Case Western Reserve University senior thrower Rachel Ginn won the University Athletic Association championship in the hammer throw to lead the Spartan women's track and field team on the first day of the 2025 UAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships held at Icahn Stadium in Manhattan, New York, on Saturday.
Ginn won the conference title with a heave of 50.61 meters in the event, a personal best for the fourth-year thrower. It was the first All-UAA honor of her career and the first UAA title in the event for CWRU since Cassandra Laios in 2019. Graduate student thrower Ailean Duffie also earned All-UAA honors with a second-place finish by tossing the hammer 48.86 meters. It was the second All-Conference honor of her career after she placed third in the event in 2024. Graduate student thrower Michaela Burkhauser just missed the podium with a toss of 46.91 meters, placing fourth.
Burkhauser did earn All-UAA honors in the shot put, tossing the ball 13.34 meters to place second in the event. It was the third All-UAA honor of her career after she placed second in the shot put and weight throw at the indoor conference championships earlier this season.
Sophomore jumper Holly Schreiber secured the first All-UAA honor of her career by placing second in the pole vault by clearing 3.57 meters. On the track, junior runner Ayla Grabenbauer also earned her first career All-UAA honors by placing third in the 3,000-meter steeplechase with a time of 11:00.94.
The CWRU 4x800-meter relay of junior runner Melanie Taylor, first-year runner Julia Walko, junior runner Lauren Iagnemma, and junior runner Julia Hluck placed fifth in 9:36.42.
The long jump and triple jump competitions were conducted at an alternate site late on Saturday evening with results not available until Sunday morning. The UAA Championships will conclude on Sunday with field events beginning at 8:30 a.m.
Spartan Notes
- After one day of competition, CWRU ranked second in the team standings with 49 points. WashU led the conference with 73 points, and trailing Case Western Reserve were Carnegie Mellon (33 points), Emory (31), Chicago (25), Brandeis (17), and NYU (three)
- In the prelims of the 200-meter dash, first-year sprinter Riley Friedman recorded the fifth-fastest time in program history of 26.19 seconds
- Burkhauser had the second-best heave in the shot put in program history, Schreiber tied for the second-best pole vault in program history (behind her own school record in the event), and Grabenbauer recorded the second-fastest time in the steeplechase of any Spartan
- Ginn's mark in the hammer throw was the fourth-best in program history
