Wheeling, W. Va. – After competing in their first dual meet a week ago, the Wheeling University Men's Swimming team was in their home pool for the first time on Wednesday. They would host a non-conference Tri-Meet against Washington & Jefferson and Salem, and the Cardinals came away with their first sweep of the season. The Cardinals defeated the Presidents 111-79 and followed with a 98-89 win to complete the sweep over Salem.
The big performance came in the Men's 50-Yard Freestyle as he continued his run as a sprinter. MacLeod took the top spot with a time of 21.37, breaking the old record of 21.57 by .20 of a second. It was the lone individual swim of the day for the freshman, but he would also be part of both winning relays teams for the Cardinals. In the 400-Yard Medley Relay, he teamed up with
Evan Yost,
Patrick Kirby, and
Gustav Lofqvist and took the top spot with a time of 3:42.00. He was also part of the winning foursome that rounded out the day competing in the 800 Freestyle Relay. This time, it was MacLeod, Kirby, Sarp Killic, and
Arvid Hoglund who teamed up in the effort, swimming a time of 7:27.14. With the win in his individual event, MacLeod has now won four straight individual events and looks to keep his success going.
Following the opening relay win and MacLeod's win, the Cardinal's next first place finish came from Hoglund as he swam in the 100-Yard Butterfly. He would take the top spot with a time of 55.71 to kickstart what would be a big day for the freshman. In the next event,
Gustav Lofqvist would take on the 100-Yard Freestyle, securing the team's third individual win of the day. He swam a time of 51.09 as he took first for the first time this season. Two events later, the Cardinals were back in the win column as Killic took on the 500-Yard Freestyle. He would swim his best time of the season, putting up a time of 5:08.42, beating his previous best by five seconds and the rest of the field by 15 seconds. It would be the final gold of the day for the Cardinals, as they finished with four individual and two relay wins, and was enough to earn the sweep.
The Cardinals's first individual swim of the day was the 1650 Freestyle, and
Nathan Reigel would take second with a time of 18:52.66. In the next event, Sarp would take on the 200-Yard Freestyle and put together his second personal best time of the season, with a second place finish that came down to the stretch. He swam a time of 1:48.57 and claimed second overall in the event. The final top three finish of the day would come in the 100-Yard Backstroke, where
Evan Yost took third with a time of 58.52.
The Wheeling University Men's Swimming team returns to action on Saturday, October 19th, when they battle Malone at 1 PM.
