It may have taken 54 years, but the Wabash track & field team set a new school record in the 4x100m relay at the Huntsman Family Invitational on Saturday, April 8. With a time of 41.8 seconds, the Little Giants quartet of Sylvester Williams ’26, Seth Acero ’25, Will Newby ’26 and Julius Hearns ’25 beat a record set way back in 1969.
“It felt like it wasn’t real,” said Williams. “I would‘ve never thought in my first year of coming here I would be leaving a legacy behind and be number one in anything involving track and field records.”
The 4×100 team’s record-breaking performance was enough to earn them second place in the event behind Illinois Wesleyan. But the blisteringly quick time made headlines by breaking the record set 54 years ago by Ron Angel ’72, Bruce Bradway ’71, Jim Carpenter ’72 and Phil Allen ’69.
“It was a really great feeling,” Acero said. “Honestly, I’m really proud to be listed with a great group of men on the leaderboard.”
For his part in the relay performance, as well as his first-place finish in the 100m dash, Newby was named the NCAC Track and Field Sprints/Hurdles Athlete of the Week.
“For me it just felt like a matter of time,” said Newby. “We had taken all the proper steps to get ourselves in the position to break it—all it came down to was execution. Nonetheless, it was an honor and I look forward to many more to come.”
The new school record topped off a stellar team performance from the Little Giants, who placed first overall. The invitational featured eight teams, including Indiana rivals DePauw, Rose-Hulman and Anderson.
On top of Newby’s first-place finish in the 100m, Hearns placed third in the same event as well as taking second in the 200m dash.
In mid-distance events, Wabash runners took the top two spots in both the 400m and 800m dashes. TK Walls ’23 and Howie Steele ’24 finished first and second respectively at 400m while Hayden Diemer-McKinney ’26 finished first in the 800m, followed closely by Will Neubauer ’25 in second.
Thomas Gaines ’23 won the 3000m steeplechase. He narrow- ly won the event ahead of two DePauw runners, who stayed close behind for the length of the race.
“I put my head down and trusted my training from wire to wire, really focusing on pushing those last two laps to gap the DePauw guys,” said Gaines. “The team as a whole is accomplishing new feats every weekend, from setting the 4×100 school record to getting nine guys qualified for the conference 200m. I see how much work everyone is putting in, and it just lights a fire under all of us when we see it pay off for guys in competition.”
The 4x400m relay team of Steele, Walls, Diemer-McKinney and Nathan France ’24 brought home the first-place finish with a massive seven second lead over the second place team.
Wabash dominated the competition in throwing events, too. Quinn Sholar ’26 and Brandon English ’23 took the top two spots in shot put, while Reis Thomas ’23 and Sholar placed second and third in the discus throw. Sholar, who single handedly brought in 24 points for the Little Giants, also finished second in the hammer.
Wabash won the meet with an astonishing 222.50 points out of a possible 736. The Little Giants finished a full 83 points ahead of second place DePauw, who finished with 139.50.
“When we talk to our guys, we don‘t talk about scoring,” said Head Track and Field Coach Cly- de Morgan. “It‘s been like that for years. We focus on the little things. And at the end of the day we say, while we won that meet, we’ll focus on scoring when we get to conference. That’s when we say get your point. That’s when we say scrap, fight and claw for every point. That’s been our philosophy for a while. If we can better execute the little things, that will take care of the rest.”
This commanding victory suggests a hopeful future as Wabash prepares for their next meet, the Indiana Division III Championship, which will be hosted at DePauw on Saturday, April 15.