Erin Plews-Ogan

In their final meet before the North Coast Athletic Conference Championships, The College of Wooster cross country teams produced their best performances of the 2012 season as the women placed fourth out of 33 teams and the men were 11th of 34 at Friday's Wilmington College Fall Invitational in southwest Ohio.

The individual highlight for the Fighting Scots came from Erin Plews-Ogan, who was the ninth-fastest among the 340 women's entrants as the senior standout traveled the 5K course in an 18:35.61 time.

Wooster's next runner to cross the finish line was Lauren Buyan in 30th overall (19:31.76), while Colleen O'Neil, Erin Andrews-Sharer, and Chelsea Denlinger also keyed the team's strong showing while taking 53rd (19:56.98), 57th (19:59.95), and 62nd (20:07.26), respectively.

The Scots' men's squad was able to finish among the top-third of its field, thanks to a strong pace from Luke Hutchings-Goetz. He emerged in 17th-place out of the 380 competitors after covering the 8K with a time of 25:42.12, and also in the top-50 for Wooster was Morgan Clark, a 42nd-place finisher (26:14.37).

Sam Swartz cracked the top-100 in 99th overall (27:13.60), and Scot teammates Jay Marshall and Karl Stemen had respective efforts of 123rd (27:30.41) and 135th (27:38.33).

Wooster will look to carry over this momentum into the NCAC Championships, a meet that it will host at L.C. Boles Golf Course on Saturday, Oct. 27.