Langston Hood

Staff Writer

The Fighting Scots’ men’s and women’s golf teams traveled to Mansfield, Ohio over the weekend to participate in the North Coast Athletic Conference tournament. Both teams battled it out with the rest of the conference at the Westbrook Country Club, looking to recover after their previous tournaments did not end favorably. However, there was everything to play for on both the men’s and women’s side as the tournament teed off on Thursday. 

On the men’s side, Connor Mitchell ’24, carried the torch for the Scots on day one, posting a score of 79, good for a tie for 10th, after an impressive first day. Tyler Hilbert ’24 was just a stroke behind Mitchell. Meanwhile, Noah Jackman ’25, Ben Foltz ’22 and Krishang Nayak ’25 posted scores of 82, 89 and 90, respectively. Hilbert commented on the course’s difficulty, saying, “Over the course of three days, the golf course played harder than any course I have ever played.”

The following two days of the tournament would not see many of the Scots’ men fare well and only two of the men’s golfers, Foltz and Nayak, would see their scores improve. Foltz saw a drastic improvement on his score as he posted a 76 on day two, a 13-stroke turnaround from his previous day of competition. On the final day, Foltz posted a modest 82, featuring five straight pars, which placed him in a tie with teammate Hilbert for 31st place on the weekend. Hilbert shot an 82 and 85 on the final two days with five pars on the back-nine and eight total in his final round. In a true showing of togetherness, Jackman and Mitchell finished a stroke behind their two teammates for a tie in 33rd place, posting identical scores of 83 for Jackman and 83 and 86 for Mitchell. Nayak improved on his day one performance with scores of 87 and 84, but would finish in a tie for 38th place. 

Kenyon dominated the men’s field, winning by 24 strokes as Denison and Wittenberg rounded out the top three. Kenyon golfer Nick Lust ’22 won the championship tournament by nine strokes as the only golfer to finish under par. Despite a rough ending, Hilbert focused on moving forward, “I’m looking forward to the process of improving over the summer and then coming back to tee it up and compete alongside my teammates again.”

Ben Foltz ’22 had a terrific experience as a member of the golf team. “The best part about being on the Wooster golf team is just that: the team. As I am on my way out, I am realizing how amazing it is to be a part of something much larger than yourself. So many people care about our performance and knowing this makes me want to play even better. I have loved being a member of the Wooster golf team and know the team will be on to great things in the years to come!”

At the end of day one, the women’s team sat in fourth place after posting a score of 385 through the first round. Friday saw only one golfer post a score under 80 meanwhile six finished under 90 as the course proved to get the better of the players. Melissa Burtscher ’24 shot an 88 to finish the first day tied for fifth place with an outside shot at the title. Kayla Audette ’22 placed 14th with a score of 94, thanks to a trio of pars. Ally Siewert ’25, making her debut at the NCAC Championships, ended day one with a score of 101, good for 21st place, while teammates Meghan Wright ’22 and Riley Thorr ’23 followed just a stroke behind at 102. Denison, the favorite coming into the day, held a 35-stroke lead on the second place DePauw Tigers. 

As for the Wooster women’s team, their fourth place finish offered some optimism moving forward, as they were 15 strokes off a podium finish. Siewert vaulted into the top 15 with a 14-stroke improvement from Friday and Burtscher delivered again with another 88 on the day. Wright also shot 10 strokes better than Friday to card a 92, while Thorr improved her score by seven strokes, to finish three strokes behind Wright. Audette regressed slightly, but her score was supplemented by the rest of the team’s performance as she finished in the top 20 on the day. Wooster’s Saturday performance would put them just 11 strokes behind Allegheny and a coveted third place finish. The work wouldn’t be easy as Burtscher echoed Hilbert’s thoughts on the challenging course, “Westbrook Country Club is a difficult course. It looks straightforward on most holes from the tees but the rough is thick and the greens are the most difficult I have ever played.”

Then came Championship Sunday, and the Fighting Scots were ready for the challenge ahead of them. Behind stellar performances from the whole team, Wooster turned in a 351. Meanwhile Allegheny shot a measly 364, giving Wooster the third place finish by just two strokes. Sunday saw Audette and Wright turn in their best performances of the weekend with scores of 84 and 90, while Siewert and Brutscher shot scores of 88 and 89. Siewert and Audette finished 13th and 14th, while earning honorable mention All-NCAC honors. 

Brutscher finished seventh, earning second-team All-NCAC honors and recording the second-highest finish at the conference championships in program history. Her incredibly consistent play helped the Scots claim third place as she posted scores of 88, 88 and 89. Reflecting on the weekend, she said, “The best part about the NCAC Championships is the competition. This year we were down 11 strokes to Allegheny entering the third day and we fought our way back to beat them and take third. Every player and every hole are important.” 

The nationally-ranked Denison team took home the championship as they dominated the field, winning by 78 strokes and finishing with the top four golfers of the weekend and five of the top six, as they were eight strokes away from a clean sweep. 

Congratulations to the women’s golf team on tying the highest finish in program history and the men’s golf team on finishing another great year!

