ROCKY RIVER, Ohio -- The Pirates battled rain and wind and seven other foes and prevailed with a combined title in the 46th Bell Invitational held Friday at Rocky River Stadium. [
Results]
Rocky River placed first on the girls' side and fourth on the boys'. Its combined total of 227 points edged Avon Lake (204), Westlake (181) and five other programs on a raw, rainy day on the North Coast. Senior runner Sam Coleman earned 22.5 points and was named the Girls MVP of the meet.
The Pirate girls claimed victories in four events. Coleman cranked out a 3-1/2-second win in the Sandy Bricker 800-Meter Run and was in for a quarter of Rocky River's title in the Julie Bell 4x800-Meter Relay. The multi-year state finalist in both Track and Cross Country also finished as the runner up in the Bill Bunevich 1,600 and was in for a piece of River's second-place finish in the Norm Case 4x4.
Aside from Coleman's triumph in the 800 and the relay win in the 4x8, the Maroon & White earned gold in the Lori Clark 3,200 (Brianna Chaves) and the Concession Stand 200 (Taylor Byall). River finished the night with four golds, six silvers, and four bronzes. In the 200, the Pirates piled up 23 points, taking first (Byall), second (Mary Sollars), and fourth (Sarah Saad). In the 800, the Double-R grabbed 19 points, taking first (Coleman), fourth (Katie Stirm), and fifth (Grace Lavelle).
Members of the first-place 4x8 squad were Stirm, Keira Arnold, Lavelle, and Coleman.
The River girls earned 151 points, which cleared the field by more than four wins. Avon Lake took second place with 110. Westlake (78) placed third.
In the boys meet, Rocky River earned one gold medal, two silvers, and three bronzes. The Pirates garnered nearly a third of their 76 points in one event: Luke Dorenkott, Majid Abuaun, and Grant Preto finished 1-2-3 in the Jerry Olsen 800-Meter Run. Abuaun and Preto were -- along with Greg Ganor and Guillaume Carroll -- part of a silver haul in the Al Oldenburg 4x800-Meter Relay. River's other medalists were Ganor (third in the Jess Bell 3,200) and Owen Kleckner (third in the Charles Mealy 110-Meter Hurdles).
The boys meet went down to the final event, the Frank Avalos 4x4. Westlake won that race and posted an overall team score of 103 points. That got the Demons past Aurora (98) and Avon Lake (94). Rocky River finished fourth with 76 points.
The meet MVP for the boys was Ryan Kotora of Aurora High School, who won both the Boosters 200 and the Ed Simmons 400.
The 46th Bell Invitational included boys and girls teams from Rocky River, Aurora, Avon Lake, Bay, Elyria, Lakewood, Midview, and Westlake. Due to unsafe conditions caused by a driving rain throughout, the only field events that were held were the shot put events.
CANNON FIRE ...
PIRATE AWARDS: Each year at the Bell, Rocky River tabs a member of its boys and girls teams for its Pirate Awards. The honorees Friday were junior Majid Abuaun on the boys' side and senior Taylor Byall on the girls'.
SPEED DEMON: In a meet that dates back to 1976, meet records are not always easy to come by. But one new record was notched Friday. Westlake sophomore Sarah Peer won the 1,600 with a time of 5:02.90, a mark more-than-seven seconds faster than the old record (Laura DeVito, 5:09.94) which dated back to 2016.
by Skip Snow