Wabash split its swimming and diving teams into three groups over the weekend to compete in three of the top meets in the Midwest. The results produced some of the best times of the season.
Part of the Little Giant team competed against the University of Pennsylvania, Kenyon, Johns Hopkins, and Washington and Lee University at the Nike Cup Invitational. While Wabash finished fifth with 220 points, Little Giant coach Peter Casares was happy with what he saw.
"Kenyon, Johns Hopkins, and W & L will all be in the top-five at nationals," he said. "They’re outstanding teams and really forced us to swim our best this weekend."
That’s exactly what the 200 medley relay team of Tony Caldwell, Robert Dent, Kyle Weaver, and Blaine Cooper-Surma did. The quartet trimmed over a second off the time set by the Little Giants at last year’s North Coast Athletic Conference Championship meet, finishing seventh at the Nike Cup with a time of 1:35.58. The 400 free relay team of Philip Towne, Cooper-Surma, Weaver, and Jordon Blackwell also topped last year’s conference time while finishing fifth overall (3:11.46).
Wabash also topped 2006 NCAC Championship times in the 200 free and 400 medley relays. Towne, Weaver, Cooper-Surma, and Robert Fozkos took sixth place in the 200 free with a time of 1:26.43, while Caldwell, Dent, and Cooper-Surma were joined by Adam Petro for a seventh place with a time of 3:31.00 in the 400 medley race.
Petro produced an NCAA "B" cut in the 200 butterfly, touching in 1:54.61.
While one-half of the Wabash team was in Gambier, Ohio for the Nike Cup, the rest of the Little Giant swimmers traveled to Greencastle, Indiana for the DePauw Invitational. The Little Giants finished third out of 10 teams, scoring 413 points.
Freshman Pat Laughlin took second in the 200 backstroke, dropping below the two-minute mark with a time of 1:59.66. Laughlin added a fourth place finish in the 100 backstroke (56.08), cutting nearly half-a-second off his preliminaries time.
Matt Routh was third in the 200 freestyle with a time of 1:48.48, over a second faster than his morning qualifying swim. Kyle O’Keefe was third in the 200 breaststroke (2:16.55), also one second faster in the finals than in the prelims.
With the swimmers busy on the road, the Wabash diving team hosted its annual invitational, welcoming 28 divers from around the country. Rob Fenoglio was the top performer for the Little Giants, finishing fourth on the three-meter board with a total of 388.60 points while finishing fifth on the one-meter board with 379.55 points.
The Little Giants will prepare for their annual Holiday Trip, traveling to Florida from December 27 to January 4 before resuming competition January 13 at home against Washington University of St. Louis.
2006 DePauw Invitational Results
2006 Wabash Diving Invitational Results
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