A first place finish by freshman Emmanuel Aouad in the long jump highlighted a strong first-day effort by the Wabash track and field team at the 2007 North Coast Athletic Conference Men's Track and Field Championships. The final day of competition takes place today at Ohio Wesleyan University in Delaware, Ohio.
Aouad earned All-NCAC honors with a winning jump of 21 feet, 11-1/2 inches, winning by an inch-and-a-half over Allegheny sophomore Joe McMahon. Aouad will also compete in the 110-meter and 400-meter hurdles today. He advanced to the finals after posting a time of 15.43 while winning the first heat of the 110-meter event Thursday. Aouad had the fourth-fastest time in the preliminary heats of the 400-meter hurdles, crossing the finish line in 56.21.
Junior Nelson Barre had already scored five points for the Wabash team with his fourth place finish in last weekend's decathlon. He added two more team points with a seventh place finish in the pole vault, clearing 13 feet 1-1/2 inches.
Sophomore Joshua Gangloff took the last spot in the finals of the shot pot by finishing ninth in the preliminaries with a mark of 43 feet, 2-1/2 inches. He saved his best effort for the finals, taking fifth place overall with a distance of 45 feet, 9-1/4 inches.
The Little Giants have some excellent opportunities to add more points to their score in the final day of competition. Bart Banach, last year's NCAC Sprinter of the Year, is putting an early claim on the title again this year. He won both of his preliminary races in the 100-meter and 200-meter dashes, posting the top qualifying times in both events. Banach finished in 11.04 in the 100, nearly 2/10ths of a second ahead of his closest competitor. He took the top spot in the 200-meter qualifying event with a time of 22.16. Richard Roomes will join Banach in the 200-meter finals. Roomes posted the fifth-fastest time with a 22.51 in his heat.
Nathan Bates will attept to add one more 400-meter title to his list of accomplishments after winning his Thursday qualifying heat. The senior has won the 400-meter title in each of his previous three attempts. His time of 50.00 won the second heat and was the second-fastest time of the day behind Nathan Osborn of Ohio Wesleyan (49.57), the winner of heat number one.
All-American Geoff Lambert won his heat of the 800-meter run with a time of 1:56.39 to advance to Friday's finals. He will be joined by sophomore Hugh Jackson, who had the ninth-best qualifying time at 1:58.36 to take the last spot in the finals.
Allegheny College leads the team competition with 83 points. Ohio Wesleyan is second (62), with Oberlin (24) and Wabash (21) battling at third and fourth, respectively. Denison (13), Earlham (12), Wooster (11), Wittenberg (6), Hiram (2), and Kenyon (0) round out the first day's scoring.