BAY VILLAGE, Ohio (May 9, 2024) -- Rocky River swept the Great Lakes Conference Championships held at Bay Memorial Stadium Tuesday and Thursday. [Results]

River nearly pulled off a sweep a year ago when the Pirate boys took first and the Double-R girls were edged by a point-and-a-half in taking second. On Thursday, the Maroon & White pulled out wins on both sides. The boys tallied 137 points, just enough to spoil a good performance by a host Rockets squad that ledgered 132. On the girls' side, Rocky River (157) was a clear best over Lakewood and Westlake which each scored 113.

The Double-R boys won six events and earned top-3 finishes in 12. The Pirates earned gold in the discus (Abel Sereika), shot put (John Perry), 4x800-meter relay, 110-meter hurdles (Owen Kleckner), 1600-meter run (Ruairi Zuercher), and 800-meter run (Henry Lange).

In the 4x8, Rocky River clocked a new meet record, with the quartet of Grant Preto, Simon Baum, Zuercher, and Lange posting a time of 7:53.78.

In the girls' competition, the Buccaneers earned league titles in six events; they posted 11 medal finishes. GLC championships were registered in the 3200-meter run (Brianna Chaves), 4x400-meter relay, shot put (Doris Kale), 4x800, 4x100-meter relay, and 800 (Grace Lavelle). 

Kale logged a new meet record (39-7.5) in the shot, and Lavelle's 800 time (2:15.09) also set a new GLC mark.

Zuercher, Lange, Kleckner, Chaves, and Lavelle earned Bell Invitational-GLC sweeps with their gold-medal performances at Bay.

For the Rocky River boys, the GLC crown marked their eighth. The River girls have now won six GLC titles.

The Pirates will compete in 19-team Northeast District tournament action May 15 and 17 at Amherst Steele High School.

by Skip Snow

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