From Case Western Reserve University Athletics

Case Western Reserve University freshman Rasheed Ajala and sophomore Sam Merriman each broke records to highlight a slew of strong Spartan performances at the All-Ohio Indoor Championships at Otterbein University in Westerville, Ohio on Saturday.

Ajala notched a time of 7.13 seconds in the 60-meter dash, besting his school record of 7.16 seconds.  He finished ninth overall, and his time ranked as the second-fastest by a UAA competitor this year.

Merriman won the 5,000-meter run on Saturday with a time of 14:45.45.  The time cleared the meet record of 14:46.20, previously set by Case Western Reserve's Aaron Johnston-Peck in 2006, and was just over a second shy of Johnston-Peck's program record.  In addition, the time was the fastest in the UAA this season.

For the men on Saturday, Joe Ledger and Aidan DeSanto finished second and third, respectively, in the mile run, with the former recording a time of 4:21.45, and the latter notching a time of 4:21.47.  The men's 4x400-meter relay team of Grant Mlack, Joseph Cabrall, Andrew Ibibo and Nathaniel Wahner finished third with a time of 3:23.86, within half-a-second of the school record for the event.  Galen Caldwell added a third-place finish in the 3,000-meter run with a time of 8:43.41, and Ananth Suresh finished second in the triple jump with a mark of 13.14 meters.

Each of the Spartans who earned top-three finishes in their respective events received All-Ohio recognition for their performances.