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Case Western Reserve University junior Santiago Salazar Garza, a member of the men's tennis team, and first-year Gianna Phipps, a sprinter on the women's track and field team, have been named the Spartan Club Athletes of the Week for their performances this past week.

Salazar Garza helped lead the seventh-ranked Spartans to three wins over the weekend. He finished the three matches with a 2-0 record in singles matches and a 3-0 mark in doubles play. During the team's 5-2 win over 11th-ranked Kenyon College on Friday, Salazar Garza teamed with sophomore Leon Chen for a 7-5 win over Paulo Pocasangre Kreling and Jay Kedar Dixit, and went on to defeat Alejandro Gonzalez, ranked 21st in Division III, 6-7 (7), 6-1, 1-0 (8) in the no. 1 singles match. In the first match of a doubleheader against RIT on Saturday, he won the no. 1 doubles match with sophomore Rohit Jain 6-3 over Yu Tanimoto and Alexander Sinclair, and claimed a 6-1, 6-0 victory over Alex Turcotte in the no. 2 singles match to contribute to a 7-0 CWRU win. In another 7-0 Spartan victory in the second match against RIT of the day, he and Jon Totorica bested Nikko Tuxford and Anhann Boorela 6-0 at no. 2 doubles. Salazar Garza leads all Spartans with a 20-7 singles record this season and has gone 10-2 in doubles contests. The Spartans improved to 22-5 overall with the three wins.

The Spartans will be back in action next Friday, April 10, with a key match against fifth-ranked Denison University. The contest is slated for a noon start at the Aspen Racquet Club in Wooster, Ohio.

Phipps recorded a top-five time in Division III on Saturday at the Wooster Invitational hosted by the College of Wooster in Wooster, Ohio. Phipps won the 400-meter dash in a program and stadium record time of 55.36 seconds, which ranks fifth in the country and second in the University Athletic Association this season. The time was nearly three seconds better than the previous school record in the event and was nearly a second faster than the 19-year-old stadium record from a Division II student-athlete. Phipps also won the 200-meter dash, lowering her own program record with a time of 25.01 seconds. She currently ranks second in the conference and 30th nationally with the mark. Phipps helped the Spartans place third out of 13 teams with 108.0 points at the meet.

The Spartans will compete at a pair of meets next weekend with most of the team traveling to Delaware, Ohio, for the All-Ohio Outdoor Championships on April 10 and 11 and select individuals heading to Lewisburg, Pennsylvania for the Bison Classic on April 11 and 12.

The Spartan Club Athletes of the Week are selected by the CWRU Department of Athletics each Monday, based on their performance during the previous week of competition.

Honorable Mentions

First-year jumper Anna Callo (women's track and field) improved her mark in the pole vault with a top-50 mark in Division III on Saturday at the Wooster Invitational in Wooster, Ohio. Callo won the event by clearing 3.52 meters, a personal best mark and the third highest in program history. She ranks 41st in Division III and third in the UAA with the height. 

Sophomore right-handed pitcher Eric Colgrove (baseball) did not allow an earned run in five innings of work during the Spartans' 6-4 win at Emory University in the second game of a doubleheader on Saturday. Colgrove started the game and gave up just three hits and five walks with four strikeouts, while allowing just two total runs. Through six appearances and four starts this season, he is 0-2 with a 5.09 ERA and a .225 opponents' batting average, while striking out 20 batters in 23 innings of work. The Spartans stand at 14-12 overall with a 3-5 University Athletic Association record.

The Spartans will return home for a four-game UAA series next weekend against the University of Chicago. The series is scheduled to begin with a single game at 3 p.m. on Friday, April 10.

Senior jumper Anthony DeCarlo (men's track and field) recorded a top-30 national mark in the pole vault on Saturday at the Wooster Invitational in Wooster, Ohio. DeCarlo cleared 4.74 meters on his first attempt to place fifth in the event, but he tied for 27th in Division III with the mark. The mark ranks sixth in the UAA and is just 0.07 meters short of the program record. Overall, the Spartans ranked fourth out of 14 teams in the men's competition with 77.5 points.

Sophomore pitcher/outfielder Laura Meoli (softball) threw six solid innings for CWRU in its three-game home series against Emory. Meoli, who appeared in two of the three contests (one start) had a 2.33 earned run average with one strikeout and two walks in the six frames. In the second game of the series, she earned her first start of the season, allowing just one earned run on one hit in three innings of work with a strikeout. On Sunday, she tossed three innings of relief, allowing just one earned run during her time in the circle. This season, Meoli has appeared in nine games, sporting a 2.06 ERA in 17 innings.

The Spartans will next embark on a six-game road trip, starting with a three-game series against the Violets of New York University. The teams are scheduled to play a doubleheader on Friday, April 10 starting at 5:30 p.m. at the Bahoshy Softball Field in the Bronx.

First-year infielder/outfielder James O'Connor batted .286 during the team's four-game series at Emory in Atlanta over the weekend, leading the team with four hits, two doubles, and four runs batted in during the weekend. O'Connor also scored a run and walked three times, and registered a .429 slugging percentage and a .368 on-base percentage for a .797 OPS during the weekend. 

