Five first-place finishes and 18 top-three efforts by the Wabash swimming and diving team came just short of providing enough points to knock off Albion College in the Little Giants' first home dual meet of the season Saturday afternoon. Wabash lost to the visiting Britons 129-111 in the second competition in 16 hours for the Little Giant team.
Ethan Johns turned in a pair of first-place finishes for Wabash. He swam to the top spot in the 200-yard freestyle with a winning time of 1:46.48. Teammate
Xander Straw took third place by finishing in 1:52.49. Johns added a first-place finish in the 100-yard freestyle, completing the race in  48:48.
Connor Craig placed third with a time of 48:89.
Straw provided his own victory by winning the 500-yard freestyle with a time of 5:01.39.
Barret Smith added an individual victory in the 200-yard backstroke by posting a time of 2:04.97.
The Wabash quartet of McCarty, Johns, Marc Nicholason, and Craig closed out the meet by winning the 400-yard freestyle relay, combining for a time of 3:15.04. The quartet of Straw,
Nicolas Hakimian,
Jacob Penrose, and
Ethan Comeyne finished the race in 3:27.75 to capture third place.
Penrose added a second-place finish in the 1,000-yard freestyle with a time of 10:30.71. Comeyne finished second in the 200-yard butterfly after touching the wall for the final time in 2:12.23.
Caleb McCarty captured second place in the 50-yard freestyle by finishing in 22.30. Eddie DeMata and
Justice Wenz finished second and third in the 200 breaststroke. DeMata finished the race in 2:18.45, while Wenz turned in a time of 2:21.81. Wenz added a third-place finish in the 200-yard individual medley with a time of 2:09.51.Â
Diver
William Morris scored a pair of second-place finishes for the Little Giants. He captured second place on the one-meter board by scoring 237.85 points. Morris picked up 220 points in three-meter competition to earn a second-place finish.
Smith, DaMata, Craig, and McCarty finished second in the 400-yard medley relay (3:43.28). Nicholson, Wenz, Hakimian, and
John Allen finished third overall (3:48.39).Â
Wabash will split its squad next weekend between meets at the University of Chicago on Friday and Saturday and competition at the University of Indianapolis on Saturday.
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