Canton, OH. - After swimming the relays and long distance events on Thursday, it was time for the individual swims as the Wheeling University Men's Swimming team took the pool for day two of the Malone Invitational. The Cardinals sit in eighth place out of 14 teams after day one, and had two swimmers put together historic efforts to kick things off. Quintin Tayali and Jiwh Santos each wrote their name in the all-time swimming record books, leading the team in the first day of finals events.
Both swimmers got things started with a bang as they took on the 50-Yard Freestyle in the first event of the evening session. Santos took the lead early, finishing 4th with a time of 21.42 as he fell just 0.81 seconds behind the race leader. It was good enough for a top 10 mark all-time in program history as he started off strong in the first of three races for the Graduate Student. He picked up another top five finish in program history in his other individual event, swimming in the 100-Yard Backstroke. He finished ninth overall with a time of 54.32 as he rounded out a strong day in the individual swims. He rounded out his day as a member of the 200-Yard Medley Relay team, where he, Patrick Kirby, Nathan Yost, and Quintin Tayali finished 8th with a time of 1:39.69.
The other historic effort came from Tayali, who finished right behind Santos in the 50-Freestyle to kick his day off. He swam a time of 21.46 seconds, finishing just .04 seconds behind Santos, and also landed in the top 10 all-time in the 50-Yard Freestyle. However, his biggest swim came in the 100-Yard Butterfly, where he posted the fourth fastest time in program history. He finished third in the field, swimming a 50.39 to finish 1.07 seconds off the pace of the leader as he continues to lead the Cardinals in the short distance swims. The other Cardinal to swim in a pair of final swims was freshman Patrick Kirby, who took 17th in the B Final of the 100-Yard Butterfly (55.82) and 15th in the 100-Yard Backstroke B Finals (56.36).
The other three Cardinals to take the pool were Alberto Kofinker, Alex Ferebee, and Brayden Scott to round out the effort. Kofinke was the only one of the final three swimmers to swim in a final event, taking on the C Finals of the 50-Yard Freestyle. He took 23rd overall with a time of 23.08, and added a 28th place finish in the 100-Yard Backstroke with a time of 1:01.07. Ferebee and Scott each swam in one individual event on the day to round things out, with Ferebee swimming in the 100-Yard Backstroke (29th, 1:01.92) and Scott swimming in the 100-Yard Butterfly (31st, 1:09.11).
The Wheeling University Men's Swimming team returns to action for day three of the Malone Invitational on Saturday, November 18th, when they take on day three of the Malone Invitational, beginning at 9 AM.
