Audrey Cordova

Miki Rae

This Week's Outlook: The College of Wooster track and field team heads to Denison University to compete in the 2020 North Coast Athletic Conference Indoor Track & Field Championships on Friday and Saturday. Friday's field events start at noon with track events starting at 2:30 p.m. On Saturday, field events start at 10 a.m., while track events start at 2:30 p.m. The awards ceremony will take place at approximately 5:45 pm.

Media Coverage: Denison is providing a live stream of this week's championships, while On The Mark Timing will provide live results. Fans can also keep tabs on the championships through the Championship Central webpage or by following the track & field team's Twitter account @WoosterXCTF for updates throughout the weekend.

Ticket Information: All-session passes are $10 for adults. One-day admission is $5 for adults and $3 for children (18 and under). NCAC students with a valid student ID card will be admitted free of charge.

Looking Back at the 2019 NCAC Championships: Wooster really rose to the occasion at last year's NCAC Indoor Championships, which were hosted by the Fighting Scots. Both the men and women placed third, with that marking the highest men's finish since 2001 and the top showing on the women's side since 1997. Wooster earned 18 All-NCAC honors and had four first-place finishes. Alumna Carolyn Webster was named the NCAC's Women's Field Athlete of the Year, while veteran head coach Dennis Rice was tabbed by his peers as the NCAC Men's Coach of the Year. Wooster's women's team had 10 of the 18 All-NCAC efforts, with that marking the most since the Scots' women tallied 10 at the 1994 championships.

Pre-Championship Poll: Wabash College was the unanimous choice to repeat as conference champions in the coaches' pre-championship poll. Oberlin College received seven of the eight first-place votes on the women's side. The NCAC coaches forecasted an eighth-place finish for Wooster's men and a fifth-place showing on the women's side.

Field Events

Wooster's field crew gets a big boost just in time for the NCAC Championships with the return of senior Akwia Tilton (Southfield, Mich./Roeper School). Tilton, a three-year starter on the Scots' basketball team, is an 11-time all-conference performer in track and field. Last year, the sociology major earned eight all-conference certificates, with four each in the indoor and outdoor season. Tilton's projected to compete in the long jump, 4x200 relay, and 4x400 relay this week.

The Scots are positioned to potentially have three scorers in the high jump. Sophomore Claudia Partridge (Minneapolis, Minn./DeLaSalle) has the fourth-highest mark in the NCAC this winter at 5 feet, 3.75 inches. On the men's side, both first-year Luke Henke (Wyoming, Ohio/Wyoming) and sophomore Richie Pajak (Allison Park, Pa./North Allegheny) have top-eight seeds. Henke's season-best mark of 6 feet, 0.75 inch came at the Wooster Tri-Meet on January 18, while Pajak cleared a season-best 6 feet, 0.5 inch at the Fighting Scots Invitational on January 25.

Sophomore Morgan Kromer (Eagle, Colo./Eagle Valley) and junior Georgia Hopps-Weber (Berea, Ohio/Berea-Midpark) both logged season-bests in the pole vault at last Friday's Kenyon College Tri-Meet. Kromer (10 feet, 6 inches) has the fourth-best mark in the NCAC this winter, while Hopps-Weber (10 feet) is tied for fifth within the conference.

Other Scots heading into the NCAC Championships with top-eight marks include sophomore Kristian Coleman (Lubbock, Texas/Lubbock) in the triple jump and first-year Sierra Lapasky (Bloomingburg, Ohio/Madison Plains) in the long jump. Coleman's season-best of 41 feet, 5 inches in the triple jump ranks seventh in the conference, while Lapasky logged the eight-farthest long jump league-wide this winter at 16 feet, 2.5 inches.

Sprints/Hurdles

Junior Mark Herron (Youngstown, Ohio/Chaney) has been on the cusp of alumnus Ben Kingstone's school-record time of 7.17 seconds in the 60-meter dash several times this season. Most recently, Herron logged a time of 7.18 seconds at the Kenyon Tri-Meet on Friday, and that's good for the seventh-fastest time within the NCAC this year.

Sophomore William McMichael (Evanston, Ill./Evanston Township), the defending conference champion in the 400 meters, heads into this week's championships riding a season-best time of 51.48 seconds. His time is the fifth-fastest league-wide.

First-year Korey Simmons (Pittsburgh, Pa./Fox Chapel Area) is Wooster's newest record-holder. His time of 8.79 seconds in the 60-meter hurdles at the Bob Shannon Invitational broke the record previously held by alumnus Jordan Dennis (8.83).

On the women's side, sophomore Maya Vasta (Forest Park, Ga./Forest Park) has a pair of top-four times within the conference this winter. Her time of 27.22 seconds in the 200 meters is the second-fastest, while her time of 1:01.90 ranks fourth.

Senior Audrey Cordova (Littleton, Colo./Heritage) is in the mix for a potential scoring spot as well in the 400 meters. Her time of 1:03.76 is the eighth-fastest within the conference.

Relays

Wooster's heading into the championships with top-four seed times in the women's 4x200 (1:52.94), men's 4x400 (3:30.73), and the women's distance medley relay (13:22.12). Wooster's time of 1:33.24 turned in by the men's 4x200 at the Fighting Scots Invitational ranks fifth in the conference, as does the Scots' season-best time of 11:33.35 in the men's distance medley relay. Wooster's women are seeded sixth in the 4x400 at 4:23.35.

Middle-Distance/Distance

Isabelle Hoover (Millersport, Ohio/Fairfield Union) has the top seed time in the 5,000 meters at 18:33.92, and that race could come down to a battle between the Scots' sophomore and Kenyon's Emma Becker (18:35.88). The two sophomores are the lone student-athletes league-wide to have a seed time under 18:45 for this year's championships.

Wooster senior Aedan Pettit (Round Hill, Va./Woodgrove) is coming off a career-best time of 4:25.01 in the mile, and became the fifth Scot to earn NCAC Athlete of the Week honors this winter. His time is the second-fastest within the conference. Classmate Miki Rae (Washington, D.C./St. Albans) has a top-eight time in the 3,000 meters (8:58.14), while sophomore Kayla Bertholf (Ashtabula, Ohio/Edgewood) is ranked in the top eight in the 3,000 meters (10:52.83).