Huntington, W. Va. – On Friday, the best of the best around the Mountain East Conference (MEC) met in Huntington, West Virginia for the 2022 MEC Indoor Track & Field Championships. It was a big day for the Cardinals as they had two individual MEC Championships crowned in the field events and several sprinters qualified for the finals in their events. Wheeling's goal set forth by head coach Patrick Stanton was to flood the finals, and Wheeling achieved that goal from the Chris Cline Indoor Athletic Facility.

The day started with the field events at 1 pm and the Cardinals got their day started strong. The Men's Long Jump was up first, and Wheeling would have their first MEC Champion crowned. Elijah Young would win the event with a distance of 6.80 meters as he got his first win of the season on the biggest stage. Teammate Brian Vandusen, who has been the top finisher of the season all year for the Cardinals, finished third in the event with a distance of 6.73 meters. On the women's side, Tara Perry competed in her first MEC Championship event and placed fourth in the Long Jump with a distance of 5.03 meters. Wheeling's second MEC champion came two events later when Keala McCurry won the women's pole vault with a height of 3.50 meters, she finished .30 meters higher than any other competitor, winning the first indoor championship of her collegiate career.

Both Men's Shot Put teams also competed on day one, and all three Wheeling athletes put up top-five finishes. On the Men's side, Zach Ekey had a new season-best performance and finished third in the event with a distance of 14.72 meters. Ashton Grounds followed right behind him with a distance of 13.75 meters good for fifth place on the day. On the women's side, Kamille Graham finished fourth overall throwing a distance of 11.32 meters while Liz Salas finished 13th with 9.33 meters. The Men's Pole Vault wrapped up the field events as Young was back competing. He finished with the seventh-highest vault of the day with a height of 4.10 meters.

As the event moved to the track, the Cardinals set themselves up for success on day two by flooding the finals. The Men's 60-Meter Dash kicked things off with Jabez Reeves placing second with a time of 6.85 seconds for his qualifying mark. On the women's side, Wheeling will send two athletes to the finals with Davina Norman and Susan Trammel both qualifying. Norman finished fourth in the field at 7.91 seconds and Trammel grabbed the final spot placing eighth with a season-best 8.00 seconds. Both the men and women will send three runners to the finals in the 60-Meter Hurdles rounding out a big day for the sprinters. On the Men's side, Julian Griffin won the qualifier (8.19) while Lorenzo Pelham finished third (8.31) and Damian Jackson finished sixth (8.49). On the women's side, Isha Sesay won the qualifier (8.93) while Tara Perry (9.20) and Jenay Soumharo (9.28) each qualified.

Up next were the 200-meter dash runners and once again both the men and the women had runners qualify for the finals. Reeves qualified for his second finals event of the day, finishing second with a time of 21.73, and Jacob Pielech will join him finishing the qualifier fourth at 22.30. On the women's side, Trammel qualified for her second finals event of the day finishing fourth in the qualifier with a time of 26.06. The 400-meter dash rounded out the day one qualifier with three more Cardinals qualifying for finals. Pielech would win the qualifier with a time of 48.75 seconds, qualifying for his second finals event, and T.J. Tindal would finish third with a time of 49.48. For the women, Soumharo qualified for the day two finals by finishing fourth at 61.46 seconds.

Wheeling's distance runners rounded out day one of competition with strong efforts on the track. Savanaugh Anderson would be the lone individual competitor, running the Women's 5,000-Meter, and finished seventh overall with a time of 18:39.16. The Men's and Women's Distance Medley teams were the last to go rounding out day one's track events. The Men's team finished 8th in the field at 11:49.58 with Pelham, Izaiah Browning, CJ Anderson, and Ryan Lucas running the event. On the women's side, Anderson, Caroline Fodor, Sophia Tomano, and Deja Ryals combined to finish fifth in the field with a time of 13:20.43.

Day Two of the MEC Indoor Championships is scheduled to begin Saturday at 11 AM. The field events begin at 11 AM followed by the Track events at 1 PM.