Cove cross country, volleyball gets in weekend work

By TJ MAXWELL

Cove Leader-Press

TEMPLE - The Copperas Cove cross country team kicked off its 2017 campaign at the annual Temple Wildcat Invitational on Friday and the Lady Dawg volleyball team concluded their three-day tournament in Bastrop with a sixth place finish out of 40 teams on Saturday.

Cove sophomore Madisen Honea finished an impressive third to lead the Copperas Cove varsity girls’ squad while brother Justus Honea paced the varsity boys with a 50th-place finish.

Madisen’s time of 20 minutes, 55.5 seconds was just 27 seconds behind second-place finisher Mary Hathorn of A&M Consolidated (20:27.5). Round Rock McNeil’s Maddy Marrone paced the field with a time of 19:26.3.

Senior Mariyah Reynolds posted a time of 22:29.6 to finish 22nd overall and Juyah Robinson ran a 22:33.2 to finish 27th.

Also competing for Copperas Cove was Mikayla Devins (50th – 24:04.6), Ariana Wilson (66th – 25:17), Danielle Diaz (69th -26:10.2).

Leading the girls’ junior varsity squad was Jalyn Ayala with a 14th-place finish and time of 16:49.2. Stefani Vassar finished 33rd with a time of 18:02 and Katelyn Borego finished 45th with a time of 18:36.1.

Also competing for Cove was Leah Novogradac (47th – 18:48.5), Tori Olsen (55th – 20:04.1) and Destini Spruill (57th – 20:21.5).

Justus Honea finished with a time of 19:09.2 to place in the top 50 of 102 runners. Tristan Reno (55th – 19:28.6), Francisco Alvarado (56th – 19:34.7) and Amari Johnson (59th – 19:44.8) also finished in the top 60 runners. Dereck Elkins of Round Rock Stoney Point blazed past the field for a top finishing time of 15:37.3.

Also competing for Cove was Deandre McKinnis (83rd – 21:48.5), Christopher Borego (86th – 22:02.3) and Joshua Guerrerio (88th – 22:37.9).

Competing for the Cove junior varsity was Tyrese Taylor (59th - 22:26.1), Jonathan Wolverton (60th - 22:26.1), Davion Stringer (82nd - 24:02.3) and Logan Foster (109th - 29:20.7).

The Lady Dawg volleyball team finished the Bastrop tournament sixth out of 40 teams with a 7-3 record to move to 17-4 overall on the season.

Cove beat Lockhart (25-10, 27-25), Elgin (25-12, 25-16) and Navarro (25-22, 25-12) to improve to 14-1 on day one of the tournament. 

The Lady Dawgs began day two with a tough win over San Antonio Taft (25-18, 22-25, 25-18) and a made quick work of Leander Glenn (25-14, 25-19) before suffering their first loss of the tournament to Round Rock Stony Point (26-28, 22-25).

Cove then lost to state-ranked Cedar Ridge (19-25, 25-27) to open Saturday action before defeating McNeil (25-14, 25-17) and falling to state-ranked Liberty Hill (25-18, 17-25, 22-25) to close the tournament.

The Lady Daws will return to action tonight at home against Pflugerville with the sub-varsity getting underway at 5:30 p.m. and the varsity to follow.