The Case Western Reserve University cross country team ran well at the 2017 All-Ohio Championships in Cedarville, Ohio on Sept. 29. The women’s team placed third among Division III schools and 14th among all the schools that competed at the meet. The men’s team performed even better, placing second among Division III schools and ninth overall.

The women were ranked eighth in the Great Lakes region entering the meet and completed the race with 84 points overall, which was behind fifth-ranked Otterbein University (which took first place with 49 points), and fourth-ranked Kenyon College (second place with 70 points). The Spartans were only thirty seconds off Kenyon’s total time and seven seconds slower in average time finishes. Following the race, CWRU rose two spots in the rankings to sixth, while Otterbein passed Kenyon and are now third.  

Fourth-year runners Danielle Kulpins and Rachel Laveson led the squad with sixth and 15th place finishes respectively, out of 148 Division III runners. Kulpins’s time of 22:55.1 placed 51st overall among the total 343 runners, while Laveson’s time of 23:17.3 placed 83rd overall. Rounding out the squad with top 20 Division III finishes were second-year runner Madeline Lindemann, who finished 19th and 95th overall with a time of 23:25.1, and third-year runner Jennifer Hoffman, who finished right behind her at 20th place and 96th overall with a time of 23:25.4. Third-year runner Isa Torres-Padin had a time of 23:33.1, placing 24th in Division III and 106th overall.

The Spartans had the second lowest spread of all women teams at 38 minutes, highlighting the strength of all runners on the team.

In the men’s 8K race, fourth-year runner Sam Merriman led the Spartans with a second place finish among the 135 Division III runners and 16th place finish among 323 total runners with a time of 25:26.6. Following Merriman was fourth-year runner Zach Roshon, finishing in fourth place among Division III runners and 24th overall with a time of 25:36.8.

Roshon planned to give it his all right out of the gate.  “I wanted to get out hard in the first two kilometers then pick people off,” he said.

Two more CWRU students finished in the top 25 among Division III runners at the meet. Fourth-year runner Aidan DeSanto grabbed 13th place, which was 57th overall, and fourth-year runner Ben Whitman placed 22nd in the division and 85th overall.

“This was the team’s best showing…[and] my best race in the past two years,” said Roshon.

Following an exhibition race with alumni during Homecoming weekend, the Spartans will head to two meets: the top 14 runners will head to the Yellowjacket Invitational in Rochester, New York, while the rest of the team heads to the Inter-Regional Rumble in Oberlin, Ohio, both held on Saturday, Oct. 14.