Howard W. Hewitt - Canton, Ohio - Wabash College swimmers got off to a good start in Thursday morning's preliminary rounds of the NCAC swim meet.

Wabash College is hosting the 2007 meet. To provide the Wabash community with up-to-date results, we've created this blog for frequent updates and photos.

Coach Peter Cesares was measured in evaluating his team's performance. "Tonight will be our night," he said of the morning swim. The coach was happy with most of the swims, but thought a couple of swimmers might have snuck into the finals who just missed out.

One relay team was disqualified in the morning's last event, the 400 medley relay. But the morning got off with good relay news. The 200 free relay team qualified first with a 1:26. Kenyon College, the 27-time defending national champs, will look different tonight though. They played the morning swim safe in qualifying.

Much has been made of the Wabash freshman class and they didn't disappoint. Elijah Sanders '10 claimed the 8th and final spot in the 500 freestyle, matching his season best time of 4:46. The 500 was good to Wabash with Craig Vetor and Brent Graham qualifying other finals heats.

Kyle Weaver '07 qualified fifth in the 50 freestyle at 21.46 putting him in the hunt. Kenyon sophomore Josh Mitchell wowed the morning crowd with a 20.85 swim in the 50. Three Wabash swimmers including Blaine Cooper-Surma, Jordan Extine, and Robert Fozkos made the finals cut. Cooper-Surma missed the finals' cut by 4-tenths of a second.

The Little Giant medley relay team qualified 5th at 3:38 but the "B" squad was disqualified.

Today's events included the 500, and 50 freestyle races. The 200 individual medley, 200 free relay and 400 medley relay. Diving starts Friday with the 3-meter competition.

Results will be posted live throughout the meet. Meet Director and Wabash College Sports Information Director Brent Harris will be posting all results to the Wabash Sports Website. Click here to see meet results.

The finals for the morning events are tonight. I'll update the blog late this evening.

In photos: Top left, freshman Robert Dent is fast off the blocks. Center right, Adam Petro closes a gap in the medly relay. Lower left, Casares and his team cheer on a Little Giant swimmer.