Results

A touch at the wall for the Wabash A and B relay teams gave the Little Giants a one-point margin in Friday's 147.5 to 146.5 victory over Rose-Hulman to open the home portion of the 2013-14 season.
 
Wabash held a narrow lead entering the final event of the night, the 400-yard freestyle relay. The Little Giants need to either win the relay or take second and third places to capture the team title. While the Rose A relay took first place with a time of 3:13.25, Aaron Troyer, Chris McGue, Carter Adams, and Elliot Johns secured second place with a time of 3:16.11
The final relay points came down to 24/100^th of a second to determine the winner. The quartet of Josh McCabe, Dylan Miller, Jake Childress, and Jack Belford --- who had just competed in the 200-yard individual medley moments before the start of the final relay --- grabbed third place with a time of 3:22.75. The Rose B relay took fourth place by finishing in 3:22.99.

View photos from the meet here.

The win was the first dual meet victory for new head coach Brent Noble.

"That relay couldn't have been more fitting for this meet. It seemed like every event came down to the touch. I'm glad it went our way that time. It happened that way for a reason. We're doing a lot of things right at this time, and racing hard and fighting are definitely two of those."
 
The Little Giants opened the meet with another pair of second- and third-place relay finishes, this time in the 200 medley relay. Childress, Zechariah Banks, Adams, and McGue finished second (1:37.27), while McCabe, Josh Bleisch, Troyer, and Steve Batchelder snared third place (1:40.07).
 
Joel Paquin and Arturo Granados finished second and third, respectively, in the 1000 freestyle. Paquin touched in 10:06.46, while Granados turned in a time of 10:20.52. Andy Chorpenning added a fourth-place finish (10:36.89).
 
Johns won the 200 free (1:47.28) with Batchelder right behind in second with a time of 1:49.67. Adam Barnes took fourth place by finishing in 1:51.64. Childress added an individual victory in the 100 backstroke, touching the wall in 54.10 just ahead of Troyer in second place (55.44).
 
Banks captured the 100 breaststroke title with a time of 1:00.37. Bleisch tied for second with Rose-Hulman's Andrew Podgorski with identical times of 1:01.91. Banks also won the 200 individual medley by finishing in 1:58.88 and the 200 breaststroke with a time of 2:13.53. Belford turned in a time of 2:03.77 before jumping back in the water as the anchor in the final relay.
 
Belford won his own individual title in the 500 free by touching the wall in 4:48.85. Paquin finished second in the 500 free (4:56.75) with Granados adding a third-place finish (4:57.73). Belford also  took second in the 200 butterfly (1:59.12) while Adams scored a third-place finish (2:00.10). Batchelder finished second to Banks in the 200 breaststroke (2:16.23). Bleisch added a fourth-place finish (2:19.52) in that race.
 
Johns won the 100 freestyle (48.55) and finished second in the 50 free (22.12). McGue took third in the 50 free, while Miller finished fifth (22.70). Miller was also fourth in the 100 free (50.10). McGue captured fifth place in that race (50.19).  
 
Childress scored first-place points for Wabash in the 200 backstroke, finishing in 1:59.88. Troyer took third place with a time of 2:02.86.
 
Adams scored a third-place finish in the 100 butterfly by touching the wall in 53.80 ahead of Clayton Highum in fifth place (55.61) to set up the final two events.
 
Wabash did not have anyone participating in one- or three-meter diving, giving the Fighting Engineers 32 free points in the team scoring.

"We walked in pretty confident for a really good reason," Noble said. "We know we have to fight that uphill battle against the diving points. We know who we are and we know what we're capable of and tonight was a sneak peak at that.
 
"That finish was about as exciting as it gets. The guys were faster than they've ever been at this time of the year collectively. We are excited about where we are and where we going. Now we're going to ride this excitement into the next week-and-a half of preparing and training."
 
The Little Giants will compete against arch-rival DePauw University next Wednesday, November 13, at 7 p.m. in Greencastle, Indiana.