This past weekend, the Case Western Reserve University track and field teams were busy as the teams split up to compete in three different meets—the GVSU Big Meet, the Crimson & Gold Invite and the Indoor All-Ohio Championships.
Travelling to Allendale, Michigan, CWRU’s top distance runners—fourth-years Aidan Nathan and Nate Gilbert and third-years Lauren Iagnemma and Ashley Novak—competed against other runners across all three divisions of the NCAA. All four runners saw impressive performances with Iagnemma beating her previous school record of 9:58.94 with a new time of 9:55.90 in the 3000-meter race and Gilbert and Novak both recording top 10 program records in the mile (4:16.02) and 5000-meter run (17.49.77), respectively.
While the distance runners were competing in Michigan, other members of the track and field team traveled to Oberlin, Ohio for the Crimson & Gold Invite. The Spartans took first in a total of 11 events, including sweeping many of the field events such as the pole vault, shot put, weight throw and high jump.
On Saturday, the team was in Westerville, Ohio for the Indoor All-Ohio Championships and the Spartans yet again saw improvements made to program records set earlier this season. On the field, first-year Tanush Anand broke his previous record of 13.88 meters in the triple jump by bounding 13.89 meters for a third-place finish. Another outstanding performance was by the women’s 4×200 meter relay team. Consisting of second-year Sarah Ball, third-year Grace Misiunas and first-years Siena Kannenberg and Riley Friedman, the team crossed the finish line in 1:48.41 and surpassed the previous program record time of 1:49.14 set by Ball, Kannenberg, Friedman and third-year Melanie Taylor.
The teams also saw three first-place finishes at the Championships with fourth-year Lauren Roskuszka standing at the top of the podium after achieving a distance of 15.58 meters in the weight throw, graduate student Michaela Burkhauser taking gold in shot put with a throw of 13.43 meters and second-year Jacob Slater crossing the finish line first in the 3000-meter with a time of 8:52.53.
Beyond Slater’s first place finish, the distance runners also saw podium finishes with both distance medley relay teams placing third. The men’s team of first-years Adam Esa and Adam Joseph, fourth-year Nicolas Lende and second-year Seth Tivakaran finished in 10:47.19 while the women’s team of third-year Ayla Grabenbauer and first-years Becca Liaw, Julia Walko and Cecilla Postma finished in 13:18.41.
Overall, the men’s team placed sixth and the women’s team placed third out of 16 and 15 teams with 57 and 77 points, respectively. Both of the University of Mount Union athletes came first with 124 and 108.5 points for the men’s and women’s division, respectively.
This Friday, the Spartans will be hosting the Ed Finnegan Greater Cleveland Colleges Invite in the Veale Convocation, Recreation and Athletic Center. The events are slated to begin at 4 p.m.