Copperas Cove Cross Country opens season with Temple Invitational

By TJ MAXWELL
Cove Leader-Press

TEMPLE – The Copperas Cove cross country team opened their 2021 campaign at one of the toughest courses they’ll see all year. The three-mile course forces runners give it all they have as they tackle that uphill climb on the final stretch.
“I would say this is one of the toughest meets of the year, attack in that hill,” said Copperas Cove boys’ head coach Travis Boyce Jr. So, it’s a good gauge for us to see where we stand and what more work we need to put in and make sure we’re ready by the time we get to district.”
Copperas Cove senior Ayden Seymour came in ready to go as he took the top spot for the Copperas Cove boys and finished 17th overall with a time of 17 minutes, 5.30 seconds. Junior Joshua Call took the second spot for Cove and 54th overall with a time of 18:38.90. Senior Sean Anderson finished 85th overall with a time of 19:42.10, followed by junior Alberto Botello (118th – 21:15.60), freshman Jeremiah Calderon (120th – 21:21.90), sophomore Angel Calderon (136th – 22:58.90), and sophomore Braydon Camp.
The Bulldawgs’ varsity boys finished in 14th place overall with 336 points and a 19:36 average time with Round Rock Stony Point taking the overall win with 62 points and an average finish time of 16:55.
We’re looking for those three (Seymour, Call and Anderson) to do some special things for us,” said Boyce. “On the boys’ varsity I think we should be pretty solid. We have a couple of young ones that we’re trying to see where they stand based off of these first couple of meets. It’s kind of like the top three and then we have maybe 10 more fighting for those last spots on varsity and then the rest of them obviously round off our JV team. I think it should be a pretty successful year for us.”
Despite without a few of the lady Dawgs’ top runners, Cove managed an 11th-place finish at the meet with 291 points and an average time of 25:29 for the three-mile course.
Freshman Juliana Sanchez was the top finisher for the Lady Dawgs with a 41st overall finish and time of 23:09.20. Sophomore Peyton Brewster, who is coming of a strong freshman campaign, finished 59th overall with a time of 24:09.50, followed by senior Lilliana Perez (66th – 24:36.40), junior Kaitlyn Guevara (94th – 27:23.70), junior Brianca Novakowski (99th – 28;09.40), and sophomore Logan Chlarson (101st – 28:16.60).
“A couple of our top returners aren’t here today,” said Boyce. They’re also big-time soccer players, so they had their soccer leagues and then they just got back this week. So, we didn’t we didn’t want to bring them out to this course. We want to make sure we get them healthy and acclimated out here, but we should have them next week and that should round off our girls’ team and we’ll be able to see a little bit more where we are.”
Despite Harker Heights having two of the top three finishers in sophomore Ella Perry (1st – 18:50.40) and junior Kailynn Denney (3rd – 19:33.20), the Liberty Hill Lady Panthers took the team with 52 points and an average finish time of 20:52 led by freshman Avery Frank (2nd – 19:23).
Junior Matthew Montenegro led the JV boys with a 19th-place finish and time of 20:22.30. Also competing for the JV Bulldawgs were: junior Alejandro Sanchez (40th – 21:44.30), Alejandro Castillo (61st - 23:03.90), senior Nicholas Sane (80th - 24:21.60), senior Preston Mars (102nd – 25:58), freshman Caden Ariola (106th – 26:19), and junior Kyle Nielson (124th – 32:08.80). The JV boys’ team finished 10th with 212 points and an average time of 23:06.
Sophomore Riley Yunitis led the JV girls with a 47th overall finish and time of 17:38.60. Also competing for the JV Lady Dawgs were: sophomore Kenzington Long (61st – 18:11), sophomore Isabella Altott (85th – 19:38.60), freshman Julissa Guevara (96th – 20:21.30), junior Klarissa Ramon (108th – 20:58.20), and junior Kaylee Dodd (112th – 21:19.70). The team finished 14th with 329 points and an average time of 19:21.
Cove cross country is back at it this morning at the Belton Invitational at the Wildflower Country Club in Belton before returning to Temple on Friday, Sept. 3 for the Pro-fit Invitational at James B. Wilson Park.