Junior infielder Karen Potts (softball) hit .500 with a 1.200 slugging percentage for the Spartans during their home three-game weekend series at Mather Park in Cleveland with the Emory Eagles. Potts went five-for-10 at the plate with three of her hits going for extra bases (two home runs and a double). She stole a pair of bases, scored four times, drove in two runs and had a .545 on-base percentage for CWRU. Potts recorded a hit in all three games of the series but saved her best performance for the series finale on Saturday, a 13-10 Spartan victory. Potts went three-for-four in the contest with two home runs and a double, crossed the plate three times, and had two runs batted in. It marked the third three-homer game of her career. This season, Potts leads the squad with a .359 batting average and 1.121 on-base plus slugging, swatting six home runs with 17 RBI and pacing the team with 28 runs scored and 19 stolen bases. CWRU, which dropped two of the three games, moved to 15-9 overall and 3-3 in University Athletic Association play.

Senior Katalina Wang (women's tennis) won both of her matches for the 18th-ranked Spartans in a 6-1 victory over 14th-ranked Kenyon on Saturday at the Mayfield Village Racquet Club in Mayfield, Ohio. Wang paired with graduate student Hannah Kassaie at first doubles to defeat Eleni Lazaridou and Hana Nouaime, 6-2. She then helped the team sweep the singles courts, taking down Kiara Komlodi 6-1, 2-6, 7-6 (7-1) at second singles. Komlodi ended the fall as the 22nd-ranked singles player in Division III with Wang ranking 50th. Wang improved to 20-2 in singles play and 16-7 in doubles action this season, while the Spartans moved to 8-4 as a team in dual matches.

The Spartans will host crosstown rival John Carroll on Saturday, April 11 for the team's annual Senior Day match.

Junior infielder Kaelyn Zusi (softball) had a career day on Saturday against Emory at Mather Park in Cleveland. Zusi was perfect at the plate, going two-for-two with a pair of home runs and two walks in four appearances. She hit two home runs, the first mult-homer game of her career, and had a grand slam in the first inning of the game, totaling five runs batted in. Zusi also scored three of the team's runs in a 13-10 victory. The grand slam and five-RBI game were the first by a Spartan since KaiLi Gross accomplished the feat on April 27, 2025, against Brandeis. Her two home runs helped CWRU match a program record with five round-trippers in the contest. 

2025-26 Spartan Club Athletes of the Week:
Sept. 2: Jacob Slater (men's cross country) & Jamie Goldfarb (women's soccer)
Sept. 8: Mitchell Fein (men's soccer) & Maggie Farra (women's soccer)
Sept. 15: Bradley Winter (men's soccer) & Ceci Dapino (women's soccer)
Sept. 22: Daniel King (football) & Halina Tompkins (women's cross country)
Sept. 29: Sam DeTillio (football) & Kalli Wall (volleyball)
Oct. 6: Osi Chukwuocha (football) & Ceci Dapino (women's soccer)
Oct. 13: Kalli Wall (volleyball) & Claire Kozma (women's swimming and diving)
Oct. 20: Jacob Slater (men's cross country) & Halina Tompkins (women's cross country)
Oct. 27: Bradley Winter (men's soccer) & Ellie Palaian (women's soccer)
Nov. 3: Art Martinez (wrestling) & Sohalya Rawlins (women's swimming and diving)
Nov. 10: Thomas Wagner (wrestling) & Emily Plachta (women's basketball)
Nov. 18: Jacob Slater (men's cross country) & Kalli Wall (volleyball)
Nov. 24: John Drumm (men's swimming and diving) & Claire Kozma (women's swimming and diving)
Dec. 1: Andrew Fox (men's basketball) & Maura Schorr (women's basketball)
Dec. 8: Antonio Sidoti (men's track and field) & Gianna Phipps (women's track and field)
Jan. 5: Anand Dharmarajan (men's basketball) & Mya Hartjes (women's basketball)
Jan. 12: Thomas Wagner (wrestling) & Mya Hartjes (women's basketball)
Jan. 20: Hunter Keane (wrestling) & Grace Misiunas (women's track and field)
Jan. 26: William Froass (men's swimming and diving) & Michelle Lee (women's track and field)
Feb. 2: Ethan Edwards (men's basketball) & Lillian Paley (women's swimming and diving)
Feb. 9: Alexander Goldman (wrestling) & Maura Schorr (women's basketball)
Feb. 16: Art Martinez (wrestling) & Gianna Phipps (women's track and field)
Feb. 23: Ethan Edwards (men's basketball) & Claire Kozma (women's swimming and diving)
March 2: Mathew Gummere (wrestling) & Gianna Phipps (women's track and field)
March 16: Art Martinez (wrestling) & Kate Coonan (softball)
March 23: John Drumm (men's swimming and diving) & Claire Kozma (women's swimming and diving)
March 30: Garrett Myers (men's track and field) & Katalina Wang (women's tennis)
April 6: Santiago Salazar Garza (men's tennis) & Gianna Phipps (women's track and field)