Sports

The Wills Point Tiger tennis team put on a clinic over the course of the past week, hammering their way past both the Crandall Pirates and Argyle Eagles in convincing fashion.

Crandall never stood a chance against Wills Point, as Tiger players finished a perfect 19-0 in matches. Results included:

-Chase Daniell def. Eric Conner, 6-0, 6-1

-Jack Johns def. Isiah Lathem, 6-0, 6-1

-Brandon Hatten def. Jordan Dunlap, 7-5, 6-1

-Kash Adams def. Zach Girouard, 6-3, 6-1

-Aidan Phillips def. Keval Patel, 6-0, 6-3

-Mickey McCormack def. Brandon Saulter, 6-0, 6-1

-Josh Schreffler lost to Zach Girouard, 7-9

-Jeremiah Brown def. Dakota Frankum, 8-2

-Daniell/Johns def. Girouard/Moffitt, 6-1, 6-0

-Adams/McCormack def. Lathem/Dunlap, 6-0, 6-2

-Phillips/Schreffler def. Saulter/Patel, 6-0, 6-2

-Cassidy Wilcoxson def. Hannah Edmonds, 6-0, 6-0

-Kelsey James def. Haylea Hunsaker, 6-0, 6-2

The Wills Point Lady Tigers got themselves back on the winning track this past week, breaking through a four match winless stretch in district play with a win over Brownsboro Oct. 7.

Wills Point started its week facing arguably the toughest opponent on their 2016 schedule, tangling with Emory Rains Oct. 4.

The Lady Cats currently find themselves as the fourth ranked team in the latest Texas Girls Coaches Association 4A State Poll, having started their season with a blistering 28-7 start to their season.

Wills Point put together a tough effort against Emory Rains, dropping the first set by a narrow 25-22 margin. The Lady Cats began to put distance between themselves and Wills Point in the second set, cruising to a 25-16 set win.

Emory Rains closed out the Lady Tigers with more sharp play, playing up to their rankings by finishing the sweep with a 25-17 set win.

The Wills Point Tigers entered district play against the Dallas Roosevelt Mustangs Oct. 11 on an uneven note, having started their season with an 0-4 record after losses to Tyler Chapel Hill, Carrollton Ranchview, Mineola and Tatum.

The Tigers managed to right the ship during their non-district finale Sept. 23, snapping an eight game losing streak dating back to a district opening win over the Mabank Panthers in 2015 by breaking into the win column with a 20-14 win over Hillsboro on homecoming night.

Any thought that the bye week following that win over Hillsboro might blunt some of the Tigers’ positive momentum heading into play against the Mustangs was quickly blown out of the water on Friday night, as Wills Point lit up the scoreboard for 20 points in both the first and second quarters of play en route to a 53-8 thrashing of Dallas Roosevelt.

The Wills Point cross country team took part in its final tune-up before competing at the district meet Oct. 17, racing in Lindale Oct. 6.

Wills Point fielded two teams in the 4A varsity boys division. The Tiger varsity finished eighth overall out of 16 teams, led by David Umana in a time of 18:51. Other varsity boys finishers included Cade Davis in 19:34, Aidan Phillips in 19:39, Ricky Navarro in 19:58, Edwin Figueroa in 20:43, Adam Shorter in 20:44 and Matt Mayfield in 22:21.

The JV boys were led by Chase Phillips in a time of 22:42, followed by Gerardo Gonzalez in 23:30, Trenton McCarver in 24:15, Christian Aquino in 24:58, and Luis Ortiz in 25:37.

The Wills Point Tiger cross country team continued to inch its way closer to its district meet, competing in Ferris Oct. 1.

The girls varsity team placed second overall, led by Gaby Gonzalez's fifth place finish in a time of 14:07. Gonzalez was followed by Elizabeth Cockerham’s time of 14:40 in seventh, Natalee Darst’s time of 14:57 for 9th, Brisa Carrillo time of 15:05 for 12th, and Abbie Phillips time of 18:36 for 23rd.

Aidan Phillips led the boys with a third place finish with a time of 18:37, followed by David Umana in ninth with a time of 19:15, Ricky Navarro in 16^th with a time of 19:46, Adam Shorter in 18^th with a time of 19:57, Edwin Figueroa in 22^nd with a time of 20:08, Cade Davis in 24^th with a time of 20:18, and Matt Mayfield in 31^st with a time of 21:52. The boys team placed third overall.

