The Case Western Reserve University track and field team competed in its final meet before next weekend's NCAA Division III Championship, traveling to Ada, Ohio on Friday and Saturday for the Polar Bear Final Qualifier.
Graduate student Michaela Burkhauser highlighted the CWRU performances at the meet with a third-place finish in the weight throw on Saturday. She notched a season-best mark of 16.27 meters in the event, the third-best mark in school history, and the 37th-best in Division III this season.
Burkhauser also placed seventh in the shot put with a throw of 12.83 meters, while junior Michelle Lee added a fifth-place finish in the weight throw with a mark of 15.65 meters.
For the men, senior Quaylen Lamarre placed fourth in the pole vault, clearing the bar at a height of 4.46 meters, a hundredth of a meter off his best mark of the year. Junior Bryce Hodge placed fourth in the finals of the 60-meter hurdles with a time of 8.52 seconds after his mark of 8.43 seconds in the preliminaries was second among competitors. On Friday night, the distance medley relay team of senior Nate Gilbert, junior Josh Bates, senior Hans Holst, and first-year Donovan Crowley placed fourth in a time of 10:14.42, the 43rd-best mark in Division III this season.
CWRU will now await the announcement of the field for the 2025 NCAA Division III Indoor Track and Field Championships, set to be released on Sunday, March 9 on ncaa.org by 7:00 p.m. Burkhauser will enter Sunday's announcement as a likely qualifier in the shot put with her season-best throw of 13.78 meters ranking 14th among Division III competitors.
