Injuries worked against the Wabash swimming and diving team on Friday night against a Rose-Hulman team that turned in one of its best performances of the young season, defeating the Little Giants 131-110 in the Class of 1950 Natatorium.
The meet opened well for the Little Giants when the 200-yard medley relay team of Brett Findley (Bargersville, IN/Franklin Community), Colin Fahey (Indianapolis, IN/Bishop Chatard), Matthew Perkins (Indianapolis, IN/Brownsburg), and Stephen Birrer (Indianapolis, IN/Brownsburg) took first place with a time of 1:42.77. Findley followed with another first in the 1000-yard freestyle (10:49.01) to give the Little Giants an early lead. But Rose-Hulman responded with two first-place finishes in the 200- and 50-yard freestyle to move back in front.
Freshman Michael Hewitt (Greenwood, IN/Center Grove) brought Wabash closer with a first in the 200-yard individual medley (2:04.84), with teammate Jeddah Wegerhoff (Avon, IN/Avon) finishing third (2:11.47). The Little Giants followed with an incredible 1-2-3 finish in the 100-yard butterfly. Hewitt touched first in 55.83, followed by senior Brandon Peacock (Crawfordsville, IN/Crawfordsville) in second (55.87), and Christopher Bly (Indianapolis, IN/Lawrence North) in third (57.80).
But Rose-Hulman took its own top-three sweep in the 100 free to push back in front. Junior Ben Hewitt (Greenwood, IN/Center Grove) added a first in the 100-yard breaststroke with a top time of 1:02.72, but it was not quite enough to overcome the Engineers’ lead.
"I’m very proud of our effort tonight," said head coach Peter Casares. "I’m not concerned about the final score or whether we won or lost. I’m thrilled with the improvement and the effort I saw from the team. We’re pretty beat up right now. I’ve got swimmers with broken hands and bad shoulders. Wins and losses don’t matter as much in swimming and diving. It’s about improving times and building a base for February and March."
The Little Giants return to the water on Saturday with a 2 p.m. meet at Transylvania University in Lexington, Kentucky.