Paced by 20 season-best performances, including nine career-best marks, the Case Western Reserve University men's cross country team placed ninth out of 32 teams at the Mike Woods Invitational on Saturday afternoon at the National Warplane Museum in Geneseo, New York.

The Spartans finished the meet with a total of 259 points to secure the ninth-place finish. Host SUNY Geneseo won the men's portion of the meet with a score of 41, followed by RPI (54), Carnegie Mellon (80), John Carroll (115), and Moravian (205).

Senior Aidan Nathan turned in the best 8K time of his career, completing the course in a time of 24:35.4 to place eighth overall out of 492 competitors. First-years Donovan Crowley and Adam Esa each followed with career-best marks with Crowley placing 43rd in a time of 25:22.6 and Esa crossing the line in 75th place with a time of 25:47.2. Graduate student Stephen Henry added a season-best mark of 25:54.5, placing 80th, and sophomore Seth Tivakaran was 90th with a mark of 26:03.0, also a season-best time.

Completing the top seven for the Spartans were senior Michael Lombardi, who was 97th in a season-best time of 26:07.9, and sophomore Jacob Slater, who was 112th with a mark of 26:19.3.

Adding career-best times on Saturday for CWRU were sophomore Owen Schessler (131st, 26:30.0), junior Ethan Richter (157th, 26:47.5), first-year Brendan Bradish (179th, 26:57.0), first-year Will Larson (244th, 27:36.6), first-year Eli Stodard (400th, 29:34.2), and junior Nathaniel Hahn (438th, 30:33.4). Senior Luke Kishna (113th, 26:19.5), senior Hans Holst (197th, 27:05.0), sophomore Angel Zeferino (234th, 27:28.4), junior Nathan Webb (248th, 27:39.8), senior Victor Nash (249th, 27:40.3), graduate student Arjun Thillairajah (259th, 27:48.7), junior Ben Smith (281st, 27:59.5), and junior Danny Becker (380th, 29:08.6) all recorded season-best times at the meet.

Other CWRU runners to cross the finish line at the Mike Woods Invitational included senior Nate Gilbert (220th, 27:20.3), graduate student Matthew Smutny (237th, 27:31.6), first-year Paul Salah (327th, 28:27.8), first-year George Wood-Leness (343rd, 28:38.6), first-year Lucas Siepser (348th, 28:42.1), first-year Adam Joseph (419th, 30:04.6), and sophomore Joseph Rivello (445th, 30:42.1).

RPI's Vince Simonetti was the top overall finisher with a time of 24:08.1.

The Spartans will now turn their attention to their championship season, beginning with the 2024 University Athletic Association Championship, hosted by Brandeis on Saturday, November 2 at Franklin Park in Boston.

Spartan Notes

• The Spartan men entered Saturday's meet ranked fifth in the latest USTFCCCA Great Lakes Region rankings.

• The team's ninth-place finish was a slight drop from last season's performance at the meet when the squad placed eighth out of 25 teams at the Mike Woods Invitational.

• Nathan has been the Spartans' top finisher in each of the four races he has competed in this season. Slater is the only other runner to lead CWRU in a race this year.