In their final preparations for the indoor conference championship next week, the Case Western Reserve University track and field teams hosted the Ed Finnigan Greater Cleveland Colleges Invite at the Veale Center in Cleveland on Friday night.
Overall, the Spartan men's team placed first out of five teams with 176 points. The CWRU women's team finished second with 135 points, trailing only John Carroll, who won the meet with 173 points.
The men's team swept the podium in three events: the pole vault, 400-meter dash, and 3,000-meter run. Sophomore vaulter Quaylen Lamarre won the pole vault by clearing 4.35 meters, first-year vaulter Anthony DeCarlo placed second with a mark of 4.20 meters, and first-year vaulter Danny Batyrbaev finished third by clearing 3.75 meters. In the sprint, first-year hurdler/sprinter Josh Bates won with a time of 50.88 seconds. He was followed by sophomore sprinter Nicolas Lende, who finished in 51.78 seconds, and senior runner Will Dehmler, who crossed the line at 52.04 seconds. First-year runner Solomon Greene, sophomore runner Mike Lombardi, and first-year runner Nathan Webb were the first three finishers in the 3,000-meter run, recording times of 9:15.43, 9:16.16, and 9:19.95, respectively.
CWRU claimed wins in three additional events. In the triple jump, sophomore jumper Andrew Qi placed first with the best mark by a Spartan this season, bounding 13.22 meters. Senior jumper Kenny Suen was the runner-up in the event after recording a mark of 12.44 meters. Junior sprinter/jumper Yusuf Shaaban improved upon his team-leading mark in the high jump, clearing 1.95 meters to finish first in the event. The 4x400-meter relay of Dehmler, senior sprinter/hurdler Pierce Boucher, first-year sprinter Aaron Brula, and senior runner Bryden Moxley closed the meet by placing first in 3:34.48.
Graduate student sprinter Juan Perez recorded identical times in the 60-meter dash prelims and finals, finishing both in 6.98 seconds. Though he was the fastest in the heats, he placed second in the final. Also recording a second place finish was senior hurdler Peculiar Nzegbuna, finishing as the runner-up in the 60-meter hurdles in 8.83 seconds.
Rounding out the top three finishes for Case Western Reserve was sophomore runner Nate Gilbert, who placed third in the 1,000-meter run in 2:38.01.
The women's team swept the podium in both the high jump and 400-meter dash. In the field, senior jumper Mia Vargo cleared the highest bar, recording a mark of 1.50 meters to place first. Senior hurdler Mia Kilroy and first-year hurdler/jumper Grace Misiunas tied for second, both clearing 1.45 meters in the same number of jumps. First-year runner Melanie Taylor was the first finisher in the sprint, recording a time of 1:02.62. Just behind her was senior runner Melissa Phung-Rojas, who placed second in 1:02.96. To complete the podium sweep, first-year sprinter Hannah Driscoll finished third by crossing the line at 1:05.02.
Junior hurdler/jumper Emily Hopkins improved upon her team-best mark in the triple jump, bounding 11.46 meters to place first. Hopkins was 0.02 meters short of the school record, and she remains 27th in Division III with the mark. Sophomore hurdler/jumper Sarah Ozeki placed third in the event, leaping 10.91 meters. Misiunas recorded an additional win for CWRU, taking first in the 60-meter hurdles with a finals time of 9.35 seconds, 0.08 seconds faster than her time in the prelims. She added a third place finish in the 200-meter dash with a time of 27.53 seconds.
A trio of Spartans added second place finishes, led by senior thrower Tori Cohen, who took second in the weight throw with a heave of 14.89 meters, the best mark by a Spartan this season. In the pole vault, senior vaulter Victoria Zhao was the runner-up after clearing 3.45 meters, and junior runner Grace Jackson placed second in the 800-meter run with a time of 2:20.60. In addition, the 4x400-meter relay of Driscoll, Kilroy, first-year hurdler/sprinter Gabby Alphonse, and senior runner Chloe Relf was the runner-up in the event with a time of 4:19.41.
Junior thrower Adrienne Wachtman reached the podium in the shot put, placing third with a mark of 11.68 meters.
The namesake of the meet, Ed Finnigan, was the first student at Western Reserve University to earn nine varsity letters, three each in track, football, and basketball. He graduated from the university in 1933 and went on to become the head football and track and field coach at both Baldwin Wallace University and Western Reserve, later serving as athletic director at his alma mater from 1951-1968. He was posthumously inducted into the Spartan Club Hall of Fame in its inaugural class and was inducted into the Baldwin Wallace Alumni Athletics Association Hall of Fame.
The Spartans will now begin their preparations for the 2023 University Athletic Association Indoor Track and Field Championships, held on Saturday, February 25 and Sunday, February 26 at the Gosman Sports Center on the campus of Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts.
