Scots Off This Week to Prep for Great Lakes Regional

Erin Fortin

After competing in last week’s conference meet, The College of Wooster cross country teams are now preparing for the NCAA Div. III Great Lakes Regional Championships, which will be held Saturday, Nov. 10, near Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Mich. That day, the women’s 6K race is scheduled to start at 11 a.m., and the men’s 8K will begin at noon. The top-two teams from each region, as well as the top-seven individual finishers not on national-qualifying teams, advance to the following weekend’s NCAA Div. III Championships. In addition, 16 teams from across the country will be at-large selections to complete the 32-team national field. At the 2006 Great Lakes Regional, Wooster came in 12th-(women) and 24th-place (men) out of 31 teams, with alum Katie Wieferich winning the individual title in a time of 22:07.5.

Last Week: On Oct. 27, freshman standout Suzanne Capehart (Oak Hill, Va. / Oakton) earned all-North Coast Athletic Conference recognition at her first conference meet, leading the Fighting Scot women’s cross country team to a sixth-place showing at the NCAC Championships, hosted by Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio. Wooster’s men’s squad improved one spot from last season to seventh-place.

Allegheny College swept the team titles, with its women edging Oberlin College 58-59 in the nine-team field, followed by Kenyon and Ohio Wesleyan University in a tie for third (76). The Gator men dominated, scoring just 19 points in their 10-team field, well ahead of runner-up Denison University (84) and third-place Wabash College (90).

Capehart entered Saturday having paced the Scots in every meet this fall, and did so again, covering the 6,000-meter course with a time of 23:50, good for 16th-place and honorable mention on the All-NCAC Team. In a tight pack for Wooster, which totaled 166 points, were senior Erin Fortin (Fernandina Beach, Fla. / Neuqua Valley – Ill.), freshman Jessica Yarmosky (Pittsfield, Mass. / Monument Mountain), senior Nicole Calderone (Grass Lake, Mich. / Greenhills School), and freshman Chelsea Fisher (Metuchen, N.J. / Metuchen), who crossed the line in 33rd (24:55), 36th (25:02), 39th (25:29), and 42nd (25:42), respectively. Also competing for the Scots was sophomore Caitlin O’Riordan (Chagrin Falls, Ohio / Chagrin Falls), who finished just out of the scoring in 45th-place (25:59), and junior Emily Elderbrock (Ashland, Ohio / Ashland), who took 51st (26:24).

The Wooster men tallied 190 points. Nearly producing a top-20 performance was senior Rudy Gilman (Silverton, Ore. / Silverton Union), as he ran the 8,000 meters in a time of 27:04 to nab 23rd-place. Less than 30 seconds behind were sophomore twins Rick Workman (Hillsboro, Ohio / Greenfield McClain) and Terry Workman (Hillsboro, Ohio / Greenfield McClain), who finished 32nd (27:20) and 39th (27:30), respectively. Wooster’s other scorers were junior Bryan Loy (Oxford, Ohio / Talawanda) in 47th (28:05) and sophomore Jeff Jacobs (Wilmette, Ill. / New Trier Twp.) in 49th (28:19), while sophomore Zane Shetler (North Canton, Ohio / Hoover) and junior Paul Thompson (Oberlin, Ohio / Oberlin) also participated at the conference race, taking 53rd and 56th with respective times of 28:40 and 29:01.