Crawfordsville, Ind. — The Wabash College swimming and diving team opened the 2025 Gail Moll Pebworth Invitational with a series of strong performances Friday night at the Crawfordsville High School Aquatics Center, highlighted by sophomore
Mason Gilliam's individual victory in the 500-yard freestyle and a commanding win in the 400-yard medley relay. The Little Giants finished day one in third place with 301 points, trailing DePauw (412) and Ohio Northern (332) after the first day of competition.
Gilliam delivered the program's first event title of the weekend by winning the 500 freestyle in 4:39.90 to secure 23 points. Freshman
Zach Baty placed 10th in 4:54.49 after reaching the A final, while junior
William Renie (4:56.33) and freshman
Carter Ramsey (4:58.36) scored with 12th- and 13th-place swims. Sophomore
Mark Berger added a 19th-place finish in 5:04.96.
Sophomore
Ryan West provided another top performance, winning by over two second in the 200-yard individual medley. West touched in 1:51.62 and finished ahead of the second-place time of 1:53.90. Freshman
Lew Sams added a sixth-place finish in 1:58.80, and freshman
Alijah Hall placed 10th overall in 2:00.97.
Junior
Quinn Sweeney led the Wabash sprinters with a third-place finish in the 50-yard freestyle, clocking 21.24. Freshman
Nate Marshall contributed an 18th-place finish in 22.04.
Wabash opened the meet with a fifth-place showing in the 200-yard freestyle relay. The A team of
John Allen, Marshall,
Grayson Goff, and Sweeney finished in 1:27.10. The Little Giants also earned points from their C relay (
Michael Cruzado, Renie, Hall, and
Abbas Hakim; 12th, 1:30.11) and B relay (Sams,
Owen Thomas, Gilliam, and
Jace Caldwell; 13th, 1:30.29).
The night ended with Wabash's most dominant performance, as the A relay of West, Sams, Sweeney, and Marshall won the 400-yard medley relay in 3:25.13, outpacing DePauw and Ohio Northern with a strong closing leg from Marshall. The B relay of
Nicholas Plumb, Hakim, Thomas, and Renie finished sixth in 3:35.79, and the C relay of Hall,
Cooper Kowalski,
Carter Ramsey, and Allen added a 13th-place finish in 3:44.09.
Competition continues on Saturday with the preliminary round of swimming starting at 10 a.m. The first day of diving competition at the Class of 1950 Natatorium on the Wabash College campus starts at 1 p.m. Swimming finals start at the CHS Aquatics Center at 5:30 p.m.
