NCAC Championships Preview: Cross Country

NCAC Championships Information

This Week's Outlook: The College of Wooster men's and women's cross country team heads to Terre Haute, Ind. to compete in the North Coast Athletic Conference Championships on Sunday, Nov. 3. The meet is hosted by DePauw University and will take place at the LaVern Gibson Championship Course. The women's 6k race will start at 11 a.m., while the men's 8k race is expected to start at 12:15 p.m.

Coverage: Live results provided by TimingMD can be found here. Video can be found for the men's race here and the women's race here.

NCAC History: Wooster has won six NCAC cross country titles, four on the women's side and two on the men's side. Wooster's women won three consecutive championships from 1996-98, while the men and women swept the titles at the 1987 conference meet. Wooster's last top-three finish on the women's side came at the 2021 championships, while the men were most recently a top-three team in 2018. Todd Fach (1984, 1986, 1987), Jason Kelley (1990, 1991), Scott Michalek (1988), Emily Moorefield (1994), and Katie Wieferich (2005, 2006) are Wooster's individual NCAC champions. 

Last Year's Meet (Men): The men had three All-NCAC performances in Drew Robertson, Will Callender and Eric Johnson. Robertson and Callender were both top five finishes at second and third, respectively. Robertson ran a 25:52, while Callender followed at 25:58.9.bJohnson earned an All-NCAC Third Team spot with a 21st place finish.

The last time Wooster had someone in the top five was 2018 when alumnus David Westcott placed fourth. Ben Nichols and Joe Ahmann rounded out the team's scoring finishing 28th and 65th, respectively.

Last Year's Meet (Women): The women had a pair of All-NCAC performances in Dylan Kretchmar and Athena Tharenos. Kretchmar finished in fifth (22:42.8) for first team honors while Tharenos placed 12th (23:11.3) for second team honors.

The women have now had back-to-back years with a top five individual finish. Alumna Isabelle Hoover's fourth-place finish on the women's side at the 2022's championship marked the women's highest finish since Wieferich's 2006 NCAC tape-breaker.

Jessie Breth returns after scoring as the third best Wooster runner in 42nd. Zanna Anderson and Reeve Helvoigt capped their first years with spots in the top 50.

Scouting the Competition: Wabash College won last year's men's race at 62 points with Oberlin College (81) and Wittenberg University (99) rounding out the top three. The Little Giants had six in the top 20 – two of which were seniors. The runner to beat will once again be Conor Kolka from Wittenberg. While Robertson was the runner up at 25:52, Kolka broke the tape at 25:27.2.

On the women's side, Wittenberg inched (36) past DePauw University (39) points to take the meet. Eight of the top nine runners were all underclassmen and belonged to either Wittenberg or DePauw – with the lone exception being Kretchmar in fifth. Wittenberg had the top three finishers including Sydney Khosla who finished in 22:23.2.

Pre-Championship Poll: For the men's race, Oberlin College (72) is a one point favorite with each school collecting four first place votes. The Wooster men are slotted in seventh with 41 points.

For the women, Wooster is also in the seventh slot but with 18 points. With six first place votes, DePauw (62) is the early favorite followed by Ohio Wesleyan University (57) and Wittenberg (49).

Senior Driven: For the men, nine seniors make up the core of the team. Robertson, Callender, Johnson and Nichols are all in their senior seasons. If you add the junior Ahmann, all five scorers from last year have the potential to score again in this year's meet.

Those that have the potential to score could also include Basil Keck, Zane DeMercurio and Jack Schuller– all of which who posted in Wooster's top seven in the last meet out at the Jenna Strong Classic.

For the women, they also have nine seniors on this year's team. Tharenos graduated, leaving four NCAC scorers returning, including two who got experience as first-years in Anderson and Helvoigt. Helvoigt led the women last time out at Wilmington, racing to 22nd with a time of 19:38.

Muskingum Feats: When the team competed at Muskingum earlier this year, the men won their third Daniel Mullen Memorial team title in the last four years. In addition, Robertson claimed his first 8k course victory and first overall individual title since 2023 with a time of 26:59.2 Callender was the runner up with a time of 27:39.

For the women, Isabelle Dwyer led the Scots in sixth place with Zanna Anderson, Elise Greenwald and Amy Gabrovsek following behind.

Additional Details: For those attending, there is no charge for parking or admission. Videos of the course can be found here for the women's 6K and here for the men's 8K.