Canton, OH. - The Malone Invitational continued on Friday with the start of the Individual events as the Wheeling University Women's Swimming team flooded the finals. Every swimmer on the roster competed in at least one final event on the day as the team sits 5th overall after two days of competition. It was a big day for the Cardinals, with three top five finishes leading the way for the Cardinals.
Leading the way for the Cardinals was junior Jade Miller, who swam in one final event on the day and added a run on one relay event. Her top finish of the day came in the 100-Yard Backstroke, where Miller finished second overall with a time of 1:00.50. She finished .73 seconds behind Fairmont State's Lexi Antol for the top spot as she continues to train to defend her MEC title from a season ago. She would wrap up her day as the first leg of the 200-Yard Medley Relay team, swimming Marra Johnson, Sofia Castillo, and Caitlin Oltman to finish fifth overall with a time of 1:55.38. Miller was the top point scorer on the day for the Cardinals as she continues to lead the team through the first half of the season.
The other top five individual finishes on the day came from Castillo, Grace Moorley, and Gabby Baiano who each were swimming in their first finals as a Cardinal. Sofia Castillo swam in the A finals of the 400-Yard Individual Medley and would place 5th overall with a time of 5:11.08. She was as high as third place after the first 50 yards and had a strong showing on day two. The other two top five finishes came in the same event as Baiano and Moorley competed in the 200-Yard Freestyle. Baiano led the way, taking second with a time of 1:59.08 and Moorley finished 4th overall. Olivia Moyer would finish just outside the top five in her two events, taking 6th in the 100-Yard Butterfly (1:02.33) and 7th in the 100-Yard Backstroke (1:03.90).
Maria Jones and Elizabeth Strange rounded out the day for the Cardinals, swimming in the final three individual events on the night. Jones swam in two different events, taking on the 50-Yard Freestyle (30th, 27.33) and the 100-Yard Backstroke (28th, 1:09.66). Strange swam in the final individual event of the day, taking 31st in the 100-Yard Backstroke with a time of 1:14.35.
The Wheeling University Women's Swimming team takes on the final day of the Malone Invitational, with the prelims at 9 AM and the finals at 6 PM.
