BOARDMAN, Ohio -- On Saturday, the Pirates returned to action and they earned solid finishes at the Spartan Invitational hosted by Boardman High School. Rocky River took 15th in the boys' race and sixth in the girls'. [Results: Boys | Girls]

Luke Dorenkott returned from the bye week with a fine, sub-18-minute run to lead the Pirate boys on the 76-degree day in Boardman. Dorenkott filed a time of 17:37.7; that placed the junior 62nd in a field of 366 DI runners. Behind Dorenkott was the tightly packed group of Henry Lange (84th), Ruairi Zuercher (93rd), Majid Abuaun (101st), and Grant Preto (103rd). As a team, the River quintet posted a score of 433 which was 15th in a crowd of 45 teams.

Samantha Coleman and Briana Chaves led a strong performance for the girls' squad. Both earned top-15 finishes on a day that saw Rocky River go low with a score of 244. The Pirates (sixth) finished in the top sixth of teams vying in the 38-team, 328-runner DI competition. Coleman took ninth by crossing the wire in 19 minutes-and-41.7 seconds. Chaves clocked a 20:05.7 to place 12th. They were followed on River's scoring rolls by Katie Stirm (68th), Carolyn Wanosik (72nd), and Allie Dewey (83rd).


CANNON FIRE ...

SPEED THRILLS: Samantha Coleman has already earned three top-10 finishes this fall. Coleman took third in the Aug. 28 Great Lakes Conference Preview and second at the Sept. 4 Cardinal Classic.

BUCS-VILLE INVITE: The Pirate junior varsity competed in the open races at the Brecksville High School-hosted Bruce Lerch Invitational on Sept. 11. The JV boys took eight of the top-10 places in the race and smashed the competition with a team score of 17 points. The girls posted a score of 46 to take second in their race. Ethan Hazra, Sam Buehrle, and Ben Buehrle took first, second, and third, respectively, in the boys' competition. Rose Murray logged a personal best in winning the girls' race.