The Case Western Reserve University men's and women's track and field teams dropped a dual meet with archrival Carnegie Mellon University on Saturday at the Veale Center in Cleveland, losing the 14th Annual Battle for the Obelisk by a score of 176-96.
In the unique scoring format, the combined totals of the men's and women's teams are compared to determine the winner of the obelisk. The Spartan women's track and field team contributed 55 points, and the men's team added 41 points to the team total.
The CWRU women's team won four events at the dual. The Spartans swept the podium in the weight throw, with senior thrower Tori Cohen taking first with a heave of 13.52 meters, junior thrower Adrienne Wachtman placing second with a mark of 13.36 meters, and junior thrower Ailean Duffie earning the bronze by recording a mark of 13.26 meters. In the triple jump, junior hurdler/jumper Emily Hopkins set a new meet record with a mark of 11.42 meters, the second-farthest jump in school history. Her mark currently ranks 25th in Division III and second in the University Athletic Association. Sophomore hurdler/jumper Sarah Ozeki placed second in the event with a mark of 10.69 meters and added two third place finishes in the 60-meter hurdles (9.69 seconds) and long jump (5.00 meters).
CWRU senior vaulters Shelby Cooper and Victoria Zhao claimed first and second in the pole vault with identical marks of 3.30 meters. Cooper won the event by clearing the height in fewer attempts. The Spartan distance medley relay of senior runner Melissa Phung-Rojas, first-year runner Melanie Taylor, and junior runners Jessica Kwasny and Grace Jackson recorded the fourth-fastest time in Division III (after converting for track size) with a time of 12:39.06 and a first place finish.
Both first-year hurdler/jumper Grace Misiunas and junior sprinter Elise Moore placed second in two events. Misiunas was the runner-up in the 60-meter hurdles, finishing in 9.36 seconds, the third-fastest time in school history. She added a silver medal in the 200-meter dash by crossing the line in 27.70 seconds. Moore was second in the 400-meter dash with a time of 1:02.37 and was a member of the 4x400-meter relay, along with sophomore sprinter Lalah Saleem, senior runner Chloe Relf, and senior hurdler Mia Kilroy, that finished in 4:24.61.
Senior jumper Mia Vargo placed second in the high jump by clearing 1.60 meters, the third-best mark in the UAA and tied for the 32nd-best mark in Division III. Kilroy placed third in the event by clearing 1.45 meters. The Spartans also finished second and third in the 5,000-meter run with first-year runner Ashley Novak crossing the line in 18:40.33 and senior runner Catherine Phillips following her in 18:43.65. Senior runner Danielle Sarno placed second in the 800-meter run with a time of 2:23.61.
Taylor (400-meter dash, 1:02.61), first-year hurdler/sprinter Gabby Alphonse (200-meter dash, 28.18 seconds), and sophomore runner Alyssa Storm (mile run, 5:39.29) all contributed points with third place finishes.
The Case Western Reserve men's team set two meet records and recorded four event wins. The distance medley relay of senior runners Logan Singer and Joe Jaster, senior sprinter/hurdler Pierce Boucher, and sophomore runner Hans Holst missed the school record by 0.44 seconds with a meet-record time of 10:08.84. The time, after converting for track size, currently ranks fifth in Division III and second in the UAA. Sophomore vaulter Quaylen Lamarre also set a meet record by clearing 4.46 meters, the third-best mark in the UAA, to win the pole vault. First-year vaulter Anthony DeCarlo added a point to the team's total with a third place finish after clearing 4.20 meters.
Two Spartan sprinters, graduate student Juan Perez and first-year Josh Bates, won events for CWRU. Perez placed first in the 60-meter dash, recording a time of 7.03 seconds, while Bates was the first to cross the finish line in the 400-meter dash, finishing the race in 50.38 seconds. Perez and Bates were one half of the 4x400-meter relay that placed second, joining sophomore sprinter Nicolas Lende and junior sprinter Brett Callow to finish the race in 3:31.16. Callow added two third place finishes as an individual, earning the bronze in the 60-meter dash with a time of 7.13 seconds and in the 200-meter dash in 23.17 seconds. Lende finished behind Bates in the 400-meter dash in 51.64 seconds, while Perez bested Callow in the 200-meter dash with a time of 22.93 seconds.
Senior runner Jack Begley suffered a close loss in the 3,000-meter run, losing the distance race by just 0.33 seconds with a time of 8:29.99. However, the time is currently the 30th fastest in Division III, after converting for track size, and third fastest in the UAA. Sophomore runner Aidan Nathan placed third in the event by crossing the finish line at 8:32.37.
Two additional Case Western Reserve jumpers and sprinters each contributed points. In the triple jump, sophomore Andrew Qi placed second by bounding 13.05 meters, and in the long jump, first-year Troy Olson was third with a mark of 6.55 meters. Senior hurdler Peculiar Nzegbuna was the runner-up in the 60-meter hurdles by finishing in 8.65 seconds, and senior runner Will Dehmler added a point with a third place finish in the 800-meter run in 1:58.25.
The Spartans will be back in action next weekend with three road meets: a dual against Oberlin College on Friday night, the All-Ohio Indoor Championships at Wittenberg University on Saturday, and the Grand Valley State University Big Meet on Friday and Saturday in Allendale, Michigan.
