Zane Wright
Contributing Writer
Both the men’s and women’s cross country teams placed in the upper half of 20 teams at the All-Ohio Intercollegiate Championships on Oct. 3rd in Cedarville, Ohio on the Elvin R. King Course.
The Wooster men’s cross country team finished seventh in a strong Div. III field of 21 teams, while the women finished 10th in their field of 20 teams.
Forty-eight teams from all over Ohio attended the meet, competing on the Div. I, II and III levels.
Joe David ’15 led the men’s team for the 8K and raced past the finish line in 16th place out of the 284 runners in Div. III, and 79th out of the 569 runners overall (26:19.49).
Another stand-out performer was Blake Pecoraro ’17 who finished just behind David, crossing the finish line in 19th in Div. III (26:23.08).
Derek Marshall ’15 placed 57th (27:27.64), and Albert Darling ’16, who finished exactly one second behind Marshall (27:28.64) in 59th, helped contribute to the Scot’s seventh-place finish.
Will Wojtkiewicz ’15 and Karl Stemen ’15 rounded out the six top runners for the Scots, with Wojtkiewicz (27:51.72) finishing in 76th and Stemen (27:57.07) finishing 87th.
“Our team has been running consistently all season, and we are hoping to step it up a notch or two before the championship portion of the season,” said David. “Our goals going into conference are to push the top teams and build some momentum going into regionals.”
Leading the women to their top-10 finish, one spot higher than their finish last year, was Lauren Buyan ’15 (23:46.18), who finished 31st in Div. III and 94th overall out of the 503 total runners on the 6K course.
The women’s competition was stiff. The Scots competed against three nationally-ranked Div. III Ohio teams: Oberlin, Mount Union and Case Western Reserve.
Rachelle Herrin ’15 crossed the finish line next (24:38.44) in 62nd, followed by Kayla Zboran ’17 (24:46.66) in 68th. Rounding out the women’s scoring was Mackenzie Kellar ’18 (24:58.20) in 77th, Erin Andrews-Sharer ’15 (25:03.09) in 82nd, Gabriella Neubauer ’18 (25:07.99) in 90th and Gabriella Gilfoy ’15 (26:16.91) in 144th.
The women beat out Kenyon College, with their total time one minute faster and each runner’s average time 10 seconds faster. This is the second time this season the team beat the Ladies by a narrow margin.
“The team has been getting stronger at every race… the key to our success will be to continue to work together, run as a pack, and have confidence when we step to the line,” said Buyan.
Both teams are having a strong season so far and will look to keep up this momentum in two weeks at the #JennaStrong Fall Classic, which is hosted by Wilmington College.