Senior Albert Darling will serve as a co-captain along with Daniel Boyce.

Head coach Dennis Rice always emphasizes training to "be at your best" during the championship season, and The College of Wooster men's cross country team, led by a core group of returnees, has the ability and experience to do just that as it looks to take the next step forward come this October.

"(This is a) team that shows a great deal of potential for this upcoming season and for the future," said Rice. "I feel very confident that we have a group of guys from last season that have continued to develop and progress at a positive rate. They have a great opportunity to challenge some of the top runners within the conference, provided everyone stays healthy."

Leading the way will be junior Blake Pecoraro, a two-time all-region performer. The Avon, Ohio, native missed out on a berth in the national championship field by less than five seconds last season.

"Blake's always done a great job, especially late season," commented Rice. "He knows in order to get to the NCAA National Championships that you have to be at your best at the championship portion of the season. He should set the tone. He has a great opportunity conference-wise to challenge the top individuals within the North Coast Athletic Conference. He has the opportunity to get over the hump to get to the national championships."

Seniors Daniel Boyce and Albert Darling will be counted on to provide the veteran leadership. Last season, Darling was a top-seven finisher at every scoring meet.

"Daniel is a guy who has worked hard over the last three years to earn the opportunity to be a team leader. He brings a lot of enthusiasm," said Rice when highlighting his 2015 captains. "Albert has great experience from being in our program. He's had a great deal of success over the last couple of years, and understands what it takes to set the tone for our meets and training sessions throughout the season."

A quartet of juniors will look to provide stability to the top-seven in 2014 letterwinners Alex Chabraja, Roy Hadfield, Patrick Scanlon and Herbert Sizek. Chabraja highlights the quartet with a sixth-place showing at the Otterbein Invitational in 2014, and a near-miss of all-region honors as a freshman, when he placed 38th at the NCAA Great Lakes Regional.

"In cross country, you have to have seven guys," offered Rice. "One of our team goals is how we stabilize and strengthen numbers three through seven. Those guys are definitely cable of doing that."

Rising sophomore Kent Nakamoto rounds out the returning letterwinners, as he looks to build upon strong performances at the All-Ohio Championships and the NCAC Championships, where he finished as a top-seven runner.

Junior transfer Stephen Hause and junior Jason Solinsky, who is coming off of an injury, will look to challenge for a spot in the top-seven for Wooster, as will numerous non-letterwinners and first-years.

"Our goal is to challenge at the conference level and the NCAA regional level," summed up Rice. "We have the pieces that we need to have in place to have success as a team. We understand that we need to continue to get better and be consistent with our overall race performances over the course of the year."