Wieferich-Led Scots to Compete at Great Lakes Regional Saturay

Katie Wieferich

After winning the individual North Coast Athletic Conference cross country title for the second consecutive season, College of Wooster senior Katie Wieferich (Marietta, Ohio / Marietta) will continue to lead the Fighting Scots as they head to the NCAA Div. III Great Lakes Regional this Saturday, Nov. 11. This year’s race will take place on the campus of Hanover College in southeastern Indiana, with the men’s 8K scheduled for an 11 a.m. start and the women’s 6K at noon. Earning automatic bids to the NCAA Div. III Championships will be the top-two teams from each region (16 at-large selections will also be made for 32 total teams) as well as the top-seven individual finishers not on the national-qualifying teams.
Wieferich advanced to last season’s NCAA Div. III Championships via a third-place run out of 222 harriers at the Great Lakes Regional, gliding along the 6K course in 20:59.2. This year, she has won four of the five races she has entered, including the All-Ohio Championships (18:11.5, 5K) and the conference meet (24:11, 6K), and now looks to become Wooster’s second regional champ. Emily Moorefield is the only one in school history to have won the Great Lakes Regional individual title, having done so in 1994 (18:02, 5K).
As a team, the Scots are looking to improve on their 18th- (women) and 22nd-place finishes (men) out of 31 and 34 squads last fall, respectively.

Last Race: On Oct. 28, Katie Wieferich (Marietta, Ohio / Marietta) became the first woman in Wooster history to win the individual crown at the NCAC Cross Country Championships for a second time, and just the fourth repeat winner in league history, highlighting the Scots’ results at the 23rd NCAC meet in Richmond, Ind.
Boosted by Wieferich’s performance, the Wooster women finished right in the middle of their nine-team field, placing fifth overall with 131 points, while Oberlin College won its first-ever NCAC championship, edging Allegheny College 48-50. Ohio Wesleyan University was third (72), followed by Denison University (87), and the Scots were ahead of Kenyon College (153), Wittenberg University (206), Earlham College (231), and Hiram College (258).
Wieferich covered the 6K course on Earlham’s campus in 24:11, 35 seconds ahead of runner-up Scarlett Graham of Allegheny (24:46). Wieferich joined Wittenberg’s Abi Gerstle (2001-02), Shannon Fox of Oberlin (1995-96), and Allegheny’s Jennifer Shaver (1985-86) as two-time NCAC champs in women’s cross country.
Also for Wooster, Nicole Calderone (Grass Lake, Mich. / Greenhills School) improved 15 spots over her NCAC run from last season, taking 22nd overall (26:20). Ashley Zervos (Wheeling, W. Va. / Linsly School) contributed a 30th-place finish (26:58), Caitlin O’Riordan (Chagrin, Falls, Ohio / Chagrin Falls) scored in her debut conference event via a 37th-place showing (27:53), and Erin Byrne (Methuen, Mass. / Central Catholic) added a 41st-place effort (28:15).

In the men’s race, the Scots came in eighth, also out of nine as Hiram did not field a team. Winning the championship for the third-straight year was Allegheny with 25 points and rounding out the top-three were Ohio Wesleyan (79) and Denison (81).
Wooster’s top finisher was Rudy Gilman (Silverton, Ore. / Silverton Union), finishing in 19th with a time of 28:26 over the 8K course. The top-20 performance landed Gilman a spot on the All-NCAC Team (honorable mention), marking the first such honor of the junior’s career.
The Scots’ other scorers were Mark DeWine (Annandale, Va. / Bishop Denis J. O’Connell), Dave Thomas (Elyria, Ohio / Elyria), Paul Thompson (Oberlin, Ohio / Oberlin), and Terry Workman (Hillsboro, Ohio / Greenfield McClain), who placed 36th (29:13), 43rd (29:27), 52nd (30:11), and 54th (30:13), respectively.