Progression from week to week is the key goal for The College of Wooster women's cross country team, and should that be met, the Fighting Scots will be well positioned for the future.

"We want to be able to come in and build off of what we did over the summer," said head coach Dennis Rice. "We want to have a steady progression from the time we come in for preseason to the conference and regional championship meets."

Rising junior Reeve Helvoigt placed 36th at the North Coast Athletic Conference Championships as a sophomore, then was the program's No. 2 finisher at the NCAA Div. III Great Lakes Regional Championships with a top collegiate championship-length time of 23:56.0.

"Reeve had an amazing sophomore season," said Rice. "She really made a big jump in terms of her training and competition. We are looking forward to Reeve building off what she did last fall to have another great season."

Seniors Anaya Brady and Amy Gabrovsek are Wooster's captains. Gabrovsek is a multi-time cross country letterwinner and posted her top championship-length time of 26:51.8 at last year's NCAC Championships.

"We expect a lot out of our seniors with leadership, setting the tone for practices and competition, and the structure of the overall program," shared Rice. "We are excited for Anaya and Amy; they have worked hard over the last couple of years to earn this opportunity to be team leaders. We are looking forward to them setting the tone for what we want to accomplish on certain training days."

Behind Helvoigt in the junior class are Naomi Kaczor and Elise Wheeler, both of whom were NCAC Championships runners for the Scots last year. Kaczor logged a season-best 28:39.1 at the conference meet, as did Wheeler at 27:35.1.

"Elise and Naomi continue to build, develop, and get better from season to season," shared Rice. "We expect that same type of progression again this coming season. We are excited about them. If we can keep Elise and Naomi healthy, they will make some big improvements throughout the fall."

Other juniors in the program include returnees Wyn Caudle, Colette Christopher, and Celeste Probart.

"Our juniors continue to make great progress," added Rice. "We are looking forward to that steady improvement continuing throughout the season for those ultimate performances as we get into the championship portion of the season."

Eilidh Horn is Wooster's top returning sophomore and had a strong first-year season, headlined by a season-best championship-length time of 25:52.4 at the Denison University Invitational.

"We are expecting some great things from Eilidh this fall," shared Rice. "We are excited to see how she progresses and performs throughout the course of the season."

Newcomers to the team include first-year Lauren Acker, senior Sylvia Direnzo, junior Mehdia Sadat, and sophomore Sofia Slavna.

"We want to get the newcomers settled in academically," said Rice. We like to get new team members settled in with the structure of the time management of the academics and the structure of our program. Once they get settled in with our program, then we enhance their running as we progress later in the fall."

Wooster will be without key juniors Zanna Anderson and Cheyenne Wentz this fall, as both are studying abroad, something that is encouraged within the Scots' program. Recent alumna Athena Tharenos' study abroad experience aided in the 12-time All-NCAC performer's efforts in being selected for a $10,000 NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship. Helvoigt and Wheeler just returned from studying abroad during the spring semester.

"We are very positive about team members studying abroad because it is a valuable experience for them to gain," said Rice. "We are always excited when they come back."

Wooster's season starts on August 29 at the program's annual home invitational at L.C. Boles Memorial Golf Course.

"We are looking forward to our home meet and the traditional meets we go to," wrapped up Rice. "The Jenna Strong Invitational (Oct. 17) has always been a strong performance for us. We like going to Muskingum University (Oct. 4) because they have a challenging, hard course, and cross country is a very demanding type of sport. We will see how we stack up against some of the Ohio Athletic Conference schools at Otterbein University's (Sept. 13) meet."