Wheeling, W. Va. - The 2025-2026 Wheeling University Indoor Track & Field season kicked off on Saturday as the team headed to the Youngstown State University Ice Breaker. The young Cardinal stars shined throughout the day, and one of those freshmen was recognized on the Mountain East Conference's (MEC) Players of the Week, presented by The Healthplan. Freshman pole vaulter Alexander Rodriguez was named the MEC's Co-Men's Track & Field Player of the Week, splitting the honor with Fairmont State's Donovan Tanouye.
Rodriguez is taking home the first MEC Player of the Week honor of his career, competing in both the Men's Pole Vault and the 60-Meter Dash. However, his biggest showing of the day would come in the Men's Pole Vault, where he competed against competition from across all levels of the NCAA. He would finish third in the field, reaching a height of 4.30 Meters, and finishing third among the NCAA DII competition in the field. He competed in the unseeded portion of the event and his first attempt of the day would come at the 4.30 meter mark. He missed the mark on his first attempt, but on the second try he was able to get over the bar. He would advance to 4.45 meters and just fell short of the mark to round out his debut effort. He would finish just .15 meters behind the Slippery Rock pair of Christian Crowley and Brandon Schneider for the top spot in the field.
The effort was good enough to finish as the top pole vaulter in the conference, beating out the rest of the competition by .37 meters, with West Liberty's Dominick Gagum being the closest at 3.93 meters. He would end up finishing ahead of all of the NCAA DI competition in the field, beating out Youngstown State's Karl Kain by not needing to compete at the 4.10 meter mark. Along with his Pole Vault success, Rodriguez would also compete in the Track events, running in the Men's 60-Meter Dash. Rodriguez was the top finisher in the event for the Cardinals, taking 75th with a time of 7.51 seconds. It was good enough to finish 20th across the MEC, putting him in the top 20 in two different events across both the Track and Field events.
Alexander Rodriguez takes home the 24th Conference Player of the Week honor for a Wheeling University student-athlete with the win. He is the first Men's Track & Field athlete to be honored this season, and the first to win the award since former Cardinal Joshua Boehm took home the honors back on January 13th, 2025. The Cardinals have been left off the list of honorees the last two weeks, with the last honor going to Wheeling University Women's Basketball player Kenzie Dalton back on November 17th.
The Wheeling University Men's Track & Field team returns to action on Saturday, January 17th, when they compete at the Muskie Meet #1 with first events at 11 AM.
