CWRU Places Seventh at Regionals behind Sam Merriman’s All-Great Lakes Finish

CWRU Places Seventh at Regionals behind Sam Merriman’s All-Great Lakes Finish
Posted: Nov 11, 2017

From Case Western Reserve University Athletics

Case Western Reserve University senior Sam Merriman placed fourth out of 242 finishers to lead the Spartans to a seventh-place finish in the team standings at the 2017 NCAA Division III Great Lakes Regionals at Liberty Park in Powell, Ohio on Saturday morning.

By virtue of his fourth-place finish, the best of his career at the Great Lakes meet, Merriman earned All-Region honors for the third-straight year.  In addition, he is guaranteed a slot at the 2017 NCAA Division III National Championships as an individual qualifier for the third-consecutive year.

Merriman crossed the finish line with a time of 25:22.1 to lead the Spartans at the meet.  Ohio Northern's Ian McVey won the meet with a time of 25:11.0, followed by Wabash' Dominic Patacsil (25:11.7) and Calvin's Andrew Philipose (25:16.3).

Senior Zach Roshon narrowly missed out on all-region honors (awarded to the top-35 finishers in the race), placing 42nd overall with a time of 26:34.2.  He was followed by senior Aidan DeSanto in 55th-place with a time of 26:47.9, while senior Ben Whitman placed 58th with a time of 26:49.0, and sophomore Andrew Green crossed the line in 76th place with a time of 27:07.0 to round out the team's scorers.  Sophomore David Hall was right behind Green, finishing 77th with a mark of 27:07.4 and sophomore Karthik Ravichandran completed the slate of Spartan runners with a 93rd-place finish in a time of 27:20.7.

The Spartans' top five finishers combined for a score of 235 at the meet for the seventh-place finish out of 35 teams competing.  Calvin (61) and DePauw (111) were the top-two teams to finish, each earning an automatic berth into the NCAA Championship field.  Completing the top-six teams were Ohio Northern (123), Mount Union (148), Albion (160) and John Carroll (207).

The official field of 280 runners for the 2017 NCAA Division III Championships will be announced on ncaa.com on Sunday, November 12th, no later than 3:00 p.m.  The championship meet, hosted by Principia College in Elsah, Illinois, will be held a week from today on Saturday, November 18th at 11:00 a.m.