Despite two swimmers being sent to the hospital with a severe stomach virus, the Wabash College swimming and diving team was able to battle to third place at the North Coast Athletic Conference Swimming and Diving Championships over the weekend.
Swimmers Brad Williams (JR/Columbus, IN/Columbus North) and Brett Findley (Bargersville, IN/Franklin Community) were both among the top-seeds in the 1650 freestyle. Both found themselves in a Canton, Ohio hospital at 4 a.m. on Saturday morning suffering from a severe stomach virus. Williams was unable to continue in Saturday’s events, but Findley scratched himself from the 200 butterfly, and event that he was seeded fourth going into the preliminary round. Findley did participate in the 1650 free, swimming 66 laps to finish 13th.
"It was the most exciting end of a meet in my career," said head coach Peter Casares. "Findley rolled into the meet, barely able warm up without becoming extremely winded. He looked pale and was barely able to walk. He fought through all of that to finish 13th with our fastest time in the race of the night. It was simply amazing and gutsy."
Despite outstanding performances by Findley, and by senior Brandon Peacock (Crawfordsville, IN/Crawfordsville) and freshman Michael Hewitt (Greenwood, IN/Center Grove) in 100 free style, the Little Giants found themselves trailing Wooster by nine points going into the final individual event of the night, the 200 butterfly. After outstanding swims in the preliminary rounds, Hewitt took third place in the finals to earn All-NCAC honors and made an NCAA "B" cut qualifying time with a lifetime best swim of 1:55.3.
The Little Giants cemented their spot in third with another third place finish, this time in the 400 freestyle relay. Matt Perkins (SO/Indianapolis, IN/Brownsburg), Steven Birrer (Indianapolis, IN/Brownsburg), Peacock, and Colin Fahey (JR/Indianapolis, IN/Bishop Chatard) earned All-Conference honors with the final time of 3:11.72.
Wabash finished with 796 points. Kenyon won the championship title with 1580 points. Denison was second with 1513. Wooster took fourth with 758 points, followed by Wittenberg (718), Allegheny (638.5), Oberlin (494), Hiram (381.5), and Ohio Wesleyan (306.5).