WOOSTER, Ohio – A near-20-year-old L.C. Boles Memorial Golf Course record fell, while overall, The College of Wooster will be looking for its fortunes to turn come track & field season, as Denison University struck first, sweeping the start of a yearlong series of dual meets between the North Coast Athletic Conference rivals on Thursday evening. Denison's women's cross country team edged out Wooster 26-29, while the Big Red men won 22-38.

Wooster's Matt Linman's men's 5K course record time of 16:01.9 was finally toppled by Denison's Noah Cyr, who broke the tape at 15:53.5. Wooster junior Drew Robertson was right there, challenging for the course record before getting overtook by Cyr at the end. Robertson's 15:54.5 is the new program 5K course record.

On the women's side, junior Dylan Kretchmar got stronger as the race progressed and left the field in the dust. Kretchmar's winning time of 20:23.2 ranked over 36 seconds better than Denison's Cara Bodary's runner-up mark of 20:59.8. Classmate Jessie Breth was a strong complement to Kretchmar's winning time with the fourth-place effort of 21:39.1. Sophomore Amy Gabrovsek debuted with a 23:07.1, which was the seventh-place time.

Both teams had five finishers within the top-10. First-year Zanna Anderson and junior Isabelle Dwyer were Wooster's other top-10 finishers. Anderson's 23:15.9 was eighth, while Dwyer was right behind at 23:21.1.

First-year Naomi Kaczor and junior Elise Greenwald rounded out Wooster's top seven. Kaczor's 24:16.2 was 11th and Greenwald's 25:00.6 was 12th.

Junior Will Callender was Wooster's other top-five finisher, crossing fourth at 16:43.8 in the men's race. It was an all-junior top-three for Wooster, with Eric Johnson rounding out the trio. His 17:07.8 was the ninth-place time.

Sophomores Joe Ahmann and Zane DeMercurio were Wooster's other scoring harries. Ahmann's 17:48.3 ranked 12th, while DeMercurio placed 15th with a time of 18:04.8.

Junior Ben Nichols' 17th-place time of 18:06.9 and sophomore Jack Schuller's 20th-place time of 18:45.5 rounded out Wooster's top seven.

Wooster is back on the course at the Muskingum University Invitational, which takes place on Saturday, September 30 at 11 a.m.