Senior Derrick Marshall, a returning all-conference runner, will set the tone for Wooster.

The College of Wooster men's cross country team narrowly missed out on qualifying for last year's NCAA Div. III Championships following a fifth-place finish at the 39-team NCAA Great Lakes Regional, and also was a top challenger for the North Coast Athletic Conference championship, ultimately taking third overall. In order to contend for a national berth and NCAC championship again, it will need a couple of new leaders to emerge and for its depth to take strong strides.

"Obviously, we want to build off the enthusiasm, confidence, and success we had from last season," said head coach Dennis Rice. "We graduated two great team leaders in Luke (Hutchings-Goetz) and Morgan (Clark), but I'm confident we have a core group that can replace them during this season."

Rice believes he has three runners in senior Derrick Marshall and sophomores Alex Chabraja and Blake Pecoraro who all have the potential to be among the top-10 in the conference as well as top-20 within the region. Consistent performances will be the key for them.

Marshall earned a second-team all-NCAC award via a 10th-place run (27:31.5), then was just inside the top-100 in the Great Lakes, while Pecoraro finished higher in the larger NCAA regional field – 26th (25:57.5), good for all-region recognition – than at the NCAC's. Chabraja narrowly missed out on postseason recognition, coming in 26th in the conference and 38th in the Great Lakes.

For the Fighting Scots to reach their high goals, they will likely need significant development from seniors Joe David and Karl Stemen, junior Albert Darling, and sophomore Roy Hadfield among others. Stemen and Hadfield gained championship experience last fall by participating at the NCAA regional. David's hard work has resulted in steady improvement since joining the program and he's aiming to finish with his best year, and Darling also is on the upswing.

Another returning letterwinner is senior William Wojtkiewicz, while a solid group of first-years has joined the program, according to Rice, with a couple possibly pushing for a top-seven spot right away.

"Everybody has been putting the work in. Now, we have to develop that consistency within our top-seven, which will allow us to challenge the top teams in the conference and the region, and give us that ultimate goal of getting to the national championships," summed up Rice.