ROCKY RIVER, Ohio (May 11, 2023) -- Rocky River came within a couple points of sweeping the 2023 Great Lakes Conference Championships, an event run on its home track and contested Tuesday and Thursday. The Pirates won on the boys' side and lost (to Westlake) by a point-and-a-half on the girls'. [results]
The meet, which featured excellent weather both days, was rife with new GLC records and big performances turned in by hundreds of athletes representing the dozen GLC schools. The Pirates plundered more than their share of those new records and the available points in what marked the league's seventh title event since its inception.
The Rocky River boys took first place in four events and second in three. In one of those events -- the 800-meter run -- the Pirates swept gold and silver with Guillaume Carroll earning a win and Luke Dorenkott placing as the runner-up. Carroll powerfully circuited the oval in 1:56.38, breaking the previous GLC meet record by nearly two full seconds. The senior was also in for a quarter on two more meet records: first, on Tuesday when River's 4x800-meter quartet blazed its way to a time (7:56.86) some eight seconds faster than the previous mark, and then, when the Pirates' 4x400-meter relay rocketed the baton around four laps in 3:26.55 on Thursday.
Carroll's co-conspirators in plundering those marks: Henry Lange, Luke Dorenkott, and Majid Abuaun in the 4x8; Grant Preto, Ethan Hazra, and Abuaun in the 4x4.
Rocky River's fourth gold medal was earned by Colin Slomka, who registered a winning 6-foot leap in the high jump.
The Buccaneers, who trailed Bay for much of the meet, tallied 131 points over the two days. That best the runner-up Rockets (118.5) and last year's champion, Westlake (86). The GLC title marks Rocky River's sixth.
In the girls' competition, Westlake leveraged an advantage in relays to make up for a deficit in River golds and silvers elsewhere. The Demons clocked 147 points overall; Rocky River notched 145.5 points. The point-and-a-half differential made for the tightest 1-2 in GLC history (breaking a 10.5-point margin Westlake logged -- over RRHS -- in 2022).
The Maroon & White garnered four golds, three silvers, and six bronzes. Junior Mary Sollars was a point machine for the Pirates, earning second in the 200, second in the 100-meter hurdles, third in the 100, and third as a part of the 4x100.
River wins were recorded by Brianna Chaves-Bernal in the 3200, Ellie Harkins in the 300-meter hurdles, Doris Kale in the shot put, and Morgyn Cruz in the high jump. In the 3200, Chaves obliterated the previous meet record, filing a time nearly 23 seconds ahead of the 11:43.40 Amanda Cusimano (Bay) had logged in 2017. Chavez-Bernal's time was 11:20.63.
The Buccaneer girls have now logged back-to-back runner-up finishes in the meet after five straight victories from 2016-21 (no meet in 2020).
by Skip Snow
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