From Case Western Reserve University Athletics
Case Western Reserve University sophomore Grant Mlack led the Spartans during the second day of the 2016 University Athletic Association Outdoor Track and Field Championships with two All-UAA finishes, including a conference championship in the 400-meter hurdles, as the squad placed sixth at the meet, hosted by Washington University (Mo.) in St. Louis Missouri.
The Spartan men finished sixth out of the seven teams at the meet, scoring 94.5 points during the two days of competition. Host Washington won the conference title with 161.5 points, and were followed in the standings by Carnegie Mellon (137), NYU (126), Emory (124.5), and Chicago (121). Brandeis finished in seventh with 49.5 points.
Mlack ran a time of 53.85 seconds in the finals of the 400-meter hurdles to win the UAA Title in the event. It marked just the fifth time in program history that a Spartan has won the conference title in the event, and the first time since Ty Shaffer in 2012. Mlack also placed second in the 110-meter hurdles with a mark of 15.46 seconds.
Adding All-UAA finishes on the second day of the meet were junior Nathaniel Wahner and freshman Rasheed Ajala. Wahner finished third in the 400-meter dash with a time of 49.67 seconds, while Ajala placed third in the 100-meter dash, breaking the 11-second barrier for the first time in his career with a time of 10.99 seconds. Wahner also added a fourth-place finish in the 200-meter dash with a time of 22.48 seconds.
Other scoring performances from the Spartans on Sunday came from sophomore Alex Nesvisky (sixth, 13.06m), senior Nicholas Heim (seventh, 12.83m) and sophomore Ryan DeMarinis (eighth, 12.57 meters) in the shot put, sophomore Aidan DeSanto in the 1,500-meter run (fifth, 3:57.49), sophomore Andrew Ibibo in the 400-meter dash (seventh, 50.56 seconds), sophomore Zak Hurd in the 100-meter dash (11.40 seconds), junior Joe Ledger (fifth, 1:54.22) and freshman Joseph Cabral (seventh, 1:57.26) in the 800-meter run, junior Perry Billett in the 400-meter hurdles (fifth, 56.39 seconds), sophomore Adrian Cannon in the 200-meter dash (seventh, 22.88 seconds) and the 4x400-meter relay team of junior Nico Ericksen-Deriso, Ibibo, Cabral and Wahner (sixth, 3:21.58).
All together, the Spartans accumulated six All-UAA honors during the meet, including UAA Championships from Mlack and from junior Pat Shober in the javelin throw on the first day of competition.