Mark Stair

Hilary Coady

The College of Wooster provided plenty of reason for optimism about its future during the North Coast Athletic Conference Championships, as it was the underclassmen that made the biggest difference in the women's sixth-place and men's eighth-place finishes at the two-day, outdoor meet hosted by Oberlin College at the Bob Kahn Track and Field Complex in Oberlin, Ohio.

The women scored 68 points, which was ahead of both DePauw University (58) and Kenyon College (50), and sophomore Hilary Coady had a hand in almost half of the team's points with 30.

Coady entered the meet with eight points from her second-place finish in last weekend's heptathlon, but that was only the beginning for the multi-talented student-athlete. She went on to prove her strength in the hurdles at the NCAC's, as she won an individual championship in the 400 hurdles in 1:03.56, which was over a second quicker than her nearest competitor, and she was nearly all-conference again in the 100 hurdles (15.49), but crossed the finish line just a tenth of a second behind third-place.

Coady rounded out her impressive efforts by clearing the bar in the high jump at 4 feet, 10.25 inches, which was equaled by teammates Amy French and Kendra Shehy, as the trio took sixth, seventh, and eight in the event, respectively, while also teaming with Ashley Huddson, Lauren Buyan, and Edith Anderson for fifth-place points in the 4x400 relay (4:03.09).

Keeping with the underclassmen-theme, sophomore Paris Nahas was also an impact performer for the Scots, as she ran in stride with the best in the NCAC and missed out on all-conference certificates by just a blink of an eye in several events.

In the 100 meters, Nahas placed fourth in 12.86 (third-place was 12.82), and then in the 200 meters, she again was fourth-best in 25.67 (third-place was 25.62). Nahas added a third fourth-place tally to her list of accomplishments when she teamed with Anderson, Kara Johnson, and Kennedy Payne in the 4x100 relay (49.31).

Rounding out the women's scorers were Anderson with a fifth-place finish in the 400 meters (59.38), Katie Cameron with sixth-place in the long jump (15 feet, 7.75 inches), Jocelyn Lion and French with sixth (33 feet, 3.25 inches) and seventh-place (32 feet, 8.5 inches) in the triple jump, respectively, Lauren Buyan with seventh in the 3,000-meter steeplechase (11:52.86), and eight-place points for both Ashley Huddson in the 800 meters (2:23.16) and Kristina Reck in the pole vault (9 feet, 6.25 inches).

The men's team, which scored in front of Kenyon College (24) with 33 points, was also highlighted by performances from its underclassmen, including first-year Mark Stair, who added an individual championship in the outdoor high jump (6 feet, 6 inches) to his quickly-growing résumé. Stair also won the event at the indoor meet back in March with a jump of 6 feet, 8 inches.

Sophomore Matt Margida was another key scorer on the men's side, as he came up just shy of all-conference accolades in the shot put with a fourth-place throw of 45 feet, 5.75 inches, and also took fifth in the discus with a throw of 128 feet, 11 inches.

Fellow sophomore thrower Tyler Catlin had the next highest finish for the men at the NCAC's, with his 146-foot, 2-inch throw in the hammer event good for fifth-place, while the 4x400 relay team consisting of David Brew, John Lanz, Roy Hadfield, and Tarik Welch crossed the finish line sixth in 2:26.34.

The team's additional scorers came on the track, where Brew was seventh in the 800 meters (1:58.35), Luke Hutchings-Goetz was seventh in the grueling 10,000 meters (32:13.65), the team of Ben Kingstone, Brew, Keir Pace, and Thomas McGrath were seventh in the 4x100 relay (44.47), and Welch contributed eight-place points in the 400 meters in 52.02.