Meet Results
The Wabash swimming and diving team knew it needed to fight for every point at the 2012 North Coast Athletic Conference Championship Meet. The Little Giants scrapped their way to a fourth-place finish, edging Allegheny College by a total of two points.
Wabash scored a total of 637 points, but missed an opportunity to compete in the final event of the meet — the 400-yard freestyle relay — after both A and B relays failed to qualify for the finals. The Little Giants could only watch from the deck as the Allegheny men's team touchded in fourth place to score 52 points, coming up two shy of the Wabash total.
"We put together a strong 400 free relay in the morning that would get us into the final heat, but our nerves bit us as we DQ'd the relay, essentially giving Allegheny 50 free points," Wabash head coach Steve Barnes said. "In a meet like this, a mistake like a relay DQ can be devastating. When I saw it, I left the deck so when my head exploded it wouldn't create a disaster area on the pool deck. When I went back on deck to watch the B relay go off, the also had a false start! The cold, stoic, emotionless robot of a coach that the team is used to, was about to see a different side of me. But after some thinking, the realization hit me, that the team knew what they did and didn't need to be reminded. They were competing and pushing themselves. It's better to swim with passion and lose, than win without any passion at all.
"Our taper had been amazing to this point. To let two relay starts of a combined .2 ruin what has been a terrific run would be bad form and not what a Wabash man would do. So I talked to the guys afterwards and let them know they were appreciated as people and that to get to the next level at NCACs and NCAAs, we need that winning drive. We had one session left, so let's have fun with it. Let's enjoy it. Maybe it's true that winning isn't everything."
His Wabash squad did enjoy its performance on the final day, putting together its best effort of the four-day competition.
Aaron Troyer started the finals with a "B" cut national provisional qualifying time in the 200-yard backstroke, finishing sixth with a time of 1:52.57.
David Phillips took ninth place by winning the B-Final with a time of 1:53.73, cutting almost four seconds off his prelim time.
Jake Childress finished 16th (2:00.08), while
Adam Barnes was 20th (2:03.14).
Carter Adams added another sixth place finish to the Wabash scoring total, touching the wall in 1:54.73 in the 200-yard butterfly.
Logan Falley was 14th in the same event (2:03.12), while Brad Wise finished 16th (2:04.93).
Alex Hawkins took 17th place (2:01.22).
Steve Batchelder also scored a top-eight finish in the 200-yard breaststroke, touching the wall in 2:08.95 to take the seventh spot.
Paul Buescher finished 11th with a time of 2:08.18.
Andy Chorpenning finished 11th earlier in the day in the 1650-yard freestyle swim with a time of 17:04.28.
Logan Rice was 17th (17:35.91).
Charles Williams grabbed 18th place in the 100-yard freestyle (47.94), with
Alex Beck finishing 21st (49.06).
Denison and Kenyon ran away with the team portion of the competition. The Big Red won their fourth straight men's swimming and diving title with a total of 1,665 points. Kenyon was second with a score of 1,546 points. DePauw was a distance third (987). Oberlin (525), Wittenberg (511), Wooster (473), Ohio Wesleyan (424), and Hiram (190) completed the team scoring.
"I can't say enough about tonight's remarkable outcome," Barnes said. "I am floored with this team right now. They are simply amazing! Three freshmen in finals! The best taper meet by Wabash in my three seasons as head coach. Easily the best team performance by far.
"Never once did the team give up, never once they did doubt their ability. To some a fourth place victory may not be much, and in the end it will be forgotten. But to watch a team inspire each other, to watch them have faith in themselves, to watch them have fun overcoming adversity, that is a win that I will remember for the rest of my life. There is no other possible outcome from this weekend that could have made me more proud of this team than the effort they showed tonight. When the team has every chance to climb down the ladder, they found the one reason to keep climbing to the top."
