Young Guns of Muleshoe in 11-12, Mean Machine of Portales in 13U, Young and Recklace of Clovis in 13-14 and 806 Trucking of Muleshoe in 35-plus. Local Down and Out winners in girls competition were Alumni of Muleshoe in 19-14 and TX Heat of Muleshoe in 17-18.
