The Spartan men took first and the women took second in this year’s Greater Cleveland Colleges Meet. During the spectacular day, Case Western Reserve University fourth-year students Joe Ledger and Nathaniel Wahner broke school records as they gave everything that had at the meet. The Spartan women took two first-place finishes and several other top-three places on their way to second place. The other teams competing in the events were Baldwin Wallace University, John Carroll University, Oberlin College and the College of Wooster.

Ledger participated in and won the 1,000-meter run with the record-breaking time of 2:34.56, overcoming the 1994 program record of 2:36.79 by over 2 seconds. Then, Wahner took first place in the 55-meter dash with another record-breaking time of 6.62, outpacing the 2006 record of 6.65 by a hair.

Alongside the two record-setters, third-year student Andrew Ibibo took first-place in the 400-meter dash with a time of 40.82 seconds. In the 800-meter run, first-year student Michael Hradesky took first place just 0.52 seconds ahead of his teammate, third-year student Alec Southern. Additionally, fourth-year student Galen Caldwell won the 3,000-meter run with a time of 9:06.23, third-year student James Gibson took first place in the one mile run with a time of 4:28.30, first-year student Dominic Oddo jumped 6.67 meters in the long-jump event to claim the top spot, second-year student Ananth Suresh jumped into first-place with a 12.49 meter distance in the triple jump and first-year student Xavier Yozwiak came in first in the 5,000-meter run with a time of 16:29.06.

After all was said and done, the CWRU men earned 288 points, earning first place for their team with Baldwin Wallace University coming in second with only 101 points.

On the other side of the team, the Spartan women also performed well. Fourth-year student Abby Casalnova took first place in the 400-meter dash with a time of 1:01.76, and third-year student Marie-Louise Kloster came in just behind her in second place with a time of 1:02.61. Then, second-year student Maria DeRenzo earned first-place in the 800-meter run with a time of 2:25.09.

Ultimately, the CWRU women fell to Oberlin College. The Yeowomen managed to earn 173 points and the Spartans were just behind with 138 points to take second place in the days’ events.

Next on the schedule for the Spartans is the University Athletic Association (UAA) Indoor Championships in at Brandeis University. The events will be spread out on both Saturday, Feb. 25, and Sunday, Feb. 26. After the strong outing this past week, CWRU has high hopes of success in the UAA competitions.