Wheeling, W. Va. - As March rolls on, the spring season is in full swing with all 11 spring sports teams officially in action this week. On Tuesday, the Wheeling University Athletics Department announced their weekly Cardinal High Flyer of the Week honors, and it was a pair of strong individual performances that took home the honors. Wheeling Women's Rugby player Emerson Callegari is the Female High Flyer of the Week, while Men's Golfer Sean Dobson takes home the Male High Flyer of the Week honors.
It was a busy week of action for the Cardinals, starting with the Women's Golf team on the course. They competed at Ohio Dominican University, taking 10th out of the 11 teams in the field. On their second day of competition, Wheeling Softball would play their home opener against Walsh, falling by scores of 5-3 and 8-5. As hump day approached, Wheeling Women's Lacrosse would take on their first ranked opponent in Slippery Rock, and kept the Rock at bay early. However, they would end up falling 22-3 with the Cardinals scoring one goal in each of the final three quarters. Men's Golf would follow Thursday with their first spring tournament, competing across three days at the Brunswick Open. They would have two finish in the top 10, and finished sixth as a team out of the 16-team field of competition.
As the weekend approached, the Cardinals would head down south as Wheeling Softball competed at the MEC/PSAC Tournament. They would drop a pair of doubleheaders on Saturday, falling to IUP 9-0 and CAL-U 2-1, before defeating Winston-Salem 12-6 for their first win on day two. They fell to Pitt-Johnstown in extra innings in the finale, finishing 1-3 for the weekend. Women's Lacrosse would start the Saturday home slate with a win, earning an 8-7 overtime win against Findlay, while Men's Lacrosse equaled the effort with an 8-7 overtime win on the road against Lake Erie. The other half of the home schedule saw Baseball open their home slate, with a doubleheader against Charleston. The Cardinals would split day one and came back with a split of the Sunday games to finish 2-2 on the weekend. Rounding out the effort was Women's Rugby, who went 4-1 at the Cavalier 7's, finishing as runners-up at the tournament.
Emerson Callegari is taking home her first Cardinal High Flyer of the Week award of the season, after leading the Cardinals to a 4-1 day at the Cavalier 7's. Across the team's five games the freshman would score 40 points, putting up six tries and going 5-8 on conversion kicks on the day. Included in that effort were three multi-try efforts as she helped lead the Cardinals to the Championship match against Davenport. She would save her biggest performance of the day for the semifinal round as she helped lead the Cardinals to a 33-7 win over Michigan. She would finish the day with 18 points and getting the ball across the try line twice in the game. More impressive then that was her work in the kicking game, where she finished a perfect 4-4 on conversion kick opportunities. She got her sevens season started strong and looks to continue being a leader for the Cardinals throughout the year.
Sean Dobson is also winning his first Cardinal High Flyer of the Week award of the season, after starting his spring schedule strong at the Brunswick Open. He would compete across three rounds of competition at the Brunswick Plantation and Golf Resort in Calabash, North Carolina and put up a score of 217. Dobson started out strong, shooting par over the first 18 holes and sat in a tie for first after day one. Day two saw him add just one stroke to his score, shooting a 73, but he was able to come back and take that stroke away on day three. He would duplicate his day one performance, shooting a 72 over the final 18 holes to round out the day. Dobson entered the spring season ranked as the #13 wrestler in the region and he looks to continue to grow that ranking as the season goes on.
Callegari is taking home the fifth Cardinal High Flyer of the Week award of the season for Women's Rugby, the first of 7's season, while Dobson earns the second award of the season for Men's Golf. Callegari joins teammates Alexis Dallas, Bella Gullatta (2), and Rafi Barrack in being honored, while Dobson joined Zak Collins in being honored. Last week, the Cardinals honored Women's Lacrosse player Jovie Noack and baseball player Brock Elliott were honored with the award.
The next Wheeling University athletic event is scheduled for Saturday, March 21st, when Men's Rugby heads to Rock the Ruck.
