Last week, the cross country teams showcased their talents by remaining competitive with schools from all divisions. In Cedarville, Ohio for the All-Ohio Championships, both teams finished in the upper half of the total field and near the top of Division III standings.

On the women’s side, the team nabbed a 17th place finish out of 37 teams and finished sixth among the 17 Division III teams. In a meet with the largest Division I schools from Ohio, the Case Western Reserve University women held their own.

Leading the pack was third-year student Danielle Kulpins with a 30th place finish out of 295 runners. Kulpins’ season best—a 22:48.3 six kilometer run—resulted in a third-best DIII finish in the meet. With three first-place team finishes in three meets, Kulpins has distinguished herself as a leader of the CWRU team.

Following Kulpins was a group of five underclassmen separated by just over a minute. The pack was led by second-year student Jennifer Hoffman, who grabbed 83rd place overall and 22nd among DIII runners with a time of 23:39.0. Just behind Hoffman, second-year student Isa Torres-Padin broke 24 minutes for the first time this season to grab a 27th place DIII finish. Completing the scoring five were a pair of first-year students. Vanessa Pasadyn finished just outside top 30 in DIII competition with a time of 24:09.7 while Madeline Lindemann finished 58th in DIII with a time of 24:45.6.

The men’s team yielded similar results, finishing 13th overall and fourth in the DIII field. Third-year student Sam Merriman continued his strong season with a first place DIII finish. Merriman’s 25:33.3 eight-kilometer run earned him a top 15 time in a field filled with DI runners. Merriman’s first place DIII finish was the first from a CWRU runner since 2008.

Trailing Merriman was fourth-year student Galen Caldwell, who finished fifth in DIII competition in just his second race of the year. Caldwell finished in 26:05.5 with an impressive 5:15 per mile pace and nearly 40 seconds faster than his first eight kilometer race of the season. Third-year student Aidan DeSanto finished in 27:10.2 to give the Spartans three top 30 finishers in the meet. Rounding off the scoring group were second-year student James De La Cruz and first-year student Luke Robbins. The two young runners grabbed 41st and 43rd in DIII competition.

The Spartans will take a break from intercollegiate competition this weekend to hold their annual alumni race on Saturday at 10 a.m.