Sarah Appleton

With a year of experience and improvement from three all-North Coast Athletic Conference harriers from last season, plus another on the roster who previously earned the recognition, The College of Wooster women's cross country team appears ready to make another move up the league standings. Last fall, the Fighting Scots jumped two spots, going from seventh to fifth, as they are on their way to regularly contending for conference championships again.

"We want to build off what we were able to accomplish last year," said veteran coach Dennis Rice, who heads a program that has won four NCAC team titles – third-most in the 26-year history of the league. "We were able to develop a pretty strong 1-2-3. Now, (we) need to close the gap between (them) and the No. 4 and No. 5 runners. The goal is to have a 35-to-40-second gap between one through five. If we do, we'll have positive results, especially at the championship season."

Junior Sarah Appleton and sophomores Colleen O'Neil and Erin Plews-Ogan are expected to set the tone again. Appleton is a two-time all-NCAC standout, having moved up from honorable mention to second-team status via a 13th-place finish (24:29.0) last fall, and O'Neil crossed just a half second later for 14th (24:29.5) at her first NCAC Championships. Plews-Ogan was also impressive in her debut season, coming in 17th at the conference meet (24:43.6).

O'Neil stepped her level up another notch at the NCAA Div. III Great Lakes Regional Championships, leading the team and placing nine spots out of all-region accolades in 45th (23:51.6). She also was one of just nine first-years among the top-50, and Plews-Ogan and Appleton followed her in 57th (24:12.1) and 63rd (24:22.6), respectively.

Jessica Yarmosky scored at both the NCAC's (41st, 25:50.9) and regionals (97th, 24:57.5), while fellow senior and tri-captain Chelsea Fisher did so at the conference meet (38th, 25:48.8). The third senior and team captain, Suzanne Capehart, produced points at the 2009 regionals (112th, 25:18.3) and was on the 2007 All-NCAC Team (honorable mention).

"I think the seniors want to mix it up and challenge the top-three," Rice commented.

Add in three more letterwinners – senior Alyssa Getta, junior Meredith Shaul, and sophomore Rebecca Craig – plus a solid seven-member first-year class, and Rice has a strong core that he thinks will challenge each other.

"I think there's going to be a lot of changes throughout the season within the (lineup). Hopefully, we're going to have a big pack of women pretty close together. We look to build to our goal of a finish in the top-10 at the regional championships as well as challenge the top teams within the conference."