Wheeling, W. Va. - In their first season under Head Coach Will Hughes, the Wheeling University Women's Swimming program had a mixture of veteran talent and strong newcomers in the pool. The mix helped create a balance in the pool, and the team used that to their advantage finishing 3rd in the Mountain East Conference (MEC) by season's end. It was a year full of ups and downs, as the Cardinals young talent gained experience in the pool that they will use to continue growing the program.
The year started out with a bang as the Cardinals competed at the WVU Games, finishing third out of eight teams in the field. They opened their dual meet schedule with an MEC showdown against Frostburg State and West Virginia Wesleyan, and would finish with a split of the day. However, the win over the Bobcats would propel the team to a five-meet win streak that improved them to 5-1 by November. They finished out the first half strong, taking third at the Malone Midseason Invitational. As they hit the second half of the season, the Cardinals would drop a pair of dual meets in January, but finished out strong with a senior night sweep over Bethany and Fairmont State. They headed to the 2026 MEC/Great Midwest Athletic Conference (GMAC) Championships, and brought home several All-MEC honors on their way to a sixth place finish overall and a third place standing against their conference opponents.
At the championship event, the Cardinals earned five All-MEC honors across the four days of swimming, with freshman Giulia Liberti leading the way. She took home a pair of First Team All-MEC honors, coming in both the 100 and 200 Yard Breaststrokes on the final two days of swimming. Her top performance would come in the 100-Yard Breaststroke, where she swam a time of 1:07.30 to finish 5th overall. It was her lone A Final swim of the week, and she set a personal best in the event by 0.84 seconds. Her other First Team honor would come in the 200-Yard Breaststroke, where she finished 11th overall with a time of 2:31.48. Along with her individual success, Liberti would swim as part of three Cardinal relay teams during the week, with all three of those groups winning All-MEC honors. The top team was the 400-Yard Medley Relay, who put together a 2nd Team All-MEC performance swimming a time of 4:05.97, just four seconds off Fairmont State's top mark.
Along with the young talent's success, the veterans also made their marks throughout the season both in the pool and in the classroom. The long distance group was led by the combination of Gabby Baiano and Lacie Langmyer, who split the top spots in the 1000 and 500 Yard Freestyle respectively. Baiano has been a strong swimmer for the Cardinals over her four seasons, and held the team's top time in the 1650 Freestyle, swimming an 18:05.54 at the Malone Midseason Invite. At the conference championship event, it was Langmyer who led the way for the Cardinals, bringing home top 15 finished in all three distance events. Her top performance would come in the 1000 Yard Freestyle, where she swam a time of 11:05.36, finishing 12th overall in the field and fifth among MEC opponents at the event.
While the Cardinals will be saying goodbye to three of their top swimmers at season's end, the group will return a strong base of talent to build off the rest of the way. Of the 13 swimmers on the roster, 10 of those will be returning next season to continue to grow the foundation of the Women's Swimming program. The Cardinals finished this season with 495.50 points at the conference championship event, and was one spot shy of where they finished last season in the conference standings. Across the four days of competition, the team took home six All-MEC honors during the week of competition, marking the fifth straight season that the team has taken home multiple All-MEC honors. Wheeling's big returning core looks to continue that success and grow the program now and into the future.
The Wheeling University Women's Swimming team heads into the off-season as they look to continue to train and build for the 2026-2027 season.
