STRONGSVILLE, Ohio (Sept. 23, 2023) -- Rocky River clocked third- (boys) and sixth-place (girls) finishes, respectively, at Saturday's Strongsville Fleet Feet Invitational. [Results]

The Pirate boys notched a team score of 154, earning third in a field of 29 teams. The River girls scored 177 points; their sixth-place finish came as a front-quartile performance in a field of 28 teams.

On the boys' side, River's top four finishers went across the wire in a 9-second spread. Senior Ben Buehrle led the Pirates with a 19th-place finish; he posted a time of 16:18.68. The No. 4 man was Jackson Rood in 27th place. Henry Lange (22nd) and Ruairi Zuercher (24th) were in between. Simon Baum crossed in 62nd place to round out River's scoring. He was less-tha-a-fifth-of-a-second ahead of teammate Ryan Stirm.

The Rocky River girls were bolstered by two top-10s: senior Brianna Chaves-Bernal placed fourth with a time of 18:32.41; junior Grace Lavelle carded a ninth-place finish some 16 seconds back (18:48.60). Both times were recorded as all-time program top-10s. Jane Rathbun (45th), Grace DeWitt (54th), and Anna Buehrle (65th) rounded out the scoring for the Runnin' Raiders.

Chardon (96 points) took the boys title. Perrysburg (77) was the girls champion.

by Skip Snow

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