Wabash scored its best-ever finish at the Indiana IntercollegiatesSaturday at Purdue University by placing third out of eight teams, the highest finish of any Division III team at the swimming and diving meet.
The Little Giants tallied 147 points, trailing only team champion Purdue with 920.5 points and NCAA Division II’s University of Indianapolis with 282.5. Evansville placed fourth overall (130) followed by Rose-Hulman (128), DePauw (123), IUPUI (113), and Valparaiso (85).
“We are really happy with our ability to be toward the top of the team scoring,” Wabash head coach Brent Noble said. “We swim against DePauw and Rose-Hulman in our next two dual meets so finishing ahead of those two teams today gives us some solid momentum.”
Jack Belford captured third place in the men’s 500 freeestyle, finishing with a time of 4:42.61. Joel Paquin added a 13th-place finish with a time of 4:56.79. Belford added a ninth-place finish in the 200 freestyle by touching the wall in 1:45.93. Elliot Johns took 11th place with a time of 1:46.18.
Johns placed sixth in the 100 free with a time of 48.27, while teammate Wyatt Tarter added three points to the team score with his 14th-place finish (50.05).
Zech Banks picked up a pair of top-15 finishes. He placed 12th in the 100 breaststroke by finishing in 59.76. He also scored with a 14th-place finish in the 200 individual medley (2:02.09).
Max Von Deylen and Aaron Embree both scored for Wabash on the diving boards. Von Deylen captured seventh place with a score of 217.30 points on the one-meter board. Embree placed 12th with a total of 197.90 points. Von Deylen added a ninth-place finish in three-meter competition with 208.20 points, with Embree taking 11th place (197.55 points).
The 200-medley relay team of Johns, Banks, Kyle Louks, andChris McGue combined for eighth place with a time of 1:38.39.
“This was a pretty solid team meet. We trained pretty hard this week so the guys were pretty tired coming into the meet. They did what they needed to do. They manufactured some good races and got the job done despite not being at their very best. We swam smart races. We will be faster in our upcoming meets.”
Wabash returns to action Friday, October 30 in head-to-head action with DePauw University in a dual meet in Greencastle at 6 p.m.
Swimming news courtesy of Wabash Swimming & Diving.