Lady Dawgs have strong showing at 12-6A Track & Field meet

By TJ MAXWELL
Cove Leader-Press

The Copperas Cove Lady Dawgs advanced nine athletes in seven different events to the UIL District 11-6A/12-6A Area Meet to be held Thursday, April 18 at Rockwall High School. 
The Cove Bulldawgs also advanced one athlete to the area meet.
Leading the way for the Lady Dawgs were Ja’aliyah Segrest, Jasmine Davis and Anayah Copeland with a trio of silver medal finishes.
Segrest cleared the 17 feet, 10 ¾ inches mark for the silver in the long jump while Belton’s Ayanna Jones finished first in the long jump with a mark of 18 feet even. 
Davis cleared five feet mark for silver in the high jump. Morgan Weber of Belton also cleared five feet in the high jump in fewer attempts to claim the gold. 
Copeland notched a time of 59.63 seconds to take the silver in the 400-meter dash. Rhea Miles of Temple edged Copeland for the gold with a time of 58.54 seconds. 
Mahal Thorpe qualified for the area meet with a fourth-place finish in the 100-meter hurdles with a time of 15.39 seconds. Alana Howard of Ellison won the event with a mark of 14.91. Thorpe also just missed the qualifying mark in the 300-meter hurdles where she set a new school record of 46.96.
The foursome of Olivea Nageeullah, Mikayla Devins, Malaya Thorpe and Nadia Robinson finished third in the 4x200-meter relay to qualify for the area meet. They finished with a mark of 1:43.58. Harker Heights won the event with a mark of 1:42.67. Nageeullah also finished sixth in the pole vault with a mark of 8 feet, 6 inches. 
Robinson also qualified in the 200-meter dash with a fourth-place finish and time of 26.11. Asia Hodge of Harker Heights won the event with a time of 24.71.
Madisen Honea also qualified for the area meet with fourth-place finish in the 3,200-meter run. She clocked in a time of 13:40.72. Anna Garner of Waco High won the event with a time of 12:10. Honea also finished fifth in the 1,600-meter run with a time of 5:43.82.
The foursome of Jalyn Ayala, Daniell Diaz, Kyra Gatson and Devins finished fifth in the 4x400-meter relay and the foursome of Ashli Hawkins, Segrest, Malaya Thorpe and Mahal Thorpe finished fifth in the 4x100-meter run with a time of 49.24.
Ayala also finished fifth in the 800-meter run with a time of 2:29.26.
Also competing for the Lady Dawgs were Alisha Donnatien (8th Discus – 95 feet, 1 ½ inches and 8th Shot Put – 33 feet, 10 inches), Hope Chapman (12th Discus – 84 feet 4 ½ inches and 13th Shot Put – 31 feet ½ inch)) and Malaya Thorpe (6th 200-meter dash – 26.35)
The lone qualifier for the varsity boys was also the only gold-medal winner of the week. Kellen Avritt took the gold medal in the pole vault with a top mark of 15 feet, edging out former Bulldawgs and current Ellison Eagle, Tim Doyle. 
Shontez Simmons finished just out of qualifying range with a fifth-place finish in the 200-meter dash with a time of 22.48 seconds. Amir Paris of Ellison won the event with a time of 21.54.
Also competing for the Bulldawgs were: Jaylan Brown (7th Shot Put – 45 feet, 4 inches and 13th Discus – 116 feet, 3 inches), Trevor Troy (12th Shot Put – 41 feet, 5 inches), Damon Hewing (8th high jump – 5 feet, 10 inches), Jerome Gaillard (8th Triple Jump – 42 feet, 5 ½ inches), Tommy Connell (14th Triple Jump – 41 feet, 3 inches) Jayren Key (7th 400-meter Dash – 52.36), Joshua Guerriero (21st 1,600-meter Run – 5:35.60), foursome of Gaillard, Amari Snead, Key and Louis Yvel (6th 4x400-meter relay – 3 minutes, 27.26 seconds), Javeon Meadows (7th Pole Vault – 12 feet) and Josiah Key (10th Pole Vault – 11 feet, 6 inches). 
For complete results, including freshman and junior varsity results, visit http://trackforlife.com/results.htm.