AUGUST 17 • 2023 | 51
and sixth in the 200 breast-
stroke.
He won one ribbon in
2019 in Albuquerque, New
Mexico, placing fourth in the
200 breaststroke, and one rib-
bon in 2017 in Birmingham,
Alabama, placing eighth in
the 200 breaststroke.
He won his lone National
Senior Games medal in
Minneapolis in 2015, a silver
in the 100 breaststroke. He
also won a ribbon there for
a sixth-place finish in the 50
breaststroke.
Normally held every two
years, the National Senior
Games got off schedule when
the 2021 Games were can-
celed because of the COVID-
19 pandemic.
Berk said everything
went off without a hitch
in Pittsburgh. That
wasn’t the case last year
in Ft. Lauderdale, where
transportation and pool
issues (no swimming was
allowed for one day because
of toxic levels of chlorine
in the water) impacted the
National Senior Games, as
did daily thunderstorms.
Berk attends Temple
Israel and Adat Shalom
Synagogue.
Send sports news to
stevestein502004@yahoo.com.
PHOTOS COURTESY JIM BERK
The swimming portion of the 2023 National Senior Games was
held at the University of Pittsburgh’s Joseph C. Trees Pool.
It looks like there
will be a showdown
for the B’nai B’rith
Golf League team
championship Aug.
24 at the Links of
Novi.
Brothers Adam
and Ryan Vieder,
who topped the
team standings in
the first half of the
season, are most
likely not going to
repeat in the second
half. So they will
need to face the
second-half winners
in a title match.
In the team standings through
July 28, Mitch Lefton and Stu Zorn
led the way with 63 points, one
more than second-place Gary
Klinger and Dale Taub, two more
than third-place Jody
Mendelson and David
Swimmer and three
more than fourth-
place Lyle Schaefer
and Ryan Stone. The
Vieders had 35 points
and were in last place
among the 12 two-
man teams.
Zorn was
well in front in
the race for the
league’s individual
championship, which
is a season-long
competition, on July
28. He had 79.5
points, eight more than Klinger,
who was in second place.
This is the weekly league’s 11th
year, and the first time the team
competition was split into two
halves.
Mitch Lefton and Stu
Zorn.
GARY KLINGER
They’ll Tee It Up for the Title
Four teams were undefeated after the first
day of the two-day Inter-Congregational
Men’s Club Summer Softball League dou-
ble-elimination playoffs.
Temple Beth El No. 1 and Temple Shir
Shalom No. 2 were both 2-0 in the Greenberg
Division playoffs and Congregation Shaarey
Zedek was 2-0 and Congregation Shir Tikvah
was 1-0 in the Koufax Division playoffs follow-
ing games played Aug. 6.
Temple Israel No. 6 was the regular-season champion in the six-team
Greenberg Division. It was 0-1 in the playoffs after the first day. Shir Tikvah
was the regular-season champion of the seven-team Koufax Division.
The league plays on Sundays at Drake and Keith sports parks in West
Bloomfield.
Ryan Turell, an
Orthodox Jew who
spent last season, his
first as a professional
basketball player, with
the Motor City Cruise of
the G League, was one
of five league players
who were profiled in an
Amazon Prime Video
documentary.
Destination NBA: A G
League Odyssey aired Aug. 8.
The documentary also includes
interviews with former G League
players who made it to the NBA.
Fifty-five percent of players on
NBA rosters in the 2022-23 sea-
son played in the G League, the
NBA’s minor league.
If Turell earns a
spot on an NBA roster,
he would be the first
Orthodox Jew to do so.
The 6-foot-7, 190-pound
forward wears a kippah
on the basketball court
and has said he’ll con-
tinue to do so in the
NBA.
Turell, 24, was select-
ed by the Cruise in the
first round of the 2022 G League
draft. He was the 27th overall
pick of the draft. He averaged 27.1
points per game in his senior year
at Yeshiva University in New York
City, tops among men’s collegiate
basketball players.
Avery Gach’s stock in the world
of college football recruiting
continues to rise.
The Birmingham Groves
High School junior was recently
ranked the No. 2 high school
football player in the state,
according to 247Sports’
composite rankings. He’s the
No. 12-ranked offensive lineman
and No. 124 overall prospect in
247Sports’ nation-wide rankings
for his class.
Earlier, Gach earned a five-star
ranking from recruiting guru Tom
Lemming. Five stars is at the top
of Lemming’s recruiting scale.
A 6-foot-5, 290-pound
offensive lineman, Gach has
received offers from more than
30 colleges, including Michigan
and Michigan State. He’s the
most heavily recruited Jewish
high school football player in
the state in recent memory.
INTER-CONGREGATIONAL MEN’S
CLUB SUMMER SOFTBALL LEAGUE
Four Teams Perfect in Softball Playoffs
Ryan Turell Profiled in Documentary
Ryan Turell
MOTOR CITY CRUISE
Avery Gach: No. 2
Prep Football Player
in the State
Avery Gach
MURRAY GOLDENBERG/CLASSIC
PHOTOGRAPHY