Thomas Pitney

Sports Editor

On Saturday April 30, the Wooster Fighting Scots men’s lacrosse team squared off for the final time this season against the Oberlin Yeomen in front of their home fans at John P. Papp Stadium. Although the Scots had not made the playoffs, they were playing for something else: to give their seniors the opportunity to sign off with a win. Unfortunately, the playoff-bound Yeomen had other plans and defeated the feisty Scots by a score of 16-12.

         Oberlin, who was 11-4 going into the season finale, presented significant challenges for the Scots. As Ben Kennedy ’22 explained, “Oberlin is a very well coached team and has had a lot of success this year by primarily running a zone defense. One challenge presented by the Oberlin defense was switching between man-to-man coverage and a zone defense.” Despite the Yeomen’s defensive prowess, it was Wooster who scored first, as Charlie Ballou ’24 launched the ball into the back of the net to make it a 1-0 game. With 7:05 remaining, Ballou struck again – just 45 seconds after Oberlin had tied the game – to give the Scots a 2-1 lead. Unfortunately for the Scots, Oberlin controlled the rest of the first quarter, scoring three unanswered goals and seizing a 4-2 lead at the end of the quarter.

         The second quarter played out in a similar fashion as the first, with Wooster drawing closer at the beginning of the quarter and Oberlin pulling away as play progressed. Just over two minutes into the quarter, Vinny DiLeo ’24 notched his 27th goal of the season to cut the Oberlin lead to one. With 10:40 to go in the half, the Yeomen stretched their lead to two with a goal by Michael Muldoon ’22; however, Ben Byars ’23 scored a Wooster goal 30 seconds later to bring the lead back to 5-4. The Yeomen responded with an aggressive offensive strategy, scoring four unanswered goals over the next four minutes. Down 8-4 with 5:50 remaining in the first half, Kennedy scored a crucial goal for the reeling Scots. Kennedy credited his goal to an “aggressive top-side dodge from one of my teammates which forced my defender to respect him as a shooter. This opened some space for him to pass me the ball and forced my defender to take a poor approach back to me, which made my job a lot easier. I took the space I saw down the right alley and was able to get my hands free for a shot, and thankfully it found the back of the net.” Despite this, Oberlin tacked on another goal, and the Yeomen went into the break with a 9-5 advantage.

         The halftime talk seemed to benefit the Scots, as it was Wooster who struck first in the third quarter. Specifically, it was DiLeo scoring his second goal of the game to make it a 9-6 game with 11:23 to go in the period. However, this initial momentum was negated with an Oberlin goal 13 seconds later. The Scots, their resolve unaltered by the quick Oberlin strike, scored back-to-back goals thanks to Will Fink ’25 and Tyler Schroeder ’22 to bring the lead back to two with 9:47 remaining in the third. Oberlin responded with a string of three unanswered goals of their own over the next five-and-a-half minutes to make it a 12-8 lead. As was the case earlier in the quarter, the Scots refused to give up, as goals by Byars and Fink made it a 12-10 game. Although Oberlin scored a goal at the end of the quarter, it felt as if Wooster was gaining ground on the Yeomen.

         Just after one minute of play in the fourth quarter, Riley Schulze ’25 seized the Wooster momentum and notched his fourth goal of the season to bring the Scots within two goals of the Yeomen. Two-and-a-half minutes later, however, Oberlin scored a crucial goal to grow its lead to 14-11 with 11:24 to play. Kennedy again stopped the bleeding, scoring his second goal of the season and 16th of the year with 7:14 remaining. Unfortunately for the Scots, Oberlin executed its confusing defense to near perfection over the remaining minutes of the game, as the Scots were unable to score for the rest of the game. Instead, the rest of the quarter was all Oberlin, as the Yeomen notched three consecutive goals to capture their 16-12 win at John P. Papp Stadium.

         The Scots, who finished the season with a 6-10 overall record, did not qualify for the playoffs. Though this loss left a bitter taste in their mouths, the Scots are optimistic about their future. Kennedy believed that this year’s iteration of Scots’ men’s lacrosse “took some of the greatest steps forward that I’ve seen over the course of my time here. We were a young team with a challenging schedule, and I think the young talent on this team is set up very well for the future due to the steps we took this year.” Meanwhile, since this was the last game of the season, it was the last time that Wooster’s men’s lacrosse seniors took the field. Kennedy expressed nothing but gratitude to his teammates for a terrific experience. “I am incredibly thankful to have played my final season with the group we had this year and am lucky to have played with so many great players and great people along the way. I’ll look back on these four years of playing lacrosse and never forget how much fun they were.”

Congratulations to the Fighting Scots on a terrific season and to the seniors on their unforgettable careers!

Joey Harris

Staff Writer

The College of Wooster softball team traveled to Muskingum University this past weekend for their second set of games against the Fighting Muskies this year. After dropping their previous two games against the Muskies, the Scots hoped to get one back but came up short in New Concord, Ohio on Sunday, May 1. The Scots were defeated in the first game 5-0 after a competitive seven innings and lost their second game 17-2 after five innings.

