Canton, OH. – After three long days of competition, the Wheeling University Women's Swimming team wrapped up the GMAC/MEC Championships on Friday. The team would finish fifth overall in the field, third among MEC competition, as they sent five more swimmers to the finals. The team brought home their second Individual MEC Champion of the event and had another swimmer write their name in the team history books in the 1650 Freestyle.
After winning the MEC Individual Championship in the 100 Backstroke yesterday, sophomore
Jade Miller was back at it in the 200 Yard Backstroke on day two. It was the same event Miller won last season, and she qualified for the A Finals once again this season with a time of 2:11.93. She came back in the night cap, and would swim against Lydia Nebiolo for the MEC Championship. Miller would get the job done, dropping her time by .90 seconds to 2:11.03 to claim her second Individual title of the tournament and her second straight individual title in the 200 Yard Backstroke. It was a big ending to a strong sophomore season as she earned her second First Team All-MEC honor of the tournament and her fourth total award of the event.
The next top swimmer was freshman
Gabby Baiano, who swam in the nightcap in the finals of the 1650 Freestyle. The freshman set a huge PR by just over 14 seconds as she finished third in the MEC (6th overall) with a time of 18:07.71. That was good for the third fastest time in school history as the freshman continues to write her name in the Wheeling history books. The Cardinals continued their success as the night went on as
Meredith Mandal and
Marra Johnson each qualified for the B Finals of the 200 Yard Breaststroke. They would swim against each other in the final event, with Johnson taking fourth (11th overall) in the conference with a time of 2:31.37 while Mandal finished 7th in the conference (16th overall) with a time of 2:38.59.
The final two swimmers to compete in the day four finals were
Olivia Moyer in the 200 Yard Backstroke and
Caitlin Oltman in the 100 Yard Freestyle. Oltman was up first in the 100 Freestyle and swam in the C Finals. She would take 5th in the MEC (19th overall) with a time of 56.36 to conclude her strong freshman campaign. Moyer joined Miller in the 200 Yard Backstroke, qualifying for the C Finals with a time of 2:22.98. She came back in the C Finals and dropped her time by just under a second with a time of 2:21.74 to take 10th in the conference (21st overall). While they didn't make the day four finals,
Maria Jones and
Elizabeth Strange each had PRs in the morning's prelims. Jones set a PR in the 100 Yard Freestyle with a time of 59.13 seconds, while Strange's PR was in the 200 Backstroke where she swam a 2:38.28.
The Wheeling University Women's Swimming team had a big year in 2022-23 and now heads towards the off-season as they look to continue to build the foundation of a strong program.
