Two freshman pole vaulters catapulted the Wabash track and field team to third place after the first day at the 2008 North Coast Athletic Conference Men's Championship Meet. Rob Trahin earned All-Conference honors with a first place finish while teammate Rob Smallman grabbed second at the annual meet, held Thursday and Friday at Ohio Wesleyan University.
Trahin (right) was the first to clear 4.39 meters, or 14 feet, 4-3/4 inches. Smallman cleared the same height on a later attempt to score All-Conference honors, as well as add a total of 18 points to the Little Giants' team totals. Nelson Barre nearly picked up an additional point, clearing 3.89 meters (12 feet, 9 inches), but finished just out of the points in ninth. Barre had scored the first points of the championship meet a week earlier with a sixth-place finish in the decathlon.
Sophomore Emmanuel Aouad (left) picked up his first of what could be several All-NCAC Awards with a second place finish in the long jump. His leap of 6.69 meters (21 feet, 11-1/2 inches) trailed only David Burke from Ohio Wesleyan (22 feet, 2-1/2 inches). Aouad posted the top qualifying time in the 110-meter hurdles, advancing to Saturday's finals with a time of 15.43. He was also the second-fastest in the preliminary round of the 400-meter hurdles with a time of 55.85. The only faster time was posted by his freshman teammate, Wes Chamblee, finishing in 55.16.
Richard Roomes will compete in two finals Friday afternoon after finishing in the top-eight in Thursday's prelims. The Wabash senior ran the third-best time in the 200-meter dash (22.88) and earned the last spot in the finals of the 400-meter dash with a time of 51.32.
Senior Geoff Lambert is poised to win his fourth consecutive 800-meter conference title. He posted the top time in the preliminaries at 1:55.51, two seconds faster than the second-place competitor.
Two other Little Giants scored points for the team on Thursday. Junior Joshua Gangloff took seventh place in the shot put with a mark of 13.16 meters (43 feet, 2-1/4 inches). Senior Justin Sparks finished eighth in the discus with a throw of 38.55 meters (126 feet, 6 inches).
Allegheny leads the competition with 59 points. OWU is second (56) with Wabash third (32). Oberlin (27), Earlham (24), Wooster (24), Wittenberg (12), Denison (0), Hiram (0), and Kenyon (0) round out the remainder of the team scoring