Wieferich Top WomenŒs Div. III Runner at All-Ohio Championships

Katie Wieferich

Katie Wieferich of The College of Wooster won the NCAA Div. III portion, and placed ninth overall among 275 runners, at the annual All-Ohio Championships Friday afternoon, which brought together 41 cross country teams, spanning NCAA Div. I, II, and III as well as NAIA, from across the Buckeye State.

As a team, the Wooster women came in 25th, including 11th of the 20 Div. III squads, while the Fighting Scot men were 29th overall and 13th in Div. III.

Wieferich, who also won her previous three races this fall, is the first Scot to win the All-Ohio’s since Emily Moorefield in 1995. Moorefield took eight-place overall that year. Wieferich’s time of 18:38.8 on the 5K course at the Methodist Theological School in Delaware, Ohio, was nearly 10 seconds faster than the runner-up in Div. III, John Carroll University’s Ellie Fernandez (18:47.0), while Beata Rudzinska from the University of Akron was the women’s champion (17:50.2).

The remainder of Wooster’s women’s scorers ran closely together, led by Nicole Calderone, who was 69th in Div. III and 163rd overall (21:37.3). Right behind were Emily Rackley, Kathy McCreary, and Cara Stoddard in 73rd (21:41.9), 80th (22:00.9), and 85th (22:15.4), respectively, among Div. III runners.

In the men’s 8K race, Scot junior Rudy Gilman had a breakout race, crossing the line 110th overall (28:25.9), good for 35th-place in the Div. III field. It marked the first time he has been Wooster’s top finisher during his career. 

Also scoring for the      Wooster men were Colin Turner, Brian Loy, Paul Thompson, and Colin Haverkamp. Turner was 65th in Div. III with a time of 29:04.8, followed by Loy in 87th (29:55.7), Thompson in 90th (29:58.0), and Haverkamp in 100th (30:17.1).

Next for the Scots is a home meet, the Jim Bean Twilight Invitational, on Friday.