Copperas Cove spring sports embark on playoff run

By TJ MAXWELL
Cove Leader-Press

The Copperas Cove spring sports athletes won’t be getting much rest and that’s a good thing.
The Copperas Cove girl’s golf team qualified as a team for regionals for the first time in 14 years, as long as most the players who qualified have been alive.
Cove freshman Elle Fox carded a first round score of 37 before posting her best-ever round of 70 at Stone Tree Golf Club to win the district crown by 13 strokes. 
Sophomore Maddie Miller shot a combined 132 to finish seventh overall and junior Carly Nelson shot a combined 138 for 10th place behind Fox’s district title. Sophomores Abi Baker (149) and Andrea Vandegrift (172) contributed to the team’s second place tally of 526 points behind Midway (500) and in front of Belton (540). Nelson’s day two score of 91 was a personal best as was Baker’s day two round of 99.
The Lady Dawgs will tee it up in the Region 1-6A tournament at the Tierra Verde Golf Club in Arlington on April 25-26. 
Also qualifying for regionals were the tennis duo of Noah Chapman and Noah Samarippa who took third place in boys’ doubles by topping Midway 6-3, 6-3 in the District 8-6A tournament played at the Waco Regional Tennis Center in Waco. They lost the playback to Belton 6-1, 7-6(4).
The duo will represent Copperas Cove at the regional tournament beginning tomorrow, April 18, at the Arlington Tennis Center in Arlington.
The Cove track team qualified 16 athletes for the District 7-6A/8-6A Area meet set for Thursday at Midway High School.
Copperas Cove school record holder Kyle Stifflemire easily won the pole vault as part of a 1-2-4 finish to qualify in three of the four spots. He holds the new school record of 16 feet, 2 inches but only needed to clear 15 feet to win the district gold and advance to the Area meet. Tim Doyle earned the silver medal with a vault of 13 feet and senior Darius Fuselier cleared the 12-feet-6 mark for the final spot.
Senior Daveon Thomas earned a pair of silver medals to advance. He finished second in the shot put with a throw of 48 feet, 4 ½ inches and second in the discus with a throw of 168-feet-8.
Junior Quinton Ford qualified with a silver medal in the long jump with a mark of 21-feet-6 and A.J. Acosta earned a bronze in the 200-meter dash and Neyland Block advances with a second-place finish and mark of 6-feet-2 lead in the high jump.
The 4x400-meter relay team of Kenyal Knight, Jyren Key, Rusty Cochran and Yvel Loius also qualified with a third-place finish and time of 3 minutes, 30.78 seconds.
The foursome of Acosta, Jameel Rice, Adrian Alejos, Isaiah Hawkins finished in fifth and Ford finished sixth in the triple jump with a mark of 43-feet-7.
Aiden Chace cleared the 5-feet-4 mark for gold in the girls’ high and Jaela Rice earned the bronze with a 5-feet leap.
The 4x200-meter relay team of Anayah Copeland (Soph), Ashli Hawkins (Soph), Livana Wallace (Soph) and Nadia Robinson (Jr.) also qualified for the Area Meet with a season best time of 1:45.90.
The Dawgs will have their work cut out, facing the schools from District 7-6A although all three Cove pole vaulters have a better district height than the winner of District 7-6A. William Ellis of Cedar Hill won with a vault of 12 feet.
Thomas’ discus throw of 168-feet-8 bests that of District 7-6A winner Tyler Jackson of DeSoto (147-feet-4) but his discus throw of 48-feet-4 1/2 is just behind Jackson’s 50-feet-9 inches.
Ford’s long jump mark of 21-feet-6 is less than all three 7-6A medalists, including winner D.J. Henderson of DeSoto (24-feet-2 ½).
Chace comes in with a tie for the best height in the girls’ high jump. Her mark of 5-feet-4 ties the winner of District 7-6A Oghale Omakor (5-4). 
The top four athletes in each event will advance to the Region I-6A meet at Arlington’s Maverick Stadium to be held April 27-28.