Freshman Rob Smallman improved his season-best effort in the pole vault, while sophomore Emmanuel Aouad hit the NCAA provisional qualifying mark in the 55-meter hurdles at Saturday's Wabash Open Indoor Track and Field Invitational.
Aouad tied the meet record in the hurdles with a winning time of 7.68. He easily eclipsed the "B" cut qualifying time of 7.75, nearly passing it in the preliminaries with a top time of 7.78.
Smallman, competing against US Nationals and 2008 Olympic hopeful Mark Hollis, cleared 4.85 meters or 15 feet, 11 inches. Smallman had already reached the "B" cut mark of 4.70 meters earlier this season, but would seem to have a near-certain berth at the NCAA national championship event with today's third-place effort. Hollis won the event by vaulting 5.38 meters or 17 feet, 7-3/4 inches.
Senior Geoff Lambert nearly joined the duo as a national championship qualifier. The All-American won the 800-meter run with a time of 1:55.79, shattering the meet record by nearly four seconds but coming up short of the "B" cut time of 1:55 even.
Hugh Jackson set a new meet record with his win in the 3000-meter run. Jackson crossed the finish line in 8:58.07, well ahead of the old meet record of 9:24.20 set by Dennis Frazee '07 last year. Sam Compton-Craig added the final individual victory in the unscored meet with a first place finish in the 2000-meter indoor steeplechase (6:25.24).
Bart Banach posted a season-best 6.56 with a third-place finish in the 55-meter dash, 9/100ths of a second off the national qualifying time. Banach was also fourth in the 200-meter dash (22.84).
Wabash will participate in the Tiger Invitational at DePauw University on February 16.