Senior thrower Adrienne Wachtman claimed her third consecutive University Athletic Association championship in the javelin throw and totaled two all-conference honors to lead the Case Western Reserve University women's track and field team to a fourth-place finish at the 2024 UAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships hosted by Carnegie Mellon University at Gesling Stadium in Pittsburgh on Saturday and Sunday.
The Spartans totaled five All-UAA honors at the event, including two each by Wachtman and junior thrower Lauren Roskuszka.
Wachtman set a school record in the event to claim her third straight title and the fourth consecutive by a Spartan in the event, tossing the implement 44.09 meters. She bested her own program record of 41.71 meters from 2023. The top-three finish marked the seventh consecutive All-UAA honor for Case Western Reserve in the event. Wachtman also placed third in the discus throw for the second season in a row with a heave of 42.42 meters to claim her second All-UAA honor at the championship and the sixth of her career. Wachtman added points for CWRU in the shot put, recording the third-best mark in program history of 12.95 meters to place fourth.
Joining Wachtman on the podium was Roskuszka, who placed second in the javelin throw with a heave of 42.11 meters. She added a runner-up finish in the hammer throw with a mark of 48.49 meters to claim the third All-UAA honor of her career.
The Spartans dominated the hammer throw, placing second, third, fourth, and fifth in the event. Senior thrower Ailean Duffie claimed her first career All-UAA honor by placing third with a toss of 47.88 meters. Junior Rachel Ginn placed fourth with a mark of 46.46 meters, and sophomore Michelle Lee was fifth with a mark of 44.27 meters.
Overall, Case Western Reserve placed fourth in the conference out of the seven schools competing with 86.0 points. WashU won the conference championship with 249.5 points, followed by Chicago with 203.5 points and Emory with 124.0 points. Carnegie Mellon (71.0 points), Brandeis (47.5 points), and NYU (31.5 points) rounded out the conference standings.
While the CWRU 4x800-meter relay of sophomores Arianna Holbrook and Julia Hluck, junior Marquis Globokar, and senior Grace Jackson did not place in the top three, it did set a school record in the event with a time of 9:23.08. The time, which was fourth best in the conference, broke the previous record of 9:26.69 set in 2010 by Natalia Cabrera, Cindy Spahn, Britta Kumley, and Bettina Kaphingst. Individually, Jackson added a point for CWRU with an eighth-place finish in the 1500-meter run, recording a time of 4:40.15, the second-fastest time in program history.
The Spartan 4x100-meter relay of seniors Emily Hopkins and Elise Moore, junior Sarah Ozeki, and sophomore Grace Misiunas also placed fourth in 50.78 seconds. Misiunas added a fourth-place finish in the 100-meter hurdles with a finals time of 15.10 seconds after recording a time of 14.76 seconds in the prelims on Saturday. Ozeki and Hopkins each scored in the triple jump, with Ozeki placing fifth by bounding 11.20 meters and Hopkins finishing seventh with a mark of 11.09 meters.
Case Western Reserve also earned points in a pair of distance events. sophomore Lauren Iagnemma finished fourth in the 5,000-meter run in 17:28.88, and sophomore Ayla Grabenbauer finished fifth in the 3000-meter steeplechase in 11:12.61, the second-fastest time in school history.
The Spartans ended the championship on the track with a sixth-place finish in the 4x400-meter relay as Moore, Holbrook, sophomore Melanie Taylor, and senior Jessica Kwasny completed the race in 4:06.08.
With the conference championships behind them, the CWRU track and field teams will have two more opportunities to record qualifying times or marks for the 2024 NCAA Division III Outdoor Championships. The first chance will be at the Harrison Dillard Twilight, hosted by Baldwin Wallace University on Friday, May 10.
