Wabash junior Geoff Lambert was named the distance/middle distance MVP after shattering the North Coast Athletic Conference and Wabash indoor record at the conference's annual Indoor Track and Field Championships. His efforts helped Wabash finish third in the final team scoring for the second year in a row.
Lambert broke the NCAC 800-meter dash record by more than two seconds, winning the event with a time of 1:52.72. Not only did he set new marks in both the conference and at Wabash, he also automatically qualified for the upcoming NCAA Division III National Championship meet with an "A" cut time.
His teammate, Nathan Bates, took second place with a time of 1:56.55 to earn All-Conference honors along with Lambert.
Lambert and Bates were joined by Bart Banach and Mike Russell (photo left) in the 1600-meter relay. The quartet also set a new NCAC record in that event, winning with a time of 3:24.91. That time was nearly two seconds faster than the old conference record and was almost four seconds faster than the second place team from Ohio Wesleyan. Banach, Russell, Emmanuel Aouad, and Richard Roomes nearly added another first place for the Little Giants in the 800-meter relay. Russell was just 3/100th of a second behind Ohio Wesleyan's Preston Osborn at the finish line, giving Wabash a second place finish with a time of 1:31.71.
Aouad earned individual All-NCAC honors with victories in the 55-meter hurdles and the long jump. He edged OWU's Andrew Bloom by 1/100th of a second in the hurdles finals, winning with a time of 7.93. Aouad won the long jump with a mark of 21 feet, 11-1/2 inches.
Banach was also an individual winner, taking the 400-meter dash title with a time of 50.49. Russell picked up an All-NCAC award by finishing third in high jump by clearing a height of 6-1. Sophomore Andrew Rode was fourth, also clearing 6-1, while freshman Chris Schweigl was sixth (5-8).
Roomes added a sixth place finish in the 200-meter dash to the team's point total. He finished with a time of 23.31. Nelson Barre was sixth in the pole vault with a mark of 13 feet, while Hugh Jackson added a sixth place finish in the mile run (4:25.63).
Senior Dennis Frazee was seventh in the 3,000-meter run with a time of 9:00.13.
Wabash scored a total of 100.5 points, trailing only defending conference champion Allegheny (159) and Ohio Wesleyan (114). Denison (75.5), Wooster (43), Kenyon (42), Wittenberg (39), Oberlin (31), Earlham (15), and Hiram (5) rounded out the team scoring.
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