The Wabash College track and field team finished 12th out of 18 teams at the annual Little State Meet. The 2004 meet was held at IUPUI on Saturday afternoon.
Senior Dan Ruge (Chesterton, IN/Chesterton) had two top-eight finishes. He took fifth place in the 800-meter run with a time of 1:57.12, barely two seconds behind the winner, Jesse Davis from Southern Indiana (1:55.04). Ruge ran a 3:57.96 in the 1500 meters, good for sixth place overall.
Freshman Nathan Bates (Ossian, IN/Norwell) took fourth in the 400-meter dash. He ran a 49.61 in the finals after finishing sixth in the preliminaries with a time of 49.94.
Keith Clayton (FR/Colorado Springs, CO/Fountain Valley School) finished sixth int he 400-meter hurdles. He qualified for the finals with a time of 58.18, then ran a 58.06 in the final to earn three points for the Wabash team.
Two other freshman added points to the Little Giants' team score. Eric Morris (Ft. Wayne, IN/Ft. Wayne Snider) took seventh in the discus throw (144 feet, seven inches), while Josh Jones (North Richland Hills, TX/Nolan Catholic) grabbed eighth place with a leap of 20 feet, 5.75 inches in the long jump.
The Wabash 4 X 400 relay team had the best finish of the day. The quartet of Wes Jacks (JR/West Lafayette, IN/Harrison), Steve Cottom (JR/Rosedale, IN/Riverton Parke), Jones, and Bates took third place with with a time of 3:20.82.
Wabash scored 27 points overall. The University of Indianapolis won the team competition with 176.50 points. Anderson University was second (127), followed by Taylor (64), St. Joseph's (53), Vincennes (52.50), DePauw (47), Goshen (43), Indiana Wesleyan (32.50), Marian (31), Tri-State (31), and Southern Indiana (30). Earlham was thirteenth (22.50), with Rose-Hulman (11), Hanover (10), Manchester (9), St. Francis (8), and Franklin (5) rounding out the team scoring.
The Little Giants will compete in the Millikin University Invitational on Saturday, April 17 in Decatur, Illinois.