Scots to Compete for Individual, Team Titles at NCACs

Katie Dale

For most student-athletes on The College of Wooster’s track & field teams, the 2008 season will culminate this week with the North Coast Athletic Conference Championships, which will be held again at Ohio Wesleyan University in Delaware, Ohio, Thursday and Friday, May 1-2. The league’s 10 men’s squads and nine women’s teams will square off, starting with the women’s pole vault, men’s long jump, women’s shot put, and men’s discus on Thursday at noon and wrapping up with the men’s 4x400-meter relay Friday at approximately 6 p.m. The Wooster men are hoping to improve on their sixth-place showing at the 2008 NCAC indoor meet as well as on a fifth-place finish at last year’s NCAC outdoor competition, while the women were fifth overall this past winter and fourth at the 2007 NCACs (outdoor). Several Fighting Scots are slated to be in contention for NCAC championships, as Eric Dyer (Lexington, Mass. / Lexington) and Kayla Miller (Mercer, Pa. / Mercer Area) are among the top-two seeds in the triple jump events, and Katie Dale (West Point, Ind. / McCutcheon), Ali Drushal (Lakeville, Ohio / West Holmes), and KateLynn Riley (Westlake, Ohio / Westlake) rank second in the shot put, javelin, and 100-meter hurdles, respectively. Also, Jon Mathis (Tallmadge, Ohio / Tallmadge) is tied for the top seed with two others in the high jump, Suzanne Capehart (Oak Hill, Va. / Oakton) rates third in both the 1500 meters and 5000 meters, and Miller has the third-best mark in the high jump.

Last Week: On April 25, Eric Dyer (Lexington, Mass. / Lexington) broke a long-standing school record at the Denison Invitational, headlining the Scots’ results at the non-scoring event, which consisted of conference schools Denison University, Kenyon College, and Ohio Wesleyan.

Dyer, a sophomore triple jump specialist, reached a mark of 46 feet, 9.5 inches, surpassing the former Wooster record holder, King Lewis, who had hit 46 feet, 5 inches way back in 1976. Lewis’ record stood as the third-oldest in men’s track & field at the College, while Dyer’s mark also will likely qualify him for the NCAA Div. III Championships in May, as it currently stands as the seventh-best triple jump in the nation.

Another Scot record was established on the women’s side, as Katie Dale (West Point, Ind. / McCutcheon) reset her own school best in the hammer throw (111 feet, 5 inches).

The meet was a tune-up for the NCAC Championships, so many events were contested among just a handful of participants. Nonetheless, Wooster’s Robert McConnell (Blairsville, Pa. / Kiski School) was the top pole vaulter (13 feet, 6 inches) and Steve Zumbrun (Pittsburgh, Pa. / Central Catholic) won the shot put (44 feet, 5.25 inches), and in the women’s field, the Scots received first-place finishes from Dale in the shot put (35 feet, 6 inches), Ali Drushal (Lakeville, Ohio / West Holmes) in both the 400-meter hurdles (1:09.53) and javelin (109 feet, 2 inches), Anna Gil (San Francisco, Calif. / Lick-Wilmerding) in the 1500 meters (5:19.96), and Elizabeth Wardrop (Rockford, Mich. / American School of the Hague) in both the high jump (4 feet, 10.25 inches) and triple jump (31 feet, 8.75 inches).

On April 26-27, Wooster had two participants in the NCAC heptathlon competition, with sophomore KateLynn Riley (Westlake, Ohio / Westlake) and senior Ashley Baker (Lexington, Ohio / Lexington) contributing four team points towards the NCAC Championships via sixth- and eighth-place finishes, respectively. Riley scored 3,698 points, highlighted by a time of 16.02 in the 100-meter hurdles, a throw of 101 feet, 4 inches in the javelin, and a mark of 15 feet, 7 inches in the long jump. Baker tallied 2,675 points, with her top event being the high jump (4 feet, 7 inches).