Canton, OH. - Entering the third day of the Mountain East Conference (MEC)/Great Midwest Athletic Conference (GMAC) Swimming & Diving Championships, over 80 points separated Wheeling and Davis & Elkins for the top spot in the MEC. The Cardinals would have to battle back, and they did just that with 15 swimmers competing in finals, and it would cut the deficit to just 71 points heading into the fianl day of competition. The Cardinals continued adding to their All-MEC total, bringing home two more awards to bring their total for the week to nine.
Leading the way was freshman Segmen Duygun, who earned his second First Team All-MEC award of the event. After taking top honors in the 1000 Freestyle earlier in the week, Duygun was at it again as he competed in the 500 Freestlye. It was a strong preliminary swim for the freshman, putting up a time of 4:42.16, to finish second overall in the field. He would qualify for the A Final later that night, and came back to one of the most exciting races of the evening. He was neck and neck with Findlay's Matteo Filippi, as they battled for second place coming down the stretch. Just .03 seconds would separate the swimmers touching the wall, but Duygun did just enough to earn second overall with a time of 4:39.27. He would take home First Team All-MEC honors, beating the next closest MEC swimmer by 11 seconds, as he earned his second First Team honor of the tournament.
It was the first of two All-MEC honors for the program, with the other coming in the final event of the day, the 800 Yard Freestyle Relay. Tom Currie, Nate Reigel, Patrick Kirby, and Sarp Killic would take the pool, and the foursome would finish fifth overall, and third among their MEC competition. They posted a time of 7:11.83, finishing just under four seconds faster than their seed time, and were just three seconds behind Salem for the #2 spot in the conference. Three of those four swimmers were part of finals events throughout the night, as the Cardinals continued to rack up points. Following Duygun's First Team honor in the 500 Freestyle was Nate Reigel competing in the B Final of the event. Reigel would place seventh in his heat, and 15th overall, swimming a time of 4:58.19 to crack the five minute mark on the day.
As the night went on, more and more Cardinals swam in final events, with at least four swimmers competing in each of the final four events. It started with the 100-Yard Backstroke, where Aris Dimakis and Quintin Tayali led the way in the B Final. Dimakis would take second in the heat, swimming a time of 53.48, while Tayali jumped to fourth in the heat with a time of 53.51. The C Final would feature Levi Parker and Sarp Killic, with Parker taking 19th (54.69) and Killic taking 23rd (57.26). The 100 Breaststroke would see a similar breakdown, with Archie Pigott and Efe Kucuk competing in the B Final. Kucuk would end up winning the heat with a time of 56.68, taking 9th overall, while Archie Pigott finished 11th, 3rd in the heat, with a time of 57.39.
The C Final would add two more Cardinals to the mix, with Nathaniel Oliveras swimming a time of 1:00.57 to finish 18th overall, and Matthew Charlesworth taking 21st with a time of 1:01.09. The 200 Butterfly would round out the day, and had three Cardinals swimming in the B Final. Duygun returned to the pool for his second event of the day, taking 10th overall with a time of 1:57.50, while Meiko Schonekes took 13th (1:58.29) and Kucuk took 14th at 1:58.48. The C Final of the event would see the final two Cardinals take the pool, with Patrick Kirby finishing 17th (1:59.31) while Evan Yost took 20th at 2:02.69.
The Wheeling University Men's Swimming team competes in the final day of the MEC/GMAC Championships on Friday, February 13th, with preliminaries at 10 AM followed by finals at 5:30 PM.
