Lady Dawgs finish 4th, Bulldawgs place 7th in Tournament of Champions

By Ryan Robbins
Special to the Leader-Press

Being a champion takes sacrifice, and that is exactly what the Copperas Cove wrestling program did on Saturday. They sacrificed sleep in order to compete against some of the best programs in the state as part of The Tournament of Champions at Burleson. Weigh ins were scheduled for 7am, so the wrestlers had to report to the school by 3:30 in the morning. 
The Tournament of Champions took participants from each of the 37 teams and created two brackets per weight class with the winners of each class competing against each other in a Super Final, and the 2nd place finishers facing off for a True Third medal.
The Lady Dawgs were led by Janel Golderos (119). She made short work of her entire bracket, winning all her matches in a combined 1:58 and earning a spot in the super final. Unfortunately, she could not take home the Super Final championship. 
Anastasia Cook (185) was also able to make the final before falling to the eventual Super Final champion and settling for second place. All her victories were via pinfall. 
Mya Watson lost her first match of the season against #7-6A ranked Tiffany Curry from Skyline, but won out to capture 3rd. Leeann Edmond also finished 3rd in her bracket. 
Overall the Lady Dawgs finished 4th out of 36 teams, and only behind #2-5A Burleson Centennial, #4-5A Dumas, and #13-5A Haltom City.
The Bulldawgs were also up for the challenge. Frankie Limon (126) and Ryan Bithorn (170) were able to fight their way to a gold medal in their bracket and earn a spot to the Super Final. Frankie fought in one of the most exciting matches of the day to pull off a Super Final Championship against #8-5A Max Villasana from Frisco Reedy with a score of 7-5. 
Ryan competed in an equally exciting match, but unfortunately fell to #2-5A David Ray from Highland Park 10-7. Tristen Bigger (132) and Kadir Cox (160) also had a strong showing with both finishing 2nd. Tyler Morrow, Jamahl Lloyd, and Joe Carpenter all finished 4th in their brackets. Overall, the Bulldawgs finished 7th out of 38 teams, and only missing fifth place by 3.5 points.
Both teams take this next week off for finals, but will have another early morning next weekend when they travel to Bryan for the Doc Hess Invitational on Saturday (12/18) to finish off the first half of the season.