Wheeling, W. Va. – The final round of Mountain East Conference (MEC) postseason awards was unveiled Friday with the announcement of the 2026 MEC Coach of the Year candidates. After being represented on both the Student-Athlete of the Year and Athlete of the Year ballots, the Wheeling University Athletic Department was once again represented on the MEC Coach of the Year ballot. Wheeling head men's basketball coach Chris Richardson and head baseball coach Ryan Lewicki were named finalists for the award after leading their programs to historic seasons.
The MEC Coach of the Year ballot is compiled from all of the conference's Coach of the Year awards throughout the 2025-2026 season. To be eligible, a coach must have won the conference Coach of the Year honor in one of the MEC's 23 sponsored sports. The list is then sent to each of the conference's 11 member institutions, with each institution receiving one vote per award. Once those votes are tallied, the MEC front office casts its votes, and the awards are presented to the coach of a female sport and the coach of a male sport who receive the highest number of votes. Wheeling University has had one MEC Coach of the Year winner since joining the conference in 2013, when head volleyball coach Christy Benner was voted the MEC Female Sports Coach of the Year in 2015.
The first Cardinal nominee for the honor was head men's basketball coach Chris Richardson, who led his team through a historic turnaround to earn the MEC Men's Basketball Coach of the Year award. After finishing the 2024-2025 season with an 11-18 record, Richardson guided his team to an eight-game improvement overall and an eight-game improvement in MEC play. The Cardinals finished 19-9 overall, including a 14-6 mark in conference play, good for their best record since the 2017-2018 season. They captured the No. 3 seed in the MEC Men's Basketball Tournament while also earning several individual awards. Richardson helped lead redshirt freshman Ayden Goll to the MEC Freshman of the Year award, while Caleb Murray earned Second Team All-MEC honors. Richardson capped off the season by winning the WV MetroNews Joe Retton MEC Coach of the Year Award.
The other Cardinal honoree was head baseball coach Ryan Lewicki, who earned the MEC Baseball Coach of the Year Award. In his seventh season at the helm of the program, Lewicki led the Cardinals to the best record in program history at 36-16. Wheeling captured the MEC North Division title for the first time since 2021 and earned the No. 1 seed from the North Division in the MEC Baseball Championships. Along with the team's success, Lewicki guided seven players to All-MEC honors, including MEC Pitcher of the Year Sebastian Khan and MEC Hitter of the Year Edward Mateo. Mateo and Khan both went on to earn First Team All-Region honors, while Khan became the second All-American in program history, earning Third Team honors.
Voting is currently underway for the 2025-2026 MEC Male and Female Sports Coach of the Year awards, with the winners set to be unveiled on Monday, June 29.
