The Wabash College track and field team finished second out of four teams at Saturday’s William Welch Invitational at the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology.
Wabash scored 195.50 points in the final team scoring, trailing only perennial Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association powerhouse Albion College (207.50). Rose-Hulman was third (143.50) with fellow North Coast Athletic Conference member Denison University fourth (92.50).
Jon Reidy (Crawfordsville, IN/Culver Military Academy) was one of three individual winners for the Little Giants, taking the top spot in the hammer throw with a toss of 40.35 meters. Teammate Eric Morris (Ft. Wayne, IN/Snider) was second with a throw of 38.37 meters. Ryne Gorsuch (Albion, IN/Central Noble) did not score any team points under the new NCAA scoring system limiting schools to points from only their top-two performers, despite finishing third in the hammer with a throw of 38.29 meters.
Geoff Lambert (Chesterton, IN/Chesterton) won the 800-meter run, finishing almost two seconds ahead of the rest of the field with a winning time of 1:57.88. Lampert joined Tim Rickard (Valparaiso, IN/Valparaiso), Matt Feipel (Hoagland, IN/Heritage), and Nathan Bates (Ossian, IN/Norwell) to win the 4 X 400-meter relay with a season-best time of 3:23.55. The Little Giant quartet had to come from behind, passing Albion’s "A" team late in the race to take the victory.
Mike Russell (Terre Haute, IN/Terre Haute North) scored a total of 37 team points for the Little Giants. The freshman recorded a second-place finish in the long jump with a leap of 21 feet. He was also second in the high jump, clearing six feet. He was part of the 4 X 100-meter relay team of Keith Clayton (Colorado Springs, CO/Fountain Valley School), Gabe Guerrero (Pleasanton, TX/Pleasanton), and Bart Banach (Munster, IN/Munster) that took second place with a time of 44.18. Russell’s crowing achievement came in the 100-meter dash, where he won the event with a time of 11.45. Banach added seven more points to the Wabash total, taking second in the 100 with a time of 11.49. Russell’s final points came in the 200-meter dash, scoring his third individual second place of the meet (22.70). Banach took third in the 200, finishing in 22.89.
Clayton added seven more points with a second place finish in the 400 hurdles, crossing the finish line in 56.06, only .04 behind Brian Elliott from Albion. Bates also added a second place finish in the 400-meter dash with a season-best effort of 49.32. Rickard took third in the 400 (51.92). Ethan Paul (Evansville, IN/Reitz) finished the steeplechase in 10:12.91, good for second place in the final standings.
Ashley Stephen (Centerville, IN/Centerville) added a third place finish in the 110-meter hurdles (17.90), as did Thomas Bell (Carrollton, TX/Hebron) in the triple jump with a leap of 11.92 meters.