Buckeye boys place third at Cleveland West Conference Championship with four event titles
| Place | Participant | Total |
|---|---|---|
| 3 | B | 123.5 |
Buckeye’s boys team did not repeat as Cleveland West Conference champion Thursday, but the Bucks still turned in a deep performance with 123.5 points and a third-place finish at the Cleveland West Conference Championship in Rocky River. The day featured multiple league champions, steady scoring across the track and field events, and a long list of placers that kept Buckeye in the team race throughout the meet.
The Bucks’ event titles came from Brady Salazar in the 400-meter dash, Caden Fike in the pole vault, and the 4x800 relay. Salazar won the 400 in 49.65, then also helped Buckeye score in two relays and added a fourth-place finish in the 200 in 23.12. Fike cleared 13 feet, 3 inches to win the pole vault, while Lucas Vasel gave Buckeye a strong 1-2 finish in the event by taking second at 11-6. In the 4x800, Dimitry Pshonyak, Joe Stahl, Nolan Rieth and Salazar delivered another championship for the Bucks with a winning time of 8:08.80.
Buckeye also produced major points in the sprints. Brayden Bonnett was the runner-up in both the 100 and 200, clocking 10.92 in the 100 and 22.46 in the 200, and he added a fourth-place finish in the long jump at 19-2.75. The 4x200 relay team of Salazar, Cael Miller, Eddie Hondroudakis and Bonnett placed third in 1:31.70, while the 4x100 group of Lucas Balaban, Miller, Brayden Russo and Hondroudakis finished fifth in 46.30. In the 4x400, Miller, Hondroudakis, Rieth and Paul Abbott added more team points with a fourth-place run of 3:42.04.
The distance group added more depth for the Bucks. Pshonyak finished third in the 1600 in 4:31.46 and came back for second in the 3200 with a time of 10:03.96. Stahl was close behind in the 1600, taking fourth in 4:32.6, and he later placed sixth in the 3200 in 10:13.08. Rieth also scored in the 800, placing sixth in 2:03.78, giving Buckeye points in each of the longer races in addition to the winning 4x800 relay.
In the field events, Denis Shevchenko led another productive area for Buckeye by taking second in both the shot put and discus. He threw 49-9.5 in the shot put and 141-10 in the discus. Jake Bally-Freiberg added an eighth-place finish in the discus at 132-2. Cael Miller cleared 5-6 for seventh in the high jump, and Andy Kost tied for eighth at 5-4, helping the Bucks continue to stack points across multiple events.
Taken together, the results reflected the meet summary for Buckeye’s boys: the Bucks could not defend their CWC title, but they still produced multiple champions and placers in a broad, balanced showing. With wins in the 400, pole vault and 4x800 relay, plus runner-up finishes from Bonnett, Shevchenko, Vasel and Pshonyak, Buckeye stayed among the conference’s top teams all day and finished with one of its strongest all-around postseason efforts of the spring.
