Wheeling, W. Va. - The 2025-2026 season kicked off for the Wheeling University Men's Swimming team Over the weekend at the West Virginia University games on Monday, the Mountain East Conference (MEC) released their weekly Player of the Week honors, presented by The Healthplan, and a strong debut would earn the Cardinals a spot on the list. Freshman swimmer Segmen Duygun would lead the Cardinals in their season opener and earned the MEC's Male Swimmer of the Week award for his efforts.
It was a busy day In the pool for Duygun, who swam in five individual events and three relays to open his season. He was able to finish top 10 in every event he competed in on the day, with two of those being in the top five. When it came to the relay events, he was the leadoff man in the 400-Yard Freestyle Relay, serving as the middle leg. The 200-Yard Freestyle and 200-Yard Medley Relays. The freshman would be a part of three more top 10 finishes for the team and finished as the highest point scorer for both the Cardinals and the MEC at the event. He finished with 533.2 Total points in the event and was one of two Cardinals to earn a medal on the day. He competed across events both in the long distance and short distance on the day, including both the 100 and 200-Yard Butterfly, but it was his work in the long distance events that earned him the conference swimmer of the week award.
His best showing would come in the 500-Yard Freestyle, where he earned his bronze medal with a time of 4:51.47. he would finish as the top swimmer in the MEC in the event and was just 9 seconds behind WVU's Ian McKinney For the top spot in the field. He would beat out the next closest MEC swimmer by 7 seconds as he started his day off strong. He would come back in the 1000-yard Freestyle And put together his second top five performance of the day. He would end up taking fifth overall with a time of 10:09.44, picking up his biggest margin of victory over a conference opponent. He beat the next closest MEC swimmer, Fairmont State's Adam Fubio, by a full two minutes in the field. Although he was more than 30 seconds off the pace of WVU's Jake Salcedo for the event lead, It was a strong debut for Duygun, as he looks to lead the distance group for this year's team.
With Segmen Duygun's award, Wheeling has now had 15 student athletes earn Conference Player of the Week honors. He is the first Wheeling Men's Swimmer to take home the honors this season, and the first swimmer since former Cardinal Euan MacLeod won the award back on January 6th, 2025. He is also the third Cardinal to win honors this week, joining Wheeling Football player Conor Fitzpatrick and Wheeling Volleyball player Mara McDougal in being honored.
The Wheeling University Men's Swimming team returns to action on Saturday, October 11th, when they take on Frostburg State and West Virginia Wesleyan at 1 PM.
