FINDLAY, Ohio -- Rocky River Girls Track & Field has qualified into three events at the June 3-4 OHSAA DI Tournament.
Pirate athletes earned their Buckeye State title slots after qualifying at the May 25-27
OHSAA DI Region 2 Tournament hosted by Findlay High School. Top-4 finishes at Findlay earned automatic berths in the state meet.
Senior Sam Coleman -- a multi-year state qualifier in Cross Country and a state qualifier in the 1,600-meter run a year ago -- earned a return engagement in that event for next week. Coleman clocked a final time of 4:59.59 in taking bronze at the Findlay regional.
Sophomore Morgyn Cruz logged a 17-foot, 7-and-a-half-inch performance in the long jump. That distance earned a third-place finish and Cruz' first trip to the state meet.
Joining those individual entrants in next week's meet at Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium on the campus of Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio, will be Rocky River's 4x800-meter relay squad. The quartet of Katie Stirm, Grace Lavelle, Keira Arnold, and Coleman took fifth at the regional meet in Findlay. The group's time of 9:32.90 earned at at-large lane in Columbus.
The Rocky River girls earned 25 points to tie for eighth place at the regional contest in Findlay. Great Lakes Conference foe Westlake scored 64 points to take first place.
The River boys tallied three points to place 36th. The boys' points were earned by junior Majid Abuaun, who took sixth place in the 800. St. Ignatius (58 points) edged Toledo St. John's (57.5) for the region title on the boys' side.
Abuaun's 1:57.38 mark in the 800 stands as the fifth-best 800 time posted in Rocky River program history.
Other Rocky River athletes competing in Findlay: Kylie Crane and Taylor Byall (girls 4x400-meter relay), Brianna Chaves (girls 3,200-meter run), Madie Shoaf (girls discus), Luke Dorenkott (boys 800, boys 4x8), Guillaume Carroll and Grant Preto (boys 4x8), and Abel Sereika (discus).
The state meet -- which dates back to 1908 -- will mark the close of the 2022 season for the Pirates.
by Skip Snow