WILMINGTON, Ohio – In a final tune up before the North Coast Athletic Conference Championships, The College of Wooster men's and women's cross country teams traveled to Wilmington College for its annual Jenna Strong Invitational on Friday.

The women placed sixth of 29 scoring teams, while the men finished eighth of 27 teams.

In a preview of the NCAC Championships, both squads battled with Kenyon College for position on the leaderboard. The women scored 208 points to Kenyon's 209, which placed them seventh. Meanwhile, the men scored 195 points, one placement down from Kenyon's score of 171.

In both instances, Wooster had the higher individual finisher.

The women had two top 10 finishers as junior Dylan Kretchmar led the women with a sixth-place finish, while senior Athena Tharenos followed in eighth. Kretchmar finished in 19:20.23 for her best 5K time of the year; Tharenos put together a time of 19:29.27 in her first 5K of the year.

Further down, junior Jessie Breth finished in a time of 20:41.06 for 39th. First-year Zanna Anderson was 80th (21:36.06), and classmate Reeve Helvoigt wrapped up scoring in 96th (21:55.66).

Berea College had three finish in the top 10 to secure first place at 133 points.

For the men, junior Drew Robertson finished just outside the top five, placing sixth with a time of 25:29.32.

Junior Will Callender placed a respectable 23rd with a time of 26:13.49, while classmate Eric Johnson was 60th (27:19.62). Another junior, Ben Nichols, followed in 66th (27:27.54), and sophomore Joe Ahmann wrapped up the men's scoring in 105th (28:28.74).

Shawnee State University scored 97 points to lead all teams.

Next, the teams will compete in the NCAC Championships in Granville on Oct. 28.