After a scoreless first two innings in the first game, the Muskies registered two runs in the third inning, two in the fourth inning and one in the fifth, putting them up 5-0 over the Scots.

This score would not change for the rest of the game. Despite a lack of runs in the first game, Wooster put up a strong fight, with hits contributed by Brooke Swaine ’22, Stephanie Griffin-Sanchez ’24, Kaydee Clark ’24 and Sarah Lodge ’25. Pitching by Addie Tagg ’23 and Rachael Dudziak ’24 also was a key component in the Scots’ first game.

Lodge applauded the Scots persistence throughout the game. “The morale stayed up in the dugout the whole time and I think it’s a lot easier for us to push through when we stay up,” she said. Going into the second game, Lodge said the Scots were working to replicate the successful bounceback that they had in their most recent outing against Ohio Northern University, in which they won 4-2 in their second game after losing the first 6-1. While they came up short, Daphne Pate ’22 said that the team never lost its fight. “No matter what happened in those games, even if we were down, we were still having fun, we were still giving it our all, nobody went up to the plate [looking] defeated the whole time,” she said.

The Scots dropped their second game 17-2, mostly caused by Muskingum’s strong first, second and fourth innings during which they strung together multiple runs to put them above Wooster. The Scots connected for eight hits, leading up to a high moment for the team when Anna Norby ’22 hit her second home run of the season in the fourth inning, sending both her and Clark in for two runs.

Pate said that, as opposed to focusing solely on what is on the scoreboard, the Scots focused on the quality of their play each time they were out on the field. They used a whiteboard in their dugout to map their “Quality At-Bats,” a system used by the team to track how well batters perform in the batter’s box, showing them what they are doing correctly, even if the score does not always reflect it. “When a lot’s happening in the game we like to slow it down and just go back to the board,” she said. 

Beyond the team’s play alone, Pate said that this year has been special due to the growth of the team as a unit from their increased focus on mental health. Pate noted that both the coaches and the players have engaged in open discussions about their lives, leading to both a better understanding of one another and better performances by the team as a whole. “Once you feel comfortable sharing something that’s going on in your life, then you feel like you trust the whole team, and everyone has this mutual respect for each other,” Pate said. 

After this weekend, the Scots hold a record of 17-21 overall and are 8-8 in conference play. They look forward to the first round of the NCAC tournament in which they will match up against the National Fastpitch Coaches Association’s third-ranked, DePauw University Tigers. The game is set to take place Friday, May 6 in Greencastle, Indiana.

Miles Rochester

Sports Editor

The Scots rose to the occasion and performed phenomenally all around this past Saturday as Wooster’s women and men traveled to Gambier, Ohio to compete in the Kenyon Invitational. A victory-seeking fire burnt in their hearts as both teams competed to the best of their abilities amidst Saturday’s blistering heat. The men impressed placing second of six, beaten only by Mount Vernon Nazarene University while the women destroyed the competition to obtain the highest podium position and the women’s first golden finish since 2019.

To deliver defeat to many conference rivals, such as hosts Kenyon, alongside Denison and Wittenberg, Wooster’s competitors needed to push their own limits and many of them did. Will McMichael was one athlete who accomplished this, then he decided to take it one step further to push alum Reggie Ray’s 22-year-old 400m record of 48.70 aside and replace it with his own time of 48.47. McMichael’s time not only crushed the hopes of his rivals and earned him an event win, but it also placed the Scot senior in the nation’s top 20. 

More records were itching to be amended and Dylan Garretson ’24 was feeling good, in the mood to edit his week-old record in outdoor pole vault. Until Saturday, only eight Division III athletes had reached the height of 15 feet 10 inches in pole vault, after Garretson was done vaulting, that number rose to nine. Additionally, Garretson’s personal win tally increased while pushing the Wooster men towards the top in their pursuit of a victory in Gambier.

Athena Tharenos ’24 got in on the fun and had herself a fantastic day bringing in first in the open 800m, as well as anchoring the winning 4×400 alongside Maia Doesher ’25, Haley Bloom ’23 and Inga Mendez ’25.

Following in the current winning trend of the Scots, sophomore Ainsley Wiesner’s 97-foot 11-inch huck of a javelin secured her right to gold, while her male javelin throwing counterpart, Troy Baughman, beat his own personal best, as well as all his competitors, to grant Wooster’s javelineers two more wins on the day for the Scots and two personal victories worth being proud about.

Pride was plentiful on Saturday, and Isaiah Kidd ’25 earned his share when he leapt 44 feet and 8 inches in the triple jump to secure a first-place finish and an impressive 22 feet and 1 inch in the long jump to place second in that event.

Another personal best was set by Alex DeLong ’22 in his 800m victory as the senior ended his race with a time of 1:56.

Yet another victory came for the Scots when record breaking McMichael, Nick Scherson ’22, Joe Shilts ’23 and Davis Patterson ’24, dusted the competition in the men’s 4×400 to end the victory-filled invitational

All cylinders are firing for the Scots’ track and field program as they plan to carry on their positive momentum into their next meet: The Dennison Invitational, Friday, April 29.