Dawgs travel to Belton for meet at BLORA

By Clay Whittington

Cove Leader-Press

The Bulldawgs and Lady Bulldawgs returned to action Friday, traveling for the Belton Invitational, where each team placed eighth overall.

Led by sophomore Juliana Sanchez, who completed the 5,000-meter course at Belton Lake Outdoor Recreation Area in 23 minutes, 17.3 seconds to place 22nd, Copperas Cove accumulated 192 points.

Janel Golderos, a senior, complemented the outing with a 25th-place showing of 23:24.3, while junior teammates Peyton Brewster (40th, 24:34.4), Logan Chlarson (58th, 25:38.4) and Isabella Alott (59th, 25:45.9) rounded out the Lady Bulldawgs scoring.

Additionally, sophomore Fianna Deviney (63rd, 26:49.6) and senior Olivia Hensley (65th, 27:27.6) competed for Copperas Cove, but their scores did not count toward the team total.

Belton placed three runners in the top seven en route to capturing the Class 5A-6A championship, tallying just 48 points to beat out Lake Belton (72) and Waxahachie Life (98).

Despite producing the individual champion in junior Ella Perry, who won with a time of 19:16.6, and the bronze medalist in Kailynn Denney (20:51.5), Harker Heights finished fourth (108).

District 12-6A rivals Waco Midway (5th, 119) and Temple (6th, 120) were also in attendance.

In the boys division, sophomore Jeremiah Calderon was 31st overall with a time of 18:48.1 to pace the Bulldawgs, who recorded 237 points.

Kane Reyes, a senior, traversed the course in 19:43.3 to place 42nd for Copperas Cove, while junior Angel Calderon (58th, 20:29.0) and seniors Ryan Hicks (72nd, 22:17.6) and Alejandro Sanchez (73rd, 22:31.1) completed the Bulldawgs’ scoring.

Also racing for Copperas Cove were Matthew Montenegro (76th, 22:42.2) and Braydon Camp (78th, 22:58.4), a senior and junior, respectively.

Temple narrowly captured the team championship, posting 50 points to edge out runner-up Waco Midway (54) and host Belton (57). The three teams accounted for eight of the top 10 individual performances, including the champion – Waco Midway senior Reeve Tarter, who won with a time of 16:11.0.

From District 12-6A, Harker Heights (188) was seventh.

The Bulldawgs and Lady Bulldawgs travel to Temple on Friday for the Pro-Fit Invitational at James Wilson Park.

Then, they will compete at the Pflugerville ISD Invitational the following week.