After a successful indoor season, the Wabash track and field team has had an unexpected beginning to its outdoor season. The Little Giants, third-place finishers at the NCAC Indoor Championships, have been hampered by injuries and scheduling conflicts during its first three outdoor meets and, as a whole, have yet to perform up to expectations.
“We’re short-handed, we’ve got a number of injuries, we’re struggling,” Coach Rob Johnson said. “Our goal now is to try to get people to rehab and get them back in time for conference.”
The track team began its outdoor season with the Wabash Relays on March 17, 2007. In the best weather for the Relays in several years, the Little Giants managed to finish second behind Taylor University, the best overall performance by the Wabash track team so far during outdoor season.
Wabash was victorious in the 4x100-meter relay, the 110-meter high hurdles, the 4x200-meter relay, and the pole-vault relay. While they did not win many events, the Little Giants had a number of second-place finishes, which kept them competitive. Those second places came in the discus-throw relay, the shot-put relay, the javelin-throw relay, the 4x400-meter relay, the 400-meter intermediate hurdles, and the 3000-meter steeplechase.
The weekend after the Wabash Relays, the Little Giants traveled to Rose-Hulman for the William Welch Invitational. However, a significant number of athletes failed to make the trip due to a conflict with the Celebrating Scholarships Luncheon. The lack of numbers hurt the Little Giants, who finished second behind the host school and a point and a half ahead of Denison.
While Wabash demonstrated a lack of depth at Rose-Hulman, several individuals turned in good performances. Most prominent among those was freshman Emmanuel Aouad, a native of Terre Haute. Aouad won the 110-meter high hurdles, the 400-meter intermediate hurdles, the long jump, and the triple jump. Following that dominant performance during the return to his hometown, Aouad was named the NCAC sprinter/hurdler of the week. Aouad’s performances in the long jump (21’10.75”), high hurdles (15.02), and intermediate hurdles (55.78) are all the best performances in the conference for those events, while his triple jump performance of 43’3” is the third best.
“Emmanuel had a good meet at Rose-Hulman, winning four events,” Coach Johnson said. “But that wasn’t enough to make up for our lack depth in other events in the team score.”
In the shot put Wabash showed its strength as sophomore Josh Gangloff, senior Ben Tritle, and junior Justin Sparks finished first, second, and third, respectively. In the hammer throw, Sparks finished second, while teammate sophomore Pat Long finished third. Sparks throw of 126’06” is the fourth best throw in the conference this season. In the javelin, junior Keegan McLaughlin finished second.
One of the few distance runners to compete, sophomore Hugh Jackson represented Wabash well. He won the 1500-meter run in 4:12.30 and then came back to finish second in the 800-meter run in 2:00.58.
This past weekend the Wabash track and field team traveled to St. Joseph’s to compete in the Gene and Rose Edmunds Invitational. In the best weather in the three years Wabash has competed in the meet, the Little Giants turned in rather lackluster performances, which showed in the final standings where Wabash finished sixth, one point behind Marian. However, besides Marian, the other schools at the meet were all NCAA Division II institutions.
In the 3000-meter steeplechase, sophomore Sam Compton-Craig was edged at the line, finishing third. Hugh Jackson finished fifth in both the 800-meter run (2:03.00) and the 5000-meter run (16:32.09).
In the 200-meter dash, junior Richard Roomes ran 23.37 seconds to finish sixth. In the 400-meter dash, Roomes finished seventh overall after winning his section, while teammate junior Bart Banach finished second overall in 50.93 seconds. Banach’s time is the third best performance in the conference.
The throws were the few events in which Wabash athletes performed well at St. Joseph’s. In the javelin, junior Lincoln Smith finished second with a throw of 157’08”, while teammate Keegan McLaughlin threw 152’04”, which earned him fourth place. Those throws are the third- and sixth-best performances, respectively, in the conference this year. In the shot put, Ben Tritle and Josh Gangloff finished fifth and sixth, respectively.
Other individuals scoring for the Little Giants were junior Tim Rickard, who finished sixth in the 400-meter intermediate hurdles, and freshman Chris Vawter, who finished fifth in the pole vault.
“We’re nursing our wounds, trying to get healthy for Intercollegiates next week,” Coach Johnson said.
The Little Giants compete today in the DePauw Quad. Next weekend Wabash track and field team will travel to Indianapolis to compete in the Indiana Intercollegiate Track and Field Championships at the Michael A. Carroll Track & Soccer Stadium on Friday, April 13, 2007, and Saturday, April 14, 2007.