This Week's Outlook: The College of Wooster men's and women's outdoor track & field team heads to Oberlin College for the 2022 North Coast Athletic Conference Outdoor Track & Field Championships on Thursday and Friday. Thursday's field events start at noon with track events set to start at 3 p.m. On Friday, action picks up with field events at 10 a.m. and track events at 2:15 p.m.
Spectator Information: Tickets are $5.00 per day for adults and $3.00 per day for children 18-and-under. Students from a NCAC member institution are admitted free of charge with a valid student ID card.
Media Coverage: Livestreaming and live results are available for the NCAC Championships. Fans can also follow the track & field team's Twitter account @WoosterXCTF, check WoosterAthletics.com for end-of-day recaps, and consult the NCAC Track & Field Championships webpage for more information.
A Check of the Polls: Wooster's men were picked to finish fifth at the NCAC Championships, as voted by the conference's nine head coaches. Wabash College was the unanimous selection to win, and the Little Giants were followed by Denison University (68 points), Wittenberg University (63 points), DePauw University (52 points), and Wooster (45 points). Wooster's women were forecasted third behind host Oberlin (unanimous No. 1 pick), and DePauw (53 points). Wooster received 46 points on the women's side.
Building on Past Successes: Wooster is coming off second-place finishes at the NCAC Indoor Track & Field Championships. Both finishes were highs for the program in over 20 years. The men last finished in the top-two when they were the conference champion in 1998, while the women last placed second in 1997 prior to this year. At the NCAC Outdoor Championships, Wooster was third in 2019, the program's top mark since a third-place showing in 2003. Wooster's women are in search of a top-three outdoor NCAC placement for the first time since 2006.
A Look-Back at the 2021 NCAC Outdoor Track & Field Championships: Dylan Garretson (Newcomerstown, Ohio/Newcomerstown) won the pole vault as a first-year, and the Fighting Scots' high jumpers were well represented with all-conference finishes from then-sophomore Nate Andrews (Boxford, Mass./Bishop Fenwick) and then-junior Richie Pajak (Allison Park, Pa./North Allegheny). Garretson's win marked the fourth time Wooster had the NCAC champion in the outdoor pole vault, with the then-sensational first-year joining the ranks of Jeff Pattison (1996), Tim Sir Louis (1997), and Doug Reiser (2003). On the women's side, then-junior Isabelle Hoover (Millersport, Ohio/Fairfield Union) started the NCAC Championships in style by winning the 10,000 meters and the Scots logged five All-NCAC honors on the women's side. Then-junior Claudia Partridge (Minneapolis, Minn./DeLaSalle) scored all-conference honors in the high jump, then-first-year Drew Patterson (Evanston, Ill./Evanston Township) was an all-conference performer in the triple jump, then-junior Morgan Kromer (Eagle, Colo./Eagle Valley) earned all-conference honors for the first time in the pole vault, and then-first-year Athena Tharenos (St. Louis, Mo./Mary Institute & St. Louis Country Day School) delivered the third-place time in the 800 meters.
Scots Off to Strong Start as Hargrave All-NCAC at NCAC Decathlon/Heptathlon: First-year Daysia Hargrave (Orrville, Ohio/Orrville) duplicated her indoor pentathlon performance to open the NCAC Championships over the weekend. Hargrave scored 4,185 points to finish in third-place in the heptathlon.
Raking in All-Ohio honors: Wooster was simply remarkable at the All-Ohio Championships, where the Scots won six events, earned 16 All-Ohio honors, and broke a record. Wooster's women were third of 14 scoring teams, while the men claimed fourth-place of 13 scoring teams. Wooster's All-Ohio honorees were Hargrave (100-meter hurdles*, 400-meter hurdles*, long jump, 4x100 relay), senior Maya Vasta (Forest Park, Ga./Forest Park) (200 meters, 4x100 relay, 4x400 relay*), Patterson (4x100 relay, high jump), senior Nick Scherson (Memphis, Tenn./Christian Brothers) (4x400 relay*, 400 meters), junior Haley Bloom (Troy, Ohio/Milton-Union) (4x400 relay*), first-year Will Callender (Seattle, Wash./Roosevelt) (5,000 meters), senior Alex DeLong (East Greenwich, R.I./East Greenwich) (1,500 meters), first-year Maia Doescher (Charlotte, N.C./Proctor Academy (N.H.)) (4x100), sophomore Mitch Ecklund (East Lansing, Mich./Haslett) (4x400 relay*), Garretson (pole vault*), Hoover (10,000 meters*), senior Will McMichael (Evanston, Ill./Evanston Township) (800 meters), first-year Igna Mendez (Santiago, Chile/Mayflower School) (4x400 relay*), Partridge (high jump), sophomore Davis Patterson (Evanston, Ill./Evanston Township) (4x400 relay*), junior Joe Shilts (Flemington, N.J./Pingry School) (4x400 relay*), Tharenos (4x400 relay*), and sophomore Ainsley Wiesner (Lake Forest, Ill./Lake Forest) (javelin). An asterisk after the event denotes a first-place finish.
Vaulting to New Heights: Garretson, a qualifier for the NCAA Div. III Indoor Track & Field Championships, exceeded Sir Louis' 1999 record of 15 feet, 4.25 inches en route to running away with the All-Ohio pole vault title. Garretson reached 15 feet, 7 inches, and upped that record to 15 feet, 10 inches at the Kenyon College Invitational on April 23.
All-American's Record Falls: McMichael took down a 22-year-old Reggie Ray record at the Kenyon Invitational on April 23. Ray, a W Association Hall of Famer and three-time All-American, went 48.70 in the 400 meters in 2000, and McMichael was a touch better at 48.47 this year. As of when he broke the record, McMichael's time was in the top-20 nationally.
No. 1 in the Nation: Hargrave broke W Association Hall of Famer and four-time All-American Darlene Kemp's 100-meter hurdles record that stood since 1982 this spring. Hargrave ran a 14.27 in the 100 hurdles at the Alan Connie Shamrock Invitational, and that time was tops in all of Div. III for this spring at the time. Hargrave still ranks in the top-15 nationally in the event.
Another Record in the Books: First-year Natalie Tanner (Union, Ky./Larry Ryle), who broke the program's weight throw record at 45 feet, 0.25 inch at Denison's Bob Shannon Invitational, went 135 feet in the hammer throw to break that program record earlier this spring at Oberlin's Bob Kahn Invitational.
Scots Win: Wooster women's win at the Kenyon Invitational marked a first for the women's track & field team at a meet with at least four teams since 2019. Tharenos (800 meters, 4x400 relay), Bloom (4x400 relay), Doescher (4x400 relay), first-year Dylan Kretchmar (Granville, Ohio/Granville) (5,000 meters), Mendez (4x400 relay), and Wiesner (javelin) were first-place finishers at that meet.