WOOSTER, Ohio – L.C. Boles Memorial Golf Course is set to host the North Coast Athletic Conference Championships on October 29, so The College of Wooster cross country team kicked off the 2022 season with a significantly larger field than normal for the non-scoring Wooster Invitational on Thursday evening.

Wooster's returning all-conference performers logged matching fourth-place finishes. On the men's side, sophomore Will Callender's 21:36.3 was just off his team four-mile course record pace of 21:35.3, which was his cross country debut time a season ago. On the women's side, senior Isabelle Hoover went 16:00.2 in the 4K, and was the top finisher from within the NCAC at the meet.

Wooster's deep sophomore class backed Callender up in the season lid-lifter. Drew Robertson crossed at 22:53.4, which was 29th, while Ben Nichols was part of that pack too, with the 34th-place time of 23:04.0.

Junior Duncan Hardy was next, crossing at 24:10.0, which was 63rd of 110 finishers, while junior Mitch Ecklund rounded out the top-five for the team with a time of 24:23.7. Other top-seven harriers for Wooster included first-year Joe Ahmann, who debuted with a 24:25.4 and first-year Gustav Bourdon, who stopped the watch at 25:07.8 in his first collegiate meet.

Sophomore Jessie Breth's 17:53.9 was second among Wooster's women's contingent, and that was the 41st-place time. Sophomore Julianna Fiori came in at 18:15.6, and rounded out the top-50. Sophomore Eva Bauman clocked in at 18:45.2, while sophomore Elise Greenwald (19:36.2), sophomore Isabelle Dwyer (19:45.2), and sophomore Lily Baker (19:53.1) were in the top-seven among the Scots' entries.

Baldwin Wallace University's Hope Murphy won the women's race with a time of 15:40.1, while Walsh University's Anthony Toskin broke the tape for the men at 21:21.6.

Next, Wooster's off to Wittenberg University's Invitational, which is set for 11 a.m. on Saturday, September 10.

Photo by Anna Russell '23