Wabash freshman Mike Russell (Terre Haute, IN/Terre Haute North) and Head Track and Field Coach Rob Johnson were honored at the 2005 North Coast Athletic Conference Men's Track and Field Championship. The Little Giants rallied from seventh place after day one to finish second in the final team standings. Johnson was named Coach of the Year, while Russell's two first-place finishes helped him earn Men's Sprinter of the Year.
Russell scored a total of 46 of Wabash's 130 points in individual competition and as a member of two of the Little Giants' winning relay teams. He started by earning All-Conference honors with a first place finish in the 100-meter dash finals. Russell won the event with a time of 11.09. He followed that with a first place finish in 200 dash, finishing in 22.24. Russell just missed a spot on the All-NCAC team in the long jump, taking fourth with a leap of 6.37 meters. He also scored a point in the high jump by clearing five feet, 10.75 inches for an eighth place finish.
Russell, Keith Clayton (Colorado Springs, CO/Fountain Valley School), Nathan Bates (Ossian, IN/Norwell), and Geoff Lambert (Chesterton, IN/Chesterton) combined to take the title in the 4 X 400-meter relay. The quartet earned All-NCAC honors with a winning time of 3:21.61. Clayton, Bates, Russell, and Bart Banach (Munster, IN/Munster) took first place in the 4 X 100-meter relay with a time of 42.59.
Banach added eight more points to the team score with fifth place finishes in the 100 dash (11.33) and the 200 dash (23.04).
Bates added his own first place finish, defending his conference title from last year in the 400-meter dash by winning the 2005 race with a time of 49.19. Lambert also took a conference title in his first NCAC Championship, winning the 800-meter run (1:55.01).
Eric Morris (Ft. Wayne, IN/Snider) won the discus with a throw of 44.32 meters. He also took second place in the hammer throw (43.21 meters). Teammate Peter Kempf (Auburn, IN/DeKalb) just missed an spot on the All-NCAC team, taking fourth in the hammer throw (40.16 meters).
Clayton and Thomas Bell (Carrollton, TX/Hebron) earned the final spots on the All-Conference team. Clatyon was second overall in the 400-meter hurdles, crossing the finish line in 55.51. Bell was second in the triple jump with a final distance of 12.63 meters.
Allegheny won the team competition with 232 points. Wabash with its 130 points finished six points ahead of third place Wittenberg (124). Ohio Wesleyan, the host school for the 2005 competition, was fourth (87). Earlham (67), Denison (63), Oberlin (38), Wooster (26), Hiram (26), and Kenyon (25) rounded out the team scoring.
Johnson earned his first Coach of the Year Award, voted on by his fellow NCAC coaches. The former Olympic assistant and head cross country coach at Wabash had set a goal of a second place finish for his Little Giant athletes after finishing fourth last season.