The College of Wooster women's track and field team opens the season Saturday and will look upon their seniors and top performers to lead the way for the squad this year.
A few benchmarks for the upcoming year will undoubtedly be the season opener as well as the North Coast Athletic Conference indoor and outdoor championships.
"Our goal is to perform at our highest possible level at the midway point of the season – at the indoor championships," said Wooster track and field head coach Dennis Rice. "That will set the tone for the upcoming outdoor season where we will be at our ultimate best both teamwise and individually to reach our true potential."
Wooster had several underclassmen improve in 2023 and are returning an NCAC Outdoor Champion in the 100 hurdles as well as an NCAC Indoor Champion in the shot put. They also have four student-athletes in the mix who hold a program record, three of which who set their records a year ago.
"We have some high impact student athletes on our team that can make a big impact both at the conference level and potentially the national level," Rice said.
One of those will be junior Daysia Hargrave. The program record holder in the 100 hurdles, Hargrave took All-NCAC honors in the outdoor 400 (1:06.68) and 100 hurdles (15.00), claiming the championship in the latter.
In addition, senior Mary Sirois will look to join Hargrave again on the podium stand, taking third in the 100 hurdles (15.91) in the outdoor meet for All-NCAC honors too.
Another senior, Ainsley Wiesner, is one of those Wooster success stories Rice likes to talk about – someone who came in without a clear direction and was put into a situation to succeed. And with hard work it has paid off.
Last year, she took the program's indoor record in the weight throw (51'3"), the outdoor record in the hammer throw (159'10") and finished in the top 10 of the shot put (36'7.5").
"She's really picked up on this," Rice said. "She was a volleyball player and a high jumper coming in. We talked about doing some different things, starting with the javelin. We started to introduce her to throwing because she was like, 'Can I try this?' And she found her thing."
Wiesner has had great competition within the team from Evie Sanford.
Sanford, specifically, made an immediate impact as a first-year, capturing the outdoor program record throw in the discus throw (132'2") as well as finishing in the top five of the shot put and hammer.
In addition, she was one of three Fighting Scot champions in the NCAC Indoor Championships, along with Morgan Kromer (pole vault) and Claudia Partridge (pentathlon) taking the shot put in a throw of forty feet, two inches.
Drew Patterson and Sarah Hiestand will lead the jumpers. Hiestand will look to improve in the pole vault as a sophomore, while Patterson will look to make that final leap as a senior.
Patterson holds top 10 marks in the outdoor events of the 100 dash (12.69), triple jump (35'8.75") and high jump (5'4.25"). She also was an All-NCAC performer at the indoor championships in the high jump after finishing third.
The Scots will then lead on senior Athena Tharenos and junior Dylan Kretchmar for the mid and long-distance races. Kretchmar saw limited time last year, but Tharenos broke the 3k steeplechase program record (11:03.59) and earned All-NCAC honors in the event (second) as well as the 5K (third).
Others like Izzy Cozzie, Igna Mendez, Clare Mackin and Emily Munson should help round up points for the Scots in bigger meets.
"We know we have impact student athletes, and we know we have those who will challenge the top people at conference," Rice said. "We know we need to continue to develop within the team concept to get more experience at the championship level as well. We also have some new people coming into the program who should have an impact and enhance the program in a positive way."
Wooster will open the season Saturday when they host the Wooster Invitational.