The Case Western Reserve University men's and women's track and field teams will begin the indoor season with the 10th Annual CWRU Spartan Holiday Invite on Saturday, December 2 at the Veale Center in Cleveland. Action is slated to start at 11 a.m. with a complete schedule of events available here.
CWRU, Allegheny, Baldwin Wallace, Carnegie Mellon, John Carroll, Muskingum, Oberlin, Washington & Jefferson, Ursuline (Division II), and Mount Vernon Nazarene (NAIA) will be competing at the meet.
After members of the team received All-America honors in the men's distance medley relay at the NCAA Indoor Championships last season and at the NCAA Women's Cross Country Championships a couple weeks ago, the Spartans are looking forward to the 2023-24 indoor track and field season.
Head Coach Eric Schmuhl, entering his 12th season at the helm of the CWRU track and field programs, welcomes his first full-time assistant coach to the staff in Olivia Cattau. Cattau, a multi-event athlete at the University of Chicago, was an assistant coach at Pacific Lutheran the last two seasons. In addition to coordinating recruiting, Cattau will focus on the hurdlers and vertical jumpers. In addition, long-time distance coach Kathy Lanese and distance coach Eric Line return to the staff, along with throws coach Rocco Mitolo and horizontal jumps coach Drew Linebarger. Former Spartan Ben Pinkowski will move to a coaching role and assist with the jumpers.
Half of the All-American relay, sophomore Josh Bates and junior Nate Gilbert, return to the team with the other two members graduating. In addition, indoor All-Great Lakes Region honorees Emily Hopkins (triple jump), Grace Jackson (distance medley relay), Jessica Kwasny (distance medley relay), and Melanie Taylor (distance medley relay) will compete for the Spartans this season. Indoor All-University Athletic Association honoree Yusuf Shaaban (high jump) also returns to the team.
Other Spartans to watch during the indoor schedule include graduate student Keith Cartwright (sprints), seniors Brett Callow (sprints), Ailean Duffie (throws), Elise Moore (sprints), Adrienne Wachtman (throws), and Anna Zinsser (sprints), juniors Hans Holst (distance), Nicolas Lende (sprints), Sarah Ozeki (jumps/hurdles), Andrew Qi (jumps), and Lauren Roskuszka (throws), and sophomores Jonathan Agrinya (sprints), Gabby Alphonse (sprints/hurdles), Anthony DeCarlo (pole vault), Bryce Hodge (hurdles/sprints), Lauren Iagnemma (distance), Grace Misiunas (hurdles/sprints), Ashley Novak (distance), Troy Olson (sprints/jumps), and Emily Walton (sprints).
Following the home meet, the Spartans will head to the SPIRE Institute for a meet in January to start the 2024 portion of their schedule. After a road trip to nearby Baldwin Wallace, CWRU will host the 15th Annual Battle for the Obelisk, the team's dual meet with archrival Carnegie Mellon, on February 3. The next weekend will be the Indoor All-Ohio Championships hosted by Otterbein along with the Oberlin Open and Grand Valley State Big Meet in Michigan. The Spartans will return home for the Ed Finnigan Greater Cleveland Colleges Invite on February 16 with a trip to SPIRE for an invitational the next day.
NYU will host the UAA Indoor Championships at the historic Armory in New York on February 24 and 25. Meets the following weekend at Mount Union and Tufts will serve as the last chance for members of the track and field teams to qualify for the 2024 NCAA Division III Indoor Track and Field Championships, held at the Virginia Beach Sports Center in Virginia Beach, Virginia, on March 8 and 9.
