Spartanburg, SC. – Over the past nine days, the Wheeling University Men's and Women's Swimming teams headed down to Flordia and South Carolina for their Winter Training trip. The run wrapped up with a dual meet as the Cardinals took on Converse University and Lenoir-Rhyne in dual meet action. The women would drop both halves of the dual meet, falling to Converse 148-110 and dropping their contest against Lenoir-Rhyne 143-104.

Leading the way for the Cardinals were junior Jade Miller and sophomore Gabby Baiano, who each picked up a pair of wins on the day. The first win would come in long distance, with Baiano taking on the 1650 Freestyle. She would beat the rest of the field by 35 seconds, swimming a time of 18:41.08 to start the day. Two events later, it was Miller's turn to grab the gold as she won the 50-Yard Backstroke. She swam a time of 28.77 as she continues her dominance of the Backstroke events looking to defend her titles from 2023. It was the first of two Backstroke events on the day for Miller as her second win came in the 100-Yard Backstroke with a time of 1:02.78. Baiano would round out the first place finishes in the 500-Yard Freestyle, where she swam a 5:27.12 to claim the top spot.

Following Baiano's win in the first event, Grace Moorley and Chelsea McIntosh each picked up top five finishes in the 200-Yard Freestyle. Moorley would take second at 2:04.52 and McIntosh took fifth at 2:22.83. In the 50-Yard Breaststroke, Marra Johnson would pick up her first top five finish of the day, taking fifth with a time of 35.09. Baiano was back in the top five in the 11th event of the day as she took third in the 100-Yard Butterfly with a time of 1:05.28, while teammate Sofia Castillo finished right behind her in fourth at 1:06.40. Caitlin Oltman led the way in the 50-Yard Freestyle, taking second with a time of 26.80 while Maria Jones added a fourth place finish at 28.34. Oltman would add another top five finish in the 100-Yard Freestyle, taking fifth with a time of 58.97, while Johnson and Miller rounded out the day with a third place finish in the 100-Yard Breaststroke at 1:15.40 for Johnson and a third place finish in the 400 IM for Miller at 4:53.70.

The final two events of the day would be relay races as the women swam in the 200-Yard Medley Relay and the 200 Freestyle Relay. Moorley, Miller, Castillo, and Oltman started things in the 200-Yard Medley Relay, and took third with a time of 1:58.63. The final race of the day would be the 200-Yard Freestyle Relay, where Moorley, Oltman, Baiano, and Johnson took third at 1:48.08.

The Wheeling University Women's Swimming team returns to action on Friday, January 12th, when they head to the Vulcan Invitational at 5 PM.