Canton, OH. – It was a historic week at the Mountain East Conference (MEC)/ Great Midwest Athletic Conference (GMAC) championships for the Wheeling Men's Swimming team. They picked up the first All-MEC honors in program history, and finished seventh in the field, their highest finish since the program's rebirth. The team took home their final two All-MEC honor of the event as they rounded things out on Saturday.
The All-MEC honor came in the 400-Yard Freestyle Relay as
Patrick Kirby,
Quintin Tayali,
Nathan Yost, and
Jiwh Santos competed. They would earn Honorable Mention All-MEC honors, swimming a time of 3:12.76 to finish 5th overall and third in the MEC. The group was the second relay team of the week to take home All-MEC honors as they rounded out the strong week. The other All-MEC honor would come in the 100-Yard Freestyle as
Jiwh Santos and
Quintin Tayali both swam in the B Finals. It would be Santos who took home the honor, his second of the event, as he earned Honorable Mention All-MEC with a time of 46.97. Tayali would finish right behind him, swimming a 47.01 to earn fourth in the conference in the event.
As the finals continued, the Cardinals would have two swimmers compete in the 200-Yard Backstroke with
Patrick Kirby swimming the B Final and
Alex Ferebee swimming the C Finals. Kirby would end up 14th overall and 7th in the MEC with a time of 2:03.69. Ferebee would then wrap things up in the C Finals as he took 24th with a time of 2:17.80 to wrap up the event. Ferebee would be right back up in the next event as he swam in the C Finals once again, this time in the 200-Yard Breaststroke. He would take 21st overall in the event, with a time of 2:38.53 to round out a strong day. The final finals swimmer for the Cardinals was
Rua Karimazondo, who was swimming in his first career final event, in the C Finals of the same 200-Yard Breaststroke. He would finish 24th with a time of 3:02.80 to round out the event.
The morning swims would begin with the 100-Yard Freestyle as Alberto Kofinke and Karimazondo competed in the 100-Yard Freestyle. Kofinke would place 30th with a time of 51.64 and Karimazondo added a 32nd place finish at 57.32. Kofinke would also be an alternate in the 200-Yard Backstroke, swimming a time of 2:29.34 as he rounded out the festivities.
The Wheeling University Men's Swimming team now heads into the offseason as they look to continue to grow the program in 2024-2025.
