From Case Western Reserve University Athletics
The Case Western Reserve University men's cross country team had a breakout performance on Friday afternoon, as the Spartans placed second among Division III teams and ninth among all competing squads (Division I, II, III and NAIA) at the 2017 All-Ohio Championships in Cedarville, Ohio on Friday afternoon.
The Spartans, who were ranked ninth in the Great Lakes Region entering the meet, finished with a score of 75 to place behind only regionally seventh-ranked Ohio Northern (56 points) in the Division III team standings. CWRU finished ahead of three other regionally ranked teams in #3 Otterbein (84 points), #5 Mount Union (95 points) and #4 John Carroll (103 points).
Senior Sam Merriman paced the Spartans in the 8K race, completing the course in a time of 25:26.6 to finish second among the 144 Division III competitors and 16th overall in the field of 324. Senior Zach Roshon added a fourth-place finish among DIII runners with a mark of 25:36.8, good for 25th among all competitors at the meet. Case Western Reserve featured two other runners in the top-25 of Division III finishers at the meet with senior Aidan DeSanto in 13th place (58th overall) with a time of 26:10.5 and senior Ben Whitman in 22nd place (86th overall) with a time of 26:32.2. Freshman Dmytro Blundell rounded out the team's scorers with a mark of 26:48.4, good for 34th among DIII runners and 110th overall.
Freshman Nathan Mack (26:54.2, 39th DIII, 118th overall) and sophomore Andrew Green (26:56.0, 42nd DIII, 122nd overall) completed the Spartans' top-seven, with sophomores Tim Andrews (27:08.5, 28th DIII, 141st overall) and Ian Parker (27:28.4, 54th DIII, 161st overall) also crossing the finish line in the top half of all finishers on Friday afternoon.
The top Division III finisher on Friday was Ohio Northern's Ian McVey with a time of 25:14.2 (11th overall). Dayton won the overall meet, with Tiffin's James Ngandu winning the men's race with a time of 24:14.9.