Canton, OH. - After three tough days of competition, the Wheeling University Men's Swimming team wrapped up competition at the Malone Midseason Invitational on Saturday. The Cardinals, who had held a top three spot throughout the competition, would finish in that third place, spot scoring 1,016 points and finishing as the top team among Mountain East Conference (MEC) competition at the event. They would be led by a pair of fourth place finishes, sending five swimmers to A Final performances on the day.
Leading the way for the Cardinals were a pair of fourth place finishes, beginning with the first event of the day in the 1650 Freestyle. Segmen Duygun, who has led the long distance group throughout the season, competed in the event for the first time this season and had a strong debut. He would finish fourth overall in the event, swimming a time of 16:33.86, and finishing as the only MEC swimmer in the top five of the event. The other top five finisher for the Cardinals would come three events later, when Archie Pigott took the pool in the 200-Yard Breaststroke. Pigott had taken top five finishes on each of the first two days of competition, and kept that success going, taking fourth overall with a time of 2:06.39. He rounded out a strong competition for the Cardinals, and both swimmers look to continue their growth into the second half of the season.
Wheeling's last A Final swimmer would also come in the 200-Yard Breaststroke, when Matthew Charlesworth took the pool. He would finish two spots behind Pigott, swimming a time of 2:14.10 to round out the event. Pigott and Charlesworth were the only two MEC swimmers in the A Final of the event and represented the conference well. Aris Dimakis kept the success going in the 100-Yard Freestyle, where he finished 7th overall. He would swim a time of 46.72 and finished just under two seconds behind the top spot. The final top 10 finish of the final day would come in the 100-Yard Freestyle as Nathaniel Olivares would swim in the B Final of the event. He would swim a time of 47.65, and was just under a second off the pace of Gannon's Ben Williams for the top spot in the B Finals. Along with the top 10 performers, the Cardinals had several other swimmers compete throughout the finals on the night.
Joining Duygun in the 1650 Freestyle was Nathan Reigel, who was the Cardinal's distance leader a season ago. He swam the event in 17:45.86, finishing 16th overall, while Jordan Kraft finished five spots behind him in 21st with a time of 18:44.40. In the 200-Yard Backstroke, Levi Parker was the only Cardinal to qualify for the final swims, taking on the B Final and swimming a time of 2:02.85. Joining Olivares in the B Finals was Sarp Killic, who finished 13th overall in the 100-Freestyle, swimming a time of 48.02 seconds. The final three Cardinals to compete in the event were Felix Norlin, Meiko Schonekes, Patrick Kirby, who all swam in the C Finals of the event. Norlin would win the C Final, swimming a time of 47.75, while Schonekes took 21st (48.58) and Kirby finished 24th (49.28). Rounding out the individual events was Evan Yost, who swam in the 200-Yard Butterfly's B Final, taking 14th with a time of 2:03.91.
Rounding out the day was the Men's 400-Yard Freestyle Relay, with Pigott, Kirby, Killic, and Norlin taking the pool. The foursome would finish sixth overall with a time of 3:12.50 to round out the day.
The Wheeling University Men's Swimming team returns to action on Saturday, January 10th, when they compete against Lenoir Rhyne.
