Black River boys repeat as champions at LCL cross country meet

SULLIVAN — Patrick Brean wanted his Black River boys cross country team to protect the home course. The coach wasn't disappointed. The Pirates successfully defended their boys title Saturday at the annual Lorain County League Meet on the Black River campus. "They did a great job," Brean said. "We talked all week about protecting our home course. Our runners built this course themselves, mapped it out. We let them take pride in that. They went after it from the gun. They raced to win and not race to lose. Yes, we were the favorite on paper, but they didn't take that to heart and competed so hard." Senior Dillon Royster duplicated his second-place finish from a year ago, finishing behind Keystone's Michael Gale. Gale won with a meet-record time of 16:17.9, outdistancing the field by nearly 40 seconds. Royster finished with a 16:56.8. "Our goal was to come in and win it again this year," said Royster, whose brother Wyatt finished first a year ago. "We thought we had a pretty good chance. We know where all the hills are, where to push, where to settle in and try to be as efficient as possible." Black River, ranked ninth in the state in Division III, placed five runners in the top 10, beating second-place Firelands 25-62. Freshman Connor Rhein finished third behind Royster, followed by Nicholas Kosteci in fifth, Christian Orgel in sixth and Noah Orgel in ninth. The weather turned out to be a bit better than expected, but the course remained wet and muddy in spots. Rain was expected to fall, but weather was overcast and cool with no rain. Wellington's girls pulled off its first league championship since 1985. It was a four-way race, with Wellington edging surprising Oberlin 58-64 to claim the top spot ahead of Columbia (74) and Firelands (76). Black River finished fifth out of seven teams. Contact Tim Gebhardt at timothygeb@msn.com. Results Boys standings: 1. Black River 25, 2. Firelands 62, 3. Keystone 65, 4. Wellington 112, 5. Columbia 116, Brookside 160. Girls standings: 1. Wellington 58, 2. Oberlin 64, 3. Columbia 74, 4. Firelands 76, 5. Black River 103, 6. Brookside 125, 7. Keystone 194.