This past weekend, the Case Western Reserve University track and field teams participated in two separate invitationals, with their throwers going to the Wooster Invitational and the rest of the teams going to the Marv Frye Invitational hosted by Ohio Wesleyan University. At the Marv Frye Invitational, the women’s team scored a total of 152 points, placing second out of ten teams, while the men’s team accumulated a total of 98 points for fourth out of ten teams. Both teams saw impressive results this weekend with many first place finishes by the Spartan athletes.
On the field, the CWRU’s women pole vaulters dominated the event, with first-year Holly Schreiber clearing 3.61 meters, graduate student Victoria Zhao clearing 3.05 meters and first-year Kendall Glaser clearing 2.90 meter allowing CWRU to earn first, fourth and fifth podium places, respectively. With her first place finish, Schreiber set a new program record for outdoor pole vaulting, joining her indoor record of 3.70 meters.
The Spartan women continued with their domination and took three of the top five places in the hammer throw. Third-year Lauren Roskuszka placed first with a throw of 47.74 meters, followed by third-year Rachel Ginn placing third with 45.76 meters and fourth-year Ailean Duffie placing fifth with 43.79 meters. Second-year thrower Madison Martinez also placed fifth in the javelin throw with a distance of 31.13 meters.
In the women’s triple jump, CWRU took two top-five places, with third-year Sarah Ozeki bounding 10.71 meters and fourth-year Emily Hopkins bounding 10.70 meters for second and third place, respectively.
On the men’s team, second-year vaulter Anthony DeCarlo placed first, clearing the fifth-best mark in program history with 4.55 meters. In the triple jump, first-year Tanush Anand and second-year Connor Evans placed second and fourth with distances of 13.09 and 12.41 meters, respectively. Anand also contributed to the team’s points by placing third in the high jump after clearing 1.90 meters.
On the track, fourth-year distance runner Grace Jackson and second-year distance runner Arianna Holbrook both won their events of the mile and 800-meter with times of 5:09.21 and 2:20.37, respectively.
Another outstanding Spartan at the invitational was second-year distance runner Ayla Grabenbauer, who earned three top-four finishes. She took home first with fellow teammates second-year Melanie Taylor, third-year Marquis Globokar and fourth-year Jessica Kwasny in the 4×400 relay with a time of 4:09.04. Grabenbauer’s other top finishes included placing second in the mile with 5:13.20 and fourth in the 400-meter hurdles with 1:12.07.
“The 4×400 is definitely out of my comfort zone, being both a relay and a sprint event (I train for long distances), but I’ve competed in it a few times over the indoor and outdoor season this year and it’s always a good experience,” Grabenbauer said. “I love being part of a (more directly) team race, and the combination of different strengths (with members from the long sprint, mid distance, and long distance training groups) has worked well for us so far in the season. Marv Frye was especially exciting because placing first won us all a t-shirt with the titular man’s face on it.”
Kwasny took home gold with a time of 1:09.29 in the 400-meter hurdle, and in the 100-meter hurdle, second-year Grace Misiunas crossed the line in 15.64 seconds, finishing in second. Ozeki placed fourth in the same event with a time of 16.18 seconds. Globar also contributed to the women’s 152 points with a fourth-place finish in the 800-meter (2:22.20).
The men’s team also had a pair of first place finishes on the track, with fourth-year hurdler Yusuf Shaaban taking gold in the 400-meter hurdles with 55.48 seconds and the Spartan 4×400 team crossing the finish line first. The men’s 4×400 team consisting of third-year Nicolas Lende, first-year Nico Matt and second years Aaron Brula and Josh Bates also recorded the 22nd-fastest time in DIII this season with their 3:21.89 finish.
Other top five finishes for the Spartan men include second place finishes from second-year hurdler Joshua Park in the 110-meter hurdles (15.48 seconds) and first-year distance runner Finn Bonner in the 3000-meter steeplechase (10:50.76) as well as fourth places finishes from graduate student sprinter Juan Perez in the 100-meter dash (10.75) and fourth-year sprinter Brett Callow in the 200-meter dash (22.05). With his time of 10.75, Perez recorded the second-fastest time in program history.
Next weekend, the track and field teams will split up again, but this time with the distance runner traveling to participate in the Bison Outdoor Classic hosted by Bucknell University and the rest of the team competing in the All-Ohio Outdoor Championships.