The Case Western Reserve University women's track and field team placed first out of six teams at the Dr. Taraschke Team Challenge hosted by Baldwin Wallace University in Berea, Ohio, on Saturday, and the CWRU men's team placed second out of six teams at the meet.
The Spartan women's team scored 92.0 points, and the men's team scored 91.0 points, trailing first-place Baldwin Wallace by 25.5 points.
Case Western Reserve won 10 of the 34 events at the invitational with the members of the women's team taking six events and members of the men's team securing four victories.
In the 55-meter hurdles, sophomore Grace Misiunas placed first with a finals time of 9.00 seconds. She was followed by junior Sarah Ozeki, the runner-up with a time of 9.09 seconds, and senior Emily Hopkins, who placed fifth in 9.20 seconds. Hopkins won the triple jump by bounding 10.54 meters, and Ozeki finished second with a mark of 10.44 meters.
Senior Adrienne Wachtman won a pair of events, taking first in the weight throw with a toss of 15.57 meters and first in the shot put with a heave of 12.05 meters. Three additional Spartans placed in the top five in the weight throw, with senior Ailean Duffie taking third (14.99 meters), junior Lauren Roskuszka placing fourth (14.22 meters), and junior Rachel Ginn finishing fifth (14.21 meters).
CWRU earned the top two places in the pole vault as first-years Holly Schreiber and Annie Wank placed first and second by clearing 3.50 meters. Schreiber won the event by reaching the height in fewer attempts.
Junior Marquis Globokar crossed the line first in the 800-meter run at 2:24.91. The Spartan 4x400-meter relay of Globokar, senior Anna Zinsser, and sophomores Arianna Holbrook and Melanie Taylor finished second with a time of 4:16.86. Zinsser added an individual runner-up finish in the 55-meter dash in 7.58 seconds and placed third in the 200-meter dash in 27.09 seconds. Taylor was also the second finisher in the 400-meter dash with a time of 1:03.37.
Holbrook and sophomore Ashley Novak contributed second-place finishes in distance events. Holbrook crossed the line second in the mile run at 5:21.79, and Novak placed second in the 3,000-meter run in 10:33.29.
Members of the Case Western Reserve men's team earned three of the top five spots in the 55-meter dash, with graduate student Keith Cartwright winning the event in 6.57 seconds, senior Brett Callow placing second in 6.61 seconds, and first-year Matthew Bezuneh finishing fifth in 6.67 seconds. Cartwright and Callow were joined by first-year Aidan Rogers and senior Yusuf Shaaban for the 4x200-meter relay, finishing as the runner-up in 1:32.86, trailing the top-finishing team by 0.29 seconds. Callow, Rogers, and Cartwright placed second, fourth, and fifth, respectively, in the 200-meter dash. Callow finished the sprint in 22.84 seconds, Rogers completed the event in 22.97 seconds, and Cartwright crossed the finish line after 23.12 seconds.
Shaaban added top-five finishes in three additional events. He placed second in the 400-meter dash with a time of 52.19 seconds, fourth in the high jump by clearing 1.76 meters, and first as a member of the 4x400-meter relay. Shaaban joined junior Nicolas Lende, sophomore Josh Bates, and first-year Nico Matt to win the relay in 3:27.14, setting a new meet record. Matt added a fourth-place finish in the 400-meter dash in 52.67 seconds, and Lende finished just behind him in fifth place in 2.91 seconds.
Bates earned an individual victory, crossing the line first in the 800-meter run at 1:58.77. First-year Praveen Sureshkumar finished fifth in the event in 2:02.73.
In the field, junior Andrew Qi won the triple jump by bounding 13.00 meters and placed third in the long jump with a mark of 6.11 meters. Sophomore Connor Evans was the runner-up in the triple jump with a mark of 11.95 meters. In the pole vault, junior Joshua Berman finished fourth after clearing 3.80 meters.
Graduate student Peculiar Nzegbuna placed second in the 55-meter hurdles with a finals time of 8.12 seconds. And, in distance events, junior Aidan Nathan was the runner-up in the 3,000-meter run with a time of 8:51.47, and first-year Jacob Slater placed third in the mile run in 4:30.46.
CWRU will next host archrival Carnegie Mellon on Saturday, February 3, for the 15th Annual Battle for the Obelisk. Action in the unique dual meet will begin at 2 p.m. inside the Veale Center.
