GRANVILLE, Ohio — Wabash College positioned itself in the thick of the team race Wednesday night, piling up 68 points in men's three-meter diving and adding two strong relay finishes to stand third after the opening session of the North Coast Athletic Conference Swimming and Diving Championships at the Trumbull Aquatics Center on the campus of Denison University.
Through three events, the Little Giants totaled 178 points. Host Denison leads with 234 points, followed by Kenyon with 183. DePauw sits fourth at 160, with Oberlin (133), John Carroll (120), Wooster (112), Ohio Wesleyan (100), and Wittenberg (48) completing the standings .
Wabash made its biggest impact in the opening event of the meet — men's three-meter diving — where three Little Giants scored.
Freshman
Fox Seebach advanced to the championship final and finished eighth overall with a finals score of 257.90 to earn 25 team points. Junior
Michael Cruzado added 24 points with a ninth-place finish after posting a career-best score of 241.55 in finals competition. Sophomore
Liam Fuller contributed 19 points with an 11th-place finish in preliminaries, giving Wabash 68 total points in the event.
The diving depth allowed Wabash to remain within striking distance of the leaders heading into the swimming relays.
In the men's 200-yard medley relay, the quartet of
Ryan West,
Lew Sams,
Owen Thomas, and
Quinn Sweeney placed seventh in 1:33.27 to trim 10 seconds off the best time of the season and collect 52 points. West led off in 23.51 seconds on the backstroke, Sams delivered a 26.15 second-leg split, Thomas swam 23.12 on the third leg, and Sweeney anchored in 20.49.
Wabash closed the session with another significant relay performance in the 800-yard freestyle relay. The team of Sweeney, West,
Nicholas Plumb, and
Mason Gilliam finished fourth in 6:48.47, another 10-second improvement, to earn 58 points. Sweeney opened in 1:43.07, West followed in 1:41.64, Plumb swam 1:41.23, and Gilliam anchored in 1:42.53 as the Little Giants held off DePauw and Wooster for fourth place.
The championships continue through Saturday. Thursday's competition begins with preliminary heats at 9:30 a.m., followed by finals at 6 p.m. at the Trumbull Aquatics Center.
