Wieferich Aiming for All-American Honors and More This Saturday

Katie Wieferich

After winning the NCAA Div. III Great Lakes Regional individual championship, one of eight regional events that took place this past weekend, The College of Wooster senior Katie Wieferich (Marietta, Ohio / Marietta) will look to make her mark on the national scene this Saturday, Nov. 18. It will be Wieferich’s second-straight appearance in the NCAA Div. III Cross Country Championshpis, but she looks to significantly improve over last season’s 54th-place finish when she was slowed by an injury.

A double All-American during the 2006 track season when she finished third at nationals in the 10,000 meters (35:53.55) and fifth in the 5000 meters (17:21.54), Wieferich looks to add another All-American certificate to her collection this weekend. The top-35 runners are named to the All-America Team in cross country.

Wieferich, winner in five of the six races she has entered this fall, and Wooster head coach Dennis Rice have higher aspirations than just All-American honors, though. Rice expects Wieferich will be part of the lead group going into the final 1000 meters Saturday.

“It depends how she recovers from (the Great Lakes) race. The opportunity is there,” responded Rice when asked if Wieferich could finish in the top-10 or higher. “She’s performed at a very high level all season. She’s been able to handle the stress of being a frontrunner. Now, she has an opportunity to challenge the top women in the nation.”

One significant edge for Wieferich is she will be running on a familiar course, as last year’s Great Lakes Regional also took place at Voice of America Park in West Chester, Ohio, approximately 35 miles southwest of Wilmington College, the host school for the 2006 NCAA Div. III Cross Country Championships. At the 2005 regional, Wieferich came in third-place out of 222 runners with a time of 20:59.2 over the 6K course, which is described as very flat with sweeping turns.

“Having run the course last season is definitely an advantage,” Rice confirmed. “It’s going to be a fast course. It’s a rhythmic, tempo-type of course. A lot of our training during the season is like that.”

For her efforts this past week, Wieferich was named the Great Lakes Region Athlete of the Year for women’s cross country by the United States Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Assoc. She won the regional with a time of 22:07.5, crossing the finish line a little over three seconds ahead of Case Western Reserve University’s Esther Erb (22:10.9) and Stephanie Nothelle (22:11.8). 

“I was very pleased with her performance,” commented Rice. “With 1500 meters to go, she made a big surge to take control of the race and got into a steady rhythm. It was a challenging day weather wise, in terms of the wind. The frontrunner, which she was, took a lot of abuse from the wind, and she handled that well.”

Starting time for the women’s race, which includes defending national champion Hailey Harren of Gustavus Adolphus College, is set for noon.

Last Week: On Nov. 11, Katie Wieferich (Marietta, Ohio / Marietta) became just the second in College of Wooster history to win the individual crown at the NCAA Div. III Great Lakes Region Cross Country Championships, as she edged out a pair of Case Western Reserve University runners on the campus of Hanover College in southeastern Indiana.

Wieferich traveled the 6K course in 22:07.5, crossing the finish line a little over three seconds ahead of Case’s Esther Erb (22:10.9) and Stephanie Nothelle (22:11.8). Emily Moorefield is the only other Fighting Scot to capture an individual regional championship, having done so in 1994 when it was a 5K (18:02).

As a team, Wieferich-led Wooster improved six spots to 12th in the regional standings with 383 points, while Case sneaked past Calvin College 53-57 for the women’s championship. On the men’s side, Calvin coasted to the title with just 17 points to the runner-up’s 119 and the Scots came in 24th-place (631).

In addition to Wieferich, scoring for the women were Nicole Calderone (Grass Lake, Mich. / Greenhills School), Caitlin O’Riordan (Chagrin Falls, Ohio / Chagrin Falls), Ashley Zervos (Wheeling, W. Va. / The Linsly School), and Cara Stoddard (Rockford, Mich. / Rockford). Calderone notched her third career top-half regional finish, posting a personal-best 60th-place (24:28.1), while O’Riordan came in 77th in her first NCAA regional meet. Zervos finished just outside the top-100 in 103rd (25:20.3), 12 spots better than 2005, and Stoddard was 142nd overall (26:13.2).

Highlighting the Scots’ men’s results was Rudy Gilman (Silverton, Ore. / Silverton Union), who narrowly missed out on a top-50 showing, as he took 52nd-place with a time of 27:10.7 in their 8K. Running together were teammates Dave Thomas (Elyria, Ohio / Elyria) and Mark DeWine (Annandale, Va. / Bishop Denis J. O’Connell), finishing 128th (28:28.9) and 129th (28:30.2), respectively, while Wooster’s scoring was completed by twins Terry Workman (Hillsboro, Ohio / Greenfield McClain) in 158th (29:01.7) and Rick Workman (Hillsboro, Ohio / Greenfield McClain) in 164th (29:15.9).