Wheeling, W. Va. – On Saturday, the Wheeling University Indoor Track & Field team opened up the 2024 portion of their schedule on Saturday, headlining a big week of action for the Wheeling Athletics Department. It was a pair of big efforts from that Track & Field team that headlined this week's Cardinals High Flyers of the Week Awards. Pole Vaulter
Keala McCurry would be named the Female High Flyer of the Week and sprinter
Moses Koroma was named the Male High Flyer of the Week.
The final full week of January kicked off on the hard wood as the Cardinals traveled to Glenville State. The Women fell behind early, but it wasn't enough as they fell 78-58. The Men's game would come down to the final seconds of the game, but like the women the men would fall 77-76 to start the week. The rest of the action came on Saturday, with both basketball teams, both swim teams, and Track & Field were in action. The women's basketball team would bounce back at home against Concord whole the men were locked in another close matchup that ended in a 94-88 loss. The swim teams had some big individual performers down in Fairmont State, but both would fall on the team side. The track team wrapped things up at the SPIRE Midwest Open, with two athletes taking gold medals. In total, the Cardinals went 1-5 in record games, but saw their share of individual successes.
On the male side,
Moses Koroma took home his first Cardinal High Flyer of the Week award of the season. He competed in the 60-Meter Hurdle at the SPIRE Midwest Open and had a big jump throughout the day. Koroma began things in the preliminaries, winning his heat with a time of 8.15 seconds. However, he turned it to the next level when he made it to the finals competing against the top runners at the event. He dropped his preliminary time by .17 seconds to run a 7.98 and take the title. It was the fifth fastest time in the nation and gave him the NCAA Provisional mark. It was just .06 seconds slower than his PR of 7.92 seconds, which he hit last season. He looks to get back to the NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships and has himself set up for a strong run.
On the women's side,
Keala McCurry is also taking home her first High Flyer of the Week award of the season. McCurry would compete in the Pole Vault and vaulted her way to the top height in the MEC. She began at the 3.25 meter height and would clear it on the first try. She would continue to clear heights on the first try all the way to her top mark of 3.45 meters. She would fail to pass the 3.55 meter mark, but won the event because of her earlier success. With the mark, she set the highest vault in the MEC this season and was named the Women's Indoor Track & Field athlete of the week. It was just .05 meters below her mark from last season's MEC Indoor Track & Field Championships and .30 meters behind her PR for the event.
The Wheeling Indoor Track & Field sweeps the honors for the first time this season as both teams earn their first award winners of the year. Last week, Wrestling's Jake Powell and Women's Basketball's Kenzie Dalton took home the awards. As 2024 moves on, Wheeling Track & Field looks to continue racking up the awards as they finish the Indoor Track & Field season.
The next Wheeling University Athletic event is scheduled for Friday, January 26th, when the Indoor Track & Field team competes at the Douglas Raymond Invitational.
