Freshman Rob Smallman thrilled the crowd attending the Wabash Alumni Indoor Track and Field Invitational Saturday afternoon in his pole vault dual with University of Indianapolis athlete Cory Fornal. The two kept moving the bar higher and higher until Smallman cleared 15 feet, 5 inches to crush the meet record while winning the event and qualifying for the NCAA national championship meet.
Smallman's effort was nearly two feet higher than the previous meet mark of 13 feet, 6 inches and equaled the national "B" cut qualifying mark of 4.70 meters. (View photos from the meet.)
While Smallman was destroying the meet record, teammate Robert Trahin was adding a third place finish to the Little Giants' team efforts. Trahin cleared 14 feet, 6 inches to also shatter the previous meet mark.
The pole vault wasn't the only meet record to fall at the hands --- or more appropriately the feet --- of the Little Giants Saturday.
The 800-meter relay broke the record in that event, set by the 2005 Wabash squad. This year's quartet finished in 1:32.59 to cross the line ahead of the previous record of 1:33.11.
Sophomore Emmanuel Aouad picked up two victories, one in the 55-meter hurdles. He finished second in the preliminaries before running away from the field in the finals with a time of 7.74 on the stopwatch, less than a 10th of a second off the record mark. Earlier in the day Auoad had already taken home first place in the long jump with a mark of 22 feet, 5 inches.
Senior Ben Bly raced to the top spot in the mile with a winning time of 4:37.21. Bart Banach tied for first in the final posting of the 400-meter run with a time of 51.5 on the watch to equal the time of Dustin Wilson from St. Francis. Geoff Lambert was less than a second behind in third at 52.1.
Hugh Jackson took second in the 5,000-meter run, finishing in 15:57.11.
Richard Roomes took third in the 200 meters with a time of 23.40. Wade Heiny was third in the high jump after clearing 5-10. Freshman Wes Chamblee was fourth in both of those events. He finished with a time of 23.48 in the 200 and cleared 5-10 in the high jump after Heiny had already completed his jump.
Wabash scored a total of 112 points, trailing only the University of Indianapolis with 147. The Little Giants will compete at the North Coast Athletic Conference Relays Saturday at Denison University.