“The Locker Room Show” on Mineola radio station KMOO (99.9 FM), will be broadcasting live from Salt Lickers in downtown Grand Saline Monday night from 6:30-8:30 p.m.

“The Locker Room Show” features high school football correspondents from around the KMOO listening area reviewing the previous Friday night matchups and looking ahead to the following Friday night gridiron contests.

David Barber, sports correspondent for Van Zandt Newspapers, will be among the guests on the program each week.

KMOO will be broadcasting the Grand Saline/Winnsboro varsity football game live on Friday, October 14 in Grand Saline.

All football fans are invited to come out and be a part of “The Locker Room Show” on KMOO every Monday night during the high school football season.

The Wills Point Tigers entered the 2016 season with plenty of expectations, pegged by many preseason prognosticators as either the first or second seed coming out of District 6-4A Division II and a playoff qualifier.

After five weeks of non-district play and a bye week, the Tigers will finally be ready to see if they can meet or exceed those pre-season predictions with the start of district play scheduled for tonight (Oct. 7).

Matchups for the first week of District 6-4A play are scheduled to include Canton traveling to Ferris, Wills Point traveling to Dallas Roosevelt and Dallas Lincoln hosting Emory Rains.

Canton finished as leaders of the pack during non-district play, finishing with a 4-1 record overall. Three teams, Lincoln, Ferris and Rains, all finished with 3-2 records while Roosevelt finished at 2-3 and Wills Point finished at 1-4.

Statistical leaders for Wills Point at the halfway point of the season include:

The Wills Point Tiger tennis team was in action twice over the course of the past week, competing against Kaufman in a series of hard fought matches Sept. 22 and against Van Sept. 29.

Kaufman, ranked third overall in the state among all 4A teams according to the Texas Tennis Coaches Association, got the better of Wills Point, ranked sixth in the state according to the TTCA, in 12 out of 19 matches played.

Scores against Kaufman included:

-Chase Daniell def. Mark Dominguez, 6-4, 6-3

-Jack Johns lost to Derian Hernandez, 2-6, 2-6

-Aidan Phillips lost to Hayden Owens, 1-6, 0-6

-Kash Adams lost to Rudy Perez, 0-6, 1-6

-Brandon Hatten lost to Michael Sij, 1-6, 1-6

-Michael McCormack lost to Jacob Reznicek, 2-6, 2-6

-Josh Schreffler lost to Heime Uumas, 2-8

-NJ Shelton lost to Nick Vega, 3-8

-Daniell/Johns def. Dominguez/Perez, 6-3, 7-6

-Adams/McCormack lost to Hernanzez/Owens, 3-6, 6-4 5-10

The Wills Point Lady Tigers will need to make up ground in a hurry if they plan on extending their streak of playoff appearances this season, dropping to 0-3 overall in District 13-4A play with home losses to both Canton and Van last week.

Lady Tiger players had to work overtime against the visiting Eaglettes Sept. 27, battling through five competitive sets before coming up just short.

Canton drew first blood, narrowly taking the first set 25-23 behind superior serving and better play from their back row.

Wills Point evened the match during the second set, capitalizing on big hitting from its core group of underclassmen to edge Canton 25-22.

With the match tied at a set apiece, Eaglette players responded by holding Wills Point’s big hitters in check to take the third set by a 25-23 count.

Housed in the vaults of Van Zandt County lie numerous record books containing meeting minutes from the 1800s. The records are meticulously handwritten and full of valuable history of Van Zandt County, but are deteriorating fast, according to District Clerk Karen Wilson.

Wilson came to the commissioners court meeting Sept. 13 asking for approval for a written plan for funding the preservation and restoration of clerk’s record archive. Wilson said that the plan would continue to allow an archive fee to be charged in all civil cases and motions that were prescribed by law.

“The fee is $10, and it is essential for archiving and restoring all the records. The fee was originally established in 2009. My plan is to continue to restore old record books from the 1800s. The records contain handwritten meeting minutes from court,” said Wilson.

Wilson pointed out to the court that the records were deteriorating and that some of the record books had pages falling out.