Wheeling, W. Va. – It has been a hot start to the season for the Wheeling Men's Swimming team and they continued that streak of success with a sweep of their tri-meet on Saturday against Frostburg State and West Virginia Wesleyan. On Monday, the conference released their weekly Player of the Week awards, presented by The Healthplan, and the Cardinals were honored for the second time in two weeks. Freshman Nikola Zhekov was named the MEC Men's Swimmer of the Week after picking up three gold medals at the team's home opener on Saturday.
Zhekov would swim across two individual events and one relay swim as he helped the Cardinals earn three gold medals on the day. His first swim came in the 50-Yard Freestyle where he picked up the first gold medal of the day in the sprint events. He would put together a personal best time of 22.26 seconds, beating out the competition by .06 seconds to claim the win. Up next was another sprint event, the 100-Yard Breaststroke where he swam in what is his primary stroke. He would know again take the gold, this time swimming a time of 1:00.32 to set his second personal best swim of the day. He would round out the event as the anchor leg of the 400-Yard Medley Relay. He would put together a time of 48.80, wrapping up his big day in the pool.
It was the second event that Zhekov has swam in as a member of the Cardinals, after making his debut at the Salem Small College Invitational. He has been swimming primarily in the breast stroke event, competing in both 50, 100, and 200 Yard Breaststrokes on the season. During that time, he competed in five races and has yet to finish lower than second place in any of those events. He has picked up three individual gold medals in those five races, with two of those three gold medals coming in the breaststroke event. As the season continues, Zhekov looks to continue being a strong presence for the Cardinals and lower his times in his events.
With Zhekov earning the Men's Swimmer of the Week award, the Wheeling University Athletics Department has now had 10 student-athletes earn Conference Player of the Week honors. He is the second Wheeling Men's Swimmer to earn the honors this season, joining Emanuele Lugo in being honored. He joins Men's Soccer players Alberto Madail and Luis Yanes in being honored this week, bringing the total to three Cardinals being honored.
The Wheeling Men's Swimming team returns to action on Saturday, October 24, when they host Lenoir-Rhyne at noon.
