Wabash topped the 1,000-point mark for the first time since 2008 at the North Coast Athletic Conference Swimming and Diving Championships, helping Little Giant head coach Brent Noble earn Men's Swimming Coach of the Year honors in the league.
The Little Giants became the first fourth-place team to score more than 1,000 points in NCAC history, finishing the four-day event with a total of 1,041 points. The last time Wabash scored more than 1,000 points was at the 2008 meet when the Little Giants tallied 1,066 total points. Denison won the men's title this season with a total of 1,966.5 points. Kenyon finished second (1,758.5), while DePauw took third place (1,074). Wittenberg trailed a distant fifth with 725.5 points, followed by Wooster (690), Ohio Wesleyan (573), Oberlin (547), Allegheny (491.5), and Hiram (249).
Noble is only the second Wabash coach to earn Men's Swimming Coach of the Year honors. He joines former head coach Peter Casares, who garnered the award at the 2005 meet.
A pair of All-NCAC performances helped Wabash to its final result. Elliot Johns took All-NCAC honors with his third-place finish in the 100-yard freestyle. He finished in 45.29 in the finals to break his own school record of 45.51 in the event set two months earlier while also posting an NCAA "B" cut qualifying time. Chris McGue took 11th place with a time of 46.73, while Wyatt Tarter finished 26th by touching the wall in 48.88.
Jack Belford finished third in the 200-yard butterfly with a "B" cut time of 1:52.05 to receive an All-NCAC award. Carter Adams also competed in the "A" final, finishing eighth with a time of 1:54.51. Clayton Highum finished 15th (2:00.08), while Scottie Ogle captured 18th place (2:04.04). Dave Johnson added a 21st-place finish with a time of 2:05.90.
Jake Childress added another school record for the Little Giants, breaking the Wabash mark of 1:51.61 in the 200-yard backstroke by qualifying for the finals Saturday morning with a time of 1:50.77. He posted a time of 1:53.51 in the finals to place sixth. Dakota Rhodes finished in 2:01.84 to earn 17th place. Dane Gray added a 25th-place finish with his time of 2:07.90.
Zechariah Banks, Steve Batchelder, and Josh Bleisch each earned top-10 finishes in the 200-yard breaststroke. Banks finished sixth with a "B" cut time of 2:04.61 to break his own school record of 2:05.08. Batchelder finished ninth with a time of 2:06.58. Bleisch finished in 2:07.23 for 10th place. Matt Schramm joined the trio in the finals, grabbing 26th place with a time of 2:28.00.
Joel Paquin opened the evening competition with a seventh-place finish in the 1650-yard freestyle (16:31.72). Arturo Granados finished ninth (16:44.08).
Wabash finished the 2015 meet with a fourth-place finish in the 400-yard freestyle relay. Johns, Banks, Belford, and McGue combined for a time of 3:06.65.
The Little Giants set 14 new school records at the 2015 champions and produced six All-NCAC performances, including an individual victory by Jack Belford in Thursday's 500 freestyle.