Coleman repeats as champ on an otherwise silver Saturday

BAY VILLAGE, Ohio – Rocky River’s Boys’ and Girls’ Cross Country squads both logged runner-up finishes at Saturday’s Great Lakes Conference Championship Meet. [results]

The Rocky River boys got big runs from Luke Kishna (seventh place), Guillaume Carroll (13^th) and Sam Buehrle (15^th) in scoring 77 points. All five River scorers earned top-25 finishes on the 5k course at Cahoon Park. Their 77 points edged Fairview (83) for second place. The Bay Rockets (25) took the league title, claiming each of the top three finishing slots (Khaled Hamil, Jude Ault, Will Warren) and five of the top-12.

The five Pirate scorers were Kishna, Carroll, Buehrle, Luke Dorenkott (20^th) and Greg Ganor (22^nd). Kishna was River’s front man with a time of 16:43.7; he shaved 18 seconds off his time in the same-course GLC Preview held on Aug. 24.

On the girls’ side, Rocky River ran its way to a team-second behind the efforts of Samantha Coleman (first place), Ella Russell (third) and three other top-20 finishes (Meghan Butte, Marcella Pfaff, Alex Harris). The Pirates tallied 55 points in the race. The Bay Rockets carded five top-10 finishes in scoring 27 points for the league title.

Coleman – a state finalist a year ago as a freshman – earned her second GLC crown by whipping over the course in 19:32.2, a time more than 24 seconds clear of runner-up Molly Rodgers of Bay. Her finish time Saturday was 37 seconds faster than her winning time as a freshman in 2018.

CANNON FIRE …

AWARD WINNERS: The GLC awards all-league status to the top seven finishers (first team) and places 8-14 (second team) in both varsity races. Earning First-Team All-GLC awards on Saturday morning were Luke Kishna, Samantha Coleman and Ella Russell. A Second-Team performance as registered by Guillaume Carroll.

ELSEWHERE ON SATURDAY: Jack Miller (fifth, boys) and Iris Polly (fourth, girls) led River’s efforts in the GLC open race at Cahoon Park. Both Pirate open teams placed second. … The Rocky River girls won Saturday’s GLC Middle School race. The Pirates logged five top-7 finishes in scoring a tidy 20 points. Eighth-grader Mackenzie Russell won the event, finishing with a final time of 12:35.8. 

 

by Skip Snow

# # # pirates # # #