Maddie Moran
Sports Editor
Last Saturday, April 19, the Wooster track and field team traveled to Kenyon College to compete in the 2025 Duane Gomez invitational. The Fighting Scots faced Denison University, Kenyon College, Marietta College, Muskingum University, Ohio Wesleyan University and Wittenberg University. The men’s team took on an additional competitor, Industrial Vault Club (IVC) in the pole vault event. The women’s team finished second in the field, 12 points back from Wittenberg with 162 total, while the men’s team took third, just 1 point behind Wittenberg.
Daysia Hargrave ’25 took first place in both the 100-meter and 400-meter hurdle events, followed by a third-place finish in the 100 hurdles by Amelia Mitchell ’25 and a fifth-place finish from Emily Munson ’25 in the 400 hurdles. Hargrave had a time of 14.73 in the 100-meter and 1:03.86 in the 400-meter. The Scots also had solid showings from Claire Davis ’27, who took seventh in the 100-meter dash, sixth in the 200-meter dash and fifth in the women’s long jump.
Mitchell and Hargrave also competed in the women’s high jump, placing fourth and fifth, respectively. This effort was accompanied by a fourth-place finish in the women’s pole vault by Sarah Hiestand ’26. Evie Sanford ’26 claimed a second-place finish in the women’s shot put followed by teammates Leanna Plank ’27 in seventh and Kylie Parsons ’27 in eighth. Plank grabbed a third-place finish in the women’s discus followed by Sanford in fifth and Parsons in tenth. Plank and Sanford scored additional points for the Scots for their sixth and seventh place finishes, respectively. Elizabeth Theobald ’28 grabbed a top three ranking in javelin, throwing 29.67 meters.
“This weekend’s competition was exciting as several of us achieved personal bests,” Theobald said. “I personally threw 29.67 meters which is a [personal best] of about 3.5 and placed third. Leanna also threw a [personal best] in discus and hammer which topped her previous distance for discus by 4.2 meters and hammer by 4.4 meters. All three shot putters placed and scored points for the team.”
Wooster’s distance runners took the opportunity to climb the leaderboards, taking first in the 1500-meter and 5000-meter runs. Igna Mendez ’25 finished nearly 25 seconds before the next competitor to claim her first place finish in the 1500-meter run, while Savannah Cox ’28 finished just over 20 minutes in the 5000-meter run, leading the field by 14 seconds. Juli Fiori ’25, Zanna Anderson ’27 and Eilidh Horn ’28 rounded out the top five in the 1500-meter for the Scots. Dylan Kretchmar ’25, Isabelle Dwyer ’25 and Jessie Breth ’25 did the same for the 5000-meter. Eva Bauman ’25 took third in the 800-meter run with a time of 2:38.
“Everyone has been training incredibly hard, and it was exciting to see that work pay off at the meet,” Theobald said.
“This weekend we had a good competition and many teammates excelled,” Robert Mays ’26 said. “The women’s throws squad had a great day filled with PR’s [personal records] and season bests. Our men’s throw team didn’t have as great of a day but we laid some solid foundation for the cues to fix as we move closer to conference.”
In a field of 21 runners, Wooster’s Khaleel Manderson ’26 and Will Harris ’27 cracked the top five in the men’s 100-meter dash, with times of 11.08 and 11.16, respectively. Nate Chartrand ’27 and Manderson took sixth and eighth in the 200-meter dash, with times of 23.25 and 23.32. Chartrand also snagged a fourth-place finish in the 400-meter dash followed by Robert Hillhouse ’28 in sixth, Liam Regan ’25 in eighth and Cam Sentieri ’27 in ninth.
The Scots took three more top ten finishes in the 800-meter run, with Cam Ray ’25 in fifth, Will Callender ’25 in sixth and Zane DeMercurio ’26 in tenth. Callender also claimed a second-place finish in the 1500-meter run among 25 runners, with a time of 4:01.52 followed by DeMercurio in fifth, with a time of 4:11.80 and Reese Johnson ’26, with a time of 4:16.87. Drew Robertson ’25 led the 5000-meter run with a time of 14:52.74 and Jacob George ’26 took second in the men’s 400-meter hurdles.
“I’d never been [to Kenyon] for an outdoor meet before and the thunder added a little bit of character,” said Johnson. “It was another successful invitational.”
Wooster put up 4 teams of runners for the men’s 4×400-meter relay. Wooster A was made up of George, DeMercurio, Johnson and Ray and placed third overall. Wooster B, made up of Callender, Robertson, Joe Ahmann ’26 and Will Christopher ’25, placed fourth. Wooster C rounded out the top five and included Charles Cuttino ’27, Mitchell Ecklund ’25, Eion McKernan ’27 and Henry Schneiderman ’26.
Echo Kidd ’25 took third in the men’s high jump, second in the men’s long jump and first in the men’s triple jump. Essaie Mezmur ’26 followed in the high jump, taking fourth and Vell Robinson ’25 followed in the triple jump taking third. Aaron Denis ’27 snagged seventh in the men’s pole vault. Mays took second in the men’s shot put, with a distance of 13.46 meters and tenth in discus, throwing 36.54 meters.
“I am very proud of all my teammates as they battled through adversity of distance, suspending the meet due to weather, and poor throwing conditions,” Mays said. “Going forward to next week we take on Denison and I think many more season best and personal best are to come with that putting us one week away from conference.”
The Fighting Scots will compete in the Denison Invitational on April 25 as well as the North Coast Athletic Conference Decathlon and Heptathlon April 26 and 27.