Wheeling, W. Va. – It was a special senior day celebration inside the Alma Grace McDonough Center Natatorium on Saturday as the Wheeling University Men's Swimming team honored a senior class that helped build the program. Nathan Yost and Alex Ferebee were the two honorees for the team, swimming in their final home events at Wheeling. It was a close battle throughout the day, but the Cardinals ended up falling to the Falcons 131-123.
Of the seniors, Nathan Yost would get the lone individual win, swimming in what was his final home event. He would take on the 500-Yard Freestyle, and picked up the win with a time of 5:21.63. He was able to beat out the rest of the field by nearly 20 seconds, warning himself a big win in what was his final event. It was the final event of a three-win day in which he took on two long distance events. The first of those events came in the first individual event of the day, as the senior took on the 1000-Yard Freestyle. He would finish 2nd with a time of 11:08.78, and rounded out his day with a fifth place finish in the 200-Yard Backstroke (2:17.25). Alex Ferebee would round out the day, taking sixth in three events, the 100 Backstroke (1:07.79), the 200 Backstroke (2:27.53) and the 100 Butterfly (57.99).
The day's individual events began with the 1000-Yard Freestyle, where Sarp Killic would pick up the first of two wins on the day. He took the top spot with a time of 10:54.14 and got the Cardinals started on a strong note. Killic's other individual win would come in the 100-Yard Freestyle, where he took the top spot with a time of 49.13. The other multi-event winner for the Cardinals was Euan MacLeod, who took wins in both the 100-Yad Breastroke and the 50-Yard Freestyle. His first win would come in the 100-Yard Breastroke, where he swam a time of 59.64, and he followed that with a time of 21.69 in the 50-Yard Freestyle to round out his day. His third and final win of the day came in the 100-Yard Butterfly, where he took the top spot with a time of 52.25.
The final two wins for the Cardinals came in the relay events with the team swimming in the 200-Yard Freestyle Relay to round out the day. The team of MacLeod, Killic, Evan Yost, and Gustav Lofqvist would take on the event, and combined to take the top spot with a time of 1:28.93. The final relay would be the first of the day as Evan Yost, Matthew Charlesworth, Nate Yost, and Patrick Kirby would take on the event. They would finish second overall with a time of 1:45.16, finishing eight seconds shy of Fairmont State for the top spot.
The Wheeling University Men's Swimming team returns to action on Saturday, February 1st, when they take on Penn State Behrend and Alfred State in tri-meet action at 1 PM.
