Pair of First Team Honorees Lead Wheeling Males’s Swimming on Day One among GMAC/MEC Swimming & Diving Championships

Canton, OH. – Day one of many 2026 Mountain East Conference (MEC)/Great Midwest Athletic Conference (GMAC) Swimming & Diving Championships noticed the Wheeling University Men’s Swimming workforce compete throughout 5 occasions. With 5 occasions scored, the Cardinals sit third general, and lead all MEC opponents by 10 factors to carry the convention lead after day one. The effort was led by a pair of First Team All-MEC performances to guide a gaggle of 5 All-MEC honorees to start out the occasion. 

The finals would get began with a bang because the workforce of Aris Dimakis, Efe Kucuk, Meiko Schonekes, and Nathaniel Oliveras competed within the 200-Yard Medley Relay. The foursome would hit the pool quick and knocked two seconds off their seed time to safe their prime three end. They would take third general, and first amongst MEC competitors to earn First Team All-MEC honors. They would additionally set this system file within the relay occasion, and beat out the remainder of the MEC area by a half a second. It bought the momentum going for the Cardinals they usually continued that momentum proper into the person occasions, the place the Cardinals bought their second First Team All-MEC honor of the day. 

It would come from Segmen Duygun, who competed within the prime warmth of the 1000 Yard Freestyle to start out the person finals occasions. He got here in with a seed time of 9:53.12, and would shatter that mark on his option to a third place end within the occasion. He would knock almost 11 seconds off his seed time, swimming 9:42.44 to earn First Team All-MEC honors. He would end 21 seconds behind Findlay’s Matteo Filippi from moving into the highest two and began his run within the Conference Championship robust. During the morning portion of the occasion, it was sophomore Nathan Reigel main the way in which, with a time of 10:22.82. It was a season-best effort for the sophomore, as he knocked 16 seconds off his seed time. Rounding out the highest three distance swimmers for the Cardinals was Matthew Charlesworth, who would finish up ending seventeenth general with a time of 10:38.32 in his first try on the occasion this season. 

The closing with the best quantity of Cardinal illustration was the 200 Individual Medley, with a least one Cardinal swimming in every of the three finals. The A Final would see two Cardinals take the pool, with Archie Pigott and Efe Kucuk battling for All-MEC honors. Pigott can be the one to prepared the ground for the Cardinals, incomes Second Team All-MEC honors with a time of 1:55.03. Kucuk would end two spots behind him, with a time of 1:56.24, and simply missed an All-MEC honor, falling a second shy of Davis & Elkins’s Leonardo Oshiro. Moving into the B Final, Meiko Schonekes would take the pool and added a thirteenth place end with a time of 1:57.62. Rounding out the day was Levi Parker within the C Final, and he added a vital level to his workforce, ending twenty fourth general with a time of two:05.57. 

The closing particular person swim of the night time was the 50 Freestyle, with 4 Cardinals competing throughout the B and C Finals. Aris Dimakis would lead the Cardinals, swimming within the B Finals and ending with a time of 21.42. The C Final would characteristic three totally different Cardinals, with Sarp Killic, Nathaniel Olivares, and Patrick Kirby all competing. Killic would lead the crew, ending 18th with a time of 21.47 seconds, adopted by Olivares in nineteenth (21.55) and Kirby in twenty third (21.93). The closing occasion of the day was the Men’s 200 Yard Freestyle Relay, and the Cardinals would take house gold to spherical out the day. The workforce of Dimakis, Quintin Tayali, Killic, and Kirby took the pool and earned First Team All-MEC honors, third general, with a time of 1:25.25. 

The Wheeling University Men’s Swimming workforce returns to motion for day two of the GMAC.MEC Championships on Wednesday with prelims at 10 AM adopted by finals at 6 PM.