By Maddie Moran

Wooster held their Fighting Scots Invitational for track and field this past Saturday, Jan. 25, hosting five other competitors: West Virginia University Tech, Case Western Reserve University, Kenyon, Denison and Oberlin. The Scots celebrated their 26 seniors prior to the start of the meet and then kicked off with field events at noon. Overall, the Wooster women’s track and field team tied for third and the men took fourth.

“The season is off to a great start! Both teams show great passion and enthusiasm for team success,” said head coach Dennis Rice.

Wooster entered three throwers in the women’s shot put who took second, fifth and eighth in the event: Evie Sanford ’26 with an 11.68-meter throw, Samarah Destin ’27 with 9.79 meters and Leanna Plank ’27 with 8.91 meters. Sanford and Destin also competed in the women’s weight throw, placing seventh and eighth, finding a tough opponent in Case Western, who occupied the top 4 finishes in the event. The men’s shot put competition found Elijah Stewart ’27 in fifth place with a mark of 12.22 meters and DT Franklin ’26 in twelfth with a 9.89-meter throw. Robert Mays III ’26 took fourth place overall in the men’s weight throw.

Echo Kidd ’25 took first place in the men’s long jump, jumping 6.42 meters, and finished second in the men’s high jump. Vell Robinson ’25 contributed with a sixth place finish in long jump and fifth in triple jump with a mark of 11.74 meters. Sarah Heistand ’26 found a top 3 finish in pole vault at a height of 2.75 meters. A second-place finish came from Amelia Mitchell ’25 in the women’s high jump, clearing 1.48 meters.

Emeili Tarpy ’28 finished in the top 3 of the 60-meter dash with a time of 8.63 seconds, while Khaleel Manderson ’26 rounded out the top 5 of the men’s 60-meter at 7.26 seconds. Daysia Hargrave ’25 dominated the 60-meter hurdles with a time of 9.30 seconds and competed with both the 4×200 and 4×400 meter relays. Hargrave collected a 3rd place finish in the 4×400 with teammates Isabelle Dwyer ’25, Igna Mendez ’25 and Amy Gabrovsek ’26. Mendez also took sixth out of 21 competitors in the women’s 1 mile, clocking in at 5:34.

Wooster’s men’s 4×200 relay teams took third and fourth with the third-place team of Cameron Sentieri ’27, Cooper Norwell ’27, Cameron Ray ’25 and Liam Regan ’25 finishing within one second of the teams placing before them. The same collection of runners came out of the men’s 4×400 meter relay with a first-place finish, crossing the line at 3:37.

Drew Robertson ’25 and Nate Chartrand ’27 found two more top 3 finishes for the Scots in the men’s 1 mile with a time of 4:22 and men’s 200-meter dash with a time of 24 seconds flat. Stewart, Norwell and Regan rounded out the top 10 of the 26 competitors in the men’s 200-meter dash. 

Wooster also found some success in the long-distance races. Eric Johnson ’25 took a top 5 finish in the men’s 5000-meter race, Elise Greenwald ’25 finished fourth in the women’s 3000-meter race and Will Callender ’25 snagged a first-place finish in the men’s 3000-meter six seconds ahead of the next runner, coming in just under 9 minutes. 

“I’m a big fan of track because of how positive a team environment we have,” said Callender. “While most of the events are individual, hearing all my teammates cheer me on is one of the most positive things and it really inspires success on our team. We’re hoping to keep this going and to try and win the meet against Denison.”

The Fighting Scots will head to Denison University for the Bob Shannon Invitational on Saturday, Feb. 8.