Case Western Reserve University junior Cassandra Laios claimed the University Athletic Association Championship in the weight throw, to lead the Spartans during the first day of competition at the 2017 UAA Indoor Track and Field Championships, hosted by Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts.
Laios finished first in the weight throw with a distance of 15.89 meters on her throw in the finals, a new career-best mark. She scored 10 points towards the Spartan women's team total with her finish in the event, while senior Temi Omilabu added eight points after finished second with a mark of 15.44 meters and junior Nimi Gupta contributing six points after placing third in the event with a toss of 14.57 meters.
The Spartan women's distance medley relay team of sophomore Maria DeRenzo, senior Abby Casalnova, freshman Vanessa Pasadyn and sophomore Jennifer Hoffman added a fifth-place finish in the event with a time of 12:42.02.
The Spartan men added two more All-UAA honors on Saturday with freshman Dominic Oddo finishing third in the long jump with a distance of 6.62 meters and sophomore Tyler Bushman also placing third in the weight throw with a mark of 14.87 meters.
Adding points for the Spartan men were junior Alex Nesvisky in the weight throw (fourth, 14.65 meters) and the distance medley relay team of junior Nicholas Knorz, freshman Jonathan Haling, freshman Michael Hradesky and freshman James Gibson (fifth, 10:29.01).
After one day of competition, the CWRU women sit in third place in the standings with 26 points. Washington leads in the standings with 42 points, followed by Chicago with 37. The Spartan men also sit in third place with 24 points. Carnegie Mellon leads in the standings with 39.33 points, followed by Emory with 37 points.
Case Western Reserve is in good position to add onto its team score on Sunday, with seven athletes qualifying for finals, following their performances in preliminaries on Saturday. Senior Nathaniel Wahner broke two school records on Saturday in the preliminaries. Wahner earned a spot in the 200-meter dash after finishing second in the preliminaries with a time of 22.32, besting his previous school record of 22.48 set last season. Wahner also earned a spot in the 400-meter dash after finishing second with a time of 49.44, besting the previous school record of 50.12 set back in 2014. Junior Andrew Ibibo will be joining Wahner in the finals of the 400-meter dash, following his third-place finish in the preliminaries with a time of 49.90 seconds.
The Spartan men will also have three other finals participants competing tomorrow. Junior Zak Hurd finished third in the 55-meter dash with a time 6.66 seconds, junior Sam Merriman placed third in the 5,000-meter run with a time of 15:01.43 and junior Grant Mlack placing fourth in the 55-meter hurdles with a time of 7.94 seconds.
The Spartan women will have Pasadyn competing in the 800-meter run finals tomorrow after finishing sixth in the preliminaries with a time of 2:19.17, besting the previous school record of 2:20.25 set last indoor season.
The second and final day of the 2017 UAA Indoor Championships is slated to begin with the field events at 10:00 a.m. on Sunday, followed by events on the track at 12:00 p.m.
