Wheeling, W. Va. - After announcing their Scholar Athlete of the Year nominees on Wednesday, the rest of the Mountain East Conference (MEC) Year End Awards were announced on Wednesday. The Wheeling University Athletic Department started out strong, with five student-athletes named as nominees for the MEC Male and Female Athlete of the Year. Women's lacrosse players Trinity Rose and Giavonna Perkins, baseball players Edward Mateo and Sebastian Khan, and women's basketball player Kenzie Dalton are each up for the Male and Female Athletes of the Year.
The conference year-end award nominees are compiled from each of the Year End awards from each of the MEC-sponsored sports. To be eligible for the MEC Male and Female Athlete of the Year, a student-athlete must have won one of the conference's "Of The Year" awards in their sport. Once the nominees are revealed, it comes down to a vote of the conference's 11 member institutions to determine the winner. Each institution gets one vote per award, and these votes are combined with the votes of the conference office to determine the Male and Female Athlete of the Year Award winners. The Cardinals will be looking for their first winner since the 2019-2020 season, when wheeling volleyball player Stephanie Sylvester was named the MEC Female Athlete of the Year. Wheeling has never had a Male Athlete win the honor, and will be looking for their first in 2025-2026.
On the women's side, Wheeling Women's Lacrosse starts things off with Trinity Rose earning the nomination with her MEC Midfielder of the Year Award. Rose has been an essential part of the revitalization of the Wheeling women's lacrosse program, and continued that success in 2026 with First Team All-MEC honors. She led the team across four different statistical categories, leading the way in goals (52), points (72), ground balls (49), and caused turnovers (36). She scored multiple goals in 12 of the 17 matches she appeared in this season, including ending the year on a six-game multi-goal streak. Her biggest performance came against Lake Erie, where she scored seven goals and added one assist to finish with eight points in the effort. Rose is a two-time First Team All-MEC award winner, and looks to capture the top Female Athlete honors in the MEC.
Joining her from the women's lacrosse team is sophomore Giavonna Perkins, who earned her nomination with the MEC Goalie of the Year award. Her season did not start the way she wanted it to, after suffering an early-season injury, but she was able to battle back throughout the year. When all was said and done, it ended up being a career year for Perkins, who finished with 173 saves and a .474 save percentage across 17 games, 15 starts, for the Cardinals. She would end up leading the MEC in saves during the season, while her .474 save percentage was the third highest in the conference. For her efforts, she took home First Team All-MEC honors for the first time in her career, while taking home the second All-Conference honor in two seasons with the Cardinals.
The final female nominee for the Cardinals comes from the basketball court with Wheeling women's basketball player Kenzie Dalton. Dalton earns the nomination after being named the conference's Women's Basketball Defensive Player of the Year, and is coming off a breakout season for the Cardinals. The senior led the Cardinals in nearly every statistical category, including points per game (17.4), rebounds/game (7.4), assists (156), and steals (100). She would also put her name in the Wheeling women's basketball history books, becoming the first player ever to eclipse 1000 career points, 1000 career rebounds, 500 career assists, and 300 career steals in a career. She has won the MEC's Defensive Player of the Year in each of the first two years since the conference has been giving out the award, and looks for her first-ever MEC Female Athlete of the Year honor.
Both of the male nominees come from the Wheeling baseball team, beginning with senior infielder Edward Mateo. Mateo earned the nomination after receiving the MEC Hitter of the Year award, and was a sparkplug at the top of the Cardinal's lineup. He finished the year hitting .428 with seven home runs and 39 RBI across 180 at-bats while also playing three different positions in the field. Along with finishing the season as the conference's leader in batting average, Mateo would also lead the MEC in stolen bases (33), on-base percentage (.542), OPS (1.181), and hits (77). He would end the season on an eight-game hitting streak, and looks to become the first Cardinal male athlete to be recognized with the conference's top honors.
The other Cardinal male nominee is senior pitcher Sebastian Khan, who earned his nomination by taking home the MEC Pitcher of the Year. After putting together a breakout year as a junior, Khan cemented his place as the anchor of the Cardinal pitching staff in 2026. Khan would go 9-2 with a 2.67 ERA across 84.1 innings of work, leading the Cardinals to the MEC North Division Title. He would set three program single-season records during the season, including wins (9), innings pitched (84.1), and strikeouts (87). Khan would finish the regular season as the conference leader in both wins and strikeouts, and took home First Team All-MEC honors for the first time in his career. He would also earn First Team All-Region honors from both the American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA) and the Division II Conference Commissioner's Association (DIICCA), and became just the second Cardinal in program history to earn All-American honors.
Voting of conference and school officials will take place now through June 25, with the Male and Female Athlete of the Year awards being announced on Monday, June 29.
