From Case Western Reserve University Athletics

The Case Western Reserve University men's cross country team placed three runners in the top 10, five in the top 25, and seven in the top 50 on Saturday afternoon, pacing the team to a second-place finish at the Inter-Regional Rumble, hosted by Oberlin College in Oberlin, Ohio.

CWRU, which entered the meet as the 27^th-ranked team in Division III, is sure to rise in the next poll after nearly pulling the upset over eighth-ranked Carnegie Mellon in the team standings. The Spartans finished with a score of 50, just behind the Tartans, who won the meet with a mark of 40. Rochester (124), John Carroll (177), and Wisconsin-Stevens Point (211) rounded out the top-five teams at Saturday's meet.

Senior Jack Begley came just eight-tenths of a second away from winning the men's 8K race, falling in a photo finish to Enrique Salazar of Manchester. Begley placed second overall out of the 299 runners in the varsity race with a time of 24:58.6.

Senior Robert St. Clair was close behind Begley, finishing fourth overall with a season-best time of 25:06.6, while senior Joe Jaster also notched a season-best time of 25:18.6, good for a seventh-place finish. Sophomore Aidan Nathan crossed the line in a mark of 25:40.9, placing 16^th, while senior Logan Singer rounded out the five-scoring Spartans, placing 22^nd in a season-best time of 25:49.9.

Completing CWRU's top-seven runners in the invitational race were junior Stephen Henry and senior Liam O'Reilly. Henry finished 26^th in a season-best time of 25:52.1, while O'Reilly was 42^nd in a mark of 26:10.0. Graduate student Anthony Hart finished 59^th overall with a season-best mark of 26:22.8, while sophomore Nate Gilbert placed 89^th in a time of 26:45.6, and first-year Ben Smith crossed the line in 27:39.5 for a 151^st-place finish.

In Saturday's open race, the Spartans were led by senior Spencer Weigand and junior Arjun Thillairajah, who placed 13^th and 14^th out of 259 runners, respectively, with identical times of 26:42.9.