The Wheeling University Men's and Women's Swimming Teams get back in action this Saturday, October 24th, as they welcome Lenoir-Rhyne University to the Alma Grace McDonough Natatorium. The Cardinals are coming back of a second emphatic meet win for the Men two weeks ago, whilst the Women notched another second place finish against Frostburg State and West Virginia Wesleyan.
The Wheeling Men dominated their last tri-meet against Frostburg State and West Virginia Wesleyan two weeks ago, taking first place in the meet with 184 points, 127 points ahead of their closest challengers Frostburg State. Tomorrow's opponents Lenoir-Rhyne haven't swam a meet yet in the 2026-27 season, with the trip up north to the McDonough Center the first of the season for the team from North Carolina. Wheeling made the trip down south last season to face Lenoir-Rhyne, where they were beaten by a top team in the country.
With Lenoir-Rhyne yet to face a team in the new season, the Cardinals will be looking to take their momentum right to the newly joined Conference Carolinas team. The Cardinal Men took all of the top five high performances at their last meet with MEC opponents, as Nikola Zhekov took the top spot with 18 points and a 525 point average. Wheeling took the top two performances of the meet two weeks ago also, as Bence Nagy topped the timings with his gold in the 1000 yard freestyle swimming a time of 10:05.15. Benjamin Szanto took the second best performance with his time of 51.62 in the 100 fly, knocking eight tenths off his season best to take gold.
The Wheeling Women's Swimming team took second in the meet two weeks ago against Frostburg and Wesleyan, notching 68 points behind Frostburg's 164. Giulia Liberti took home a top three performance at the meet, winning two golds from two races in the 100 and 200 breaststroke that amounted to 458 points. Grace Moorley swam an early season best in the 200 freestyle, taking bronze in a strong field with a time of 2:06.10 for the sixth best meet performance.
With both Wheeling teams in form and Lenoir-Rhyne yet to face competition yet this season, both Cardinal teams will be looking to come out of the blocks firing against the bears. The Wheeling University Swim meet against Lenoir-Rhyne will get underway from the Alma-Grace McDonough Center Natatorium at 12pm, Saturday 24th October.
