SPORTS STORIES:
SPORTS INFORMATION—2009
SPARTANS SHINE IN THE COMMUNITY ONCE AGAIN...
CLEVELAND, OH (April 23, 2009) - Case Western Reserve University senior runner Mike Petro (Cincinnati, OH) has lined up on the Bill Sudeck Track surrounding Case Field in the heart of the North Residential Village many times during his career, but he had never lined up the way he did last Friday night.
Petro, the past president of the Case Association of Student-Athletes (CASA), missed last year’s inaugural Relay For Life event on campus due to an away track meet, but he was asked to head up student-athlete involvement in 2009. Looking back, he has many found memories about that evening, but it was the luminary that truly moved him.
“That was especially touching,” Petro said. “I had always heard about it and saw pictures of it, but to actually participate in it as a community, recognizing those who have been affected by the disease in some way – it was just a real beautiful thing.”
Another lasting memory for Petro, who will graduate next month, was how his fellow student-athletes rallied in support of the campus-wide event. The Spartans were also asked to run a mini youth sports clinic, a smaller scaled version of their highly praised Case For Community Day event (photo credit: John Zamojski).
Click here to read more about the annual Spartan Sports Clinic.
“Sometimes there’s perception outside the athletic community that we are just jocks,” Petro explained. “They think all we know how to do is play our sport. It’s more than that for us at Case - its school, athletics, and community - the whole package.”
Case Western Reserve’s 2008 Relay For Life event resulted in $60,000 being donated to the American Cancer Society. This year’s contribution will be well over $80,000 and Spartan varsity athletic teams alone accounted for over $6,000 of that.
The swimming and diving team [$1,740] and the men’s soccer team [$1,515] led the way in pledges. Team captains for each varsity program that participated include: men’s soccer [Ben Yabrow, Brian Evans]; football [Ryan Kolesar]; women’s basketball/volleyball [Andrea Wojtowicz & Caitlin Henry]; Track and Field [Mike Werneiwski & Kurt Gilbert]; swimming and diving [Christine Petzold]; women's soccer [Annie Altenau].
“Women’s basketball and volleyball combined to form a team,” said Andrea Wojtowicz, the current president of CASA and junior women’s volleyball player. “We both did separate breast cancer events in the fall and winter, so it was neat to be able to come together for this fundraiser.”
Click here to read more about those events: Volleyball – Women’s Basketball.
“It was nice to see athletics as a whole supporting the cause. There was always a group of athletes out there walking together,” continued Wojtowicz. “It was also a great bonding experience for us as well.”
The event lasted 18 hours, from 6:00 p.m. Friday until 12:00 p.m. Saturday. The idea is to always have someone out there on the track carrying the torch.
The Spartans had some spare hands that evening via the “Extra Effort Team”. That team was led by Iwan Alexander, the cross country team’s faculty advisor and professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, who along with his wife [Helga] and John Lewandowski, track and field’s faculty advisor and professor of materials science and engineering, not only added to the total earnings, but relieved the student-athletes at times.
“I believe a good deal of our participants were there because it [cancer] has affected their lives in some way, but there were also some there just for support,” explained Petro. “Any little bit we can do to raise awareness, and more importantly money, for research is vital.”
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