VARSITY ATHLETICS

January 27, 2009

Spartan Relays (There is actually only one relay!)...

By Sophomore Brian Link from Lititz, PA

I would like to say that the most impressive performances of Saturday’s Spartan Relays were done by Case athletes, but unfortunately they were not. The most impressive performances came from athletes who weren’t students at all, nor where they professionals, but they possibly could have been grandfathers. The last heat of the men’s 55 meter dash was made up of six “masters” runners. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the age group “masters,” it is a politically correct term for all runners who fall somewhere between 40 and the grave. In case you were wondering, no college runners were beat by these “masters.” However, the last place finisher escaped by only five one-hundredths of a second. More impressive yet was that one of the runners was 70 years young. That means he was college age when there were only 48 states and 20 years before CIT and WRU were combined into the powerhouse of CWRU.

With the exception of the masters race, many great performances were done by Case athletes. The greatness began when senior and captain, Ryan Breon, threw the weight further than anyone else. Following his example Jerome Gdaniec, Eben Via (the newest vegetarian), and Andrew Pozzutto also had monster PRs. That’s right, Andrew Pozzutto threw the weight. Coach Rubin decided it was unsafe for him to throw the javelin inside. So, for the first time Pozzuto decided to toss the weight and shot around (see photo). For those of you unfamiliar with the weight throw, it is the indoor equivalent of the hammer throw. I can’t tell you how much the weight weighs, but it would probably take about 2.5 distance runners to propel it any noticeable distance.

On the women’s side, Elizabeth Ehrke proved her strength by not only feeding the entire track team a delicious Italian style dinner the night before, but by also winning the women’s weight, again. Nurse Margaret Brennesholtz joined Ehrke at the top with second place. Also in the field, sophomore Kali Knolle hopped, skipped and jumped a meter further than anyone else at the meet.

The track events got off to a fast start when all-American and all-around great person, Justine Jeroski, smoked the women’s field in the 3000m. Not to mention she smoked two of the male runners as well. When asked what she contributes her great speed and regularity to, she simply replied, “Raisins” (see photo).

Case distance women also ran very well in the 5000m with Colleen Heffernan and Elaine Simpson coming in first and second, over a minute ahead of the third place runner. I heard one spectator comment on Colleen’s great pace by saying, “She is so steady, just like a [C]train.” Of course the women’s 5k would have never happened if it wasn’t for Mike Petro using his 7/8 BME degree to count to 25 for the girls (see photo).

The men, not to be outdone, also had some spectacular performances. Co-Op student Brett Beaugureau, running unattached, this spring ran a 54.53 in the 400m. That time is not particularly good and neither was his place, but considering it was his longest run in a week it was commendable. Real front runner for the men’s track team was freshman Drew Appelbaum. The freshman from the quaint village of Chagrin Falls out kicked the field in the 800, and deserves the title of the White Flash II (second to 200m runner Kurt Gilbert.

The real heroes of this meet where the all the injured athletes who volunteered (we were actually forced) to help run this meet. There were many other great performances and stories that were not touched on in this blog, but there will be more great performances next Saturday as CWRU duels it out it out with CMU in the last home meet of the season. Come out and support the Spartans as we take on the Tartans.

Posted by: Creg Jantz January 27, 2009 11:22 AM | Category: Men's Indoor Track

Posted by: cnj4 (Creg Jantz) January 27, 2009 11:22 AM | Comments (5) | Trackback