Miller Takes Home MEC Individual Championship To End 2022 GMAC/MEC Championship
Canton, OH. – Over the last four days, the Wheeling University Men's and Women's Swimming teams competed in the 2022 Great Midwest Athletic Conference (GMAC)/Mountain East Conference (MEC) Championships. The event wrapped up on Saturday with four individual swimmers making the finals while Wheeling's final relay team took the pool to end the event on a high note.
Freshman Jade Miller led the way on the final day winning the team's only individual championship of the event. After qualifying for the championship finals in the 200-Yard Backstroke in the morning with a time of 2:09.18 (a new PR), Miller reached the finals. She would place sixth in the event and had the top time among MEC competitors. It was a strong finish to her first championship event as she placed third in Wheeling program history. On the men's side, Ethan Banks also qualified for the finals in the 200-Yard Backstroke. He finished sixth in the MEC and 12th overall with a new PR of 2:05.23 as he finished up his championship events.
Freshman Nathan Yost had a big day from start to finish, ranking ninth in program history with his qualifying time in the 50-Yard Backstroke at 48.28 seconds. He qualified for the Finals C and finished eighth among his MEC Competitors and 20th overall with a time of 48.45. Meredith Mandal was the final racer on day four's finals, swimming in the 200-Yard Breaststroke. She rounded out Wheeling's individual events with a 7th place finish in the MEC and a 17th place finish overall, swimming a time of 2:37.94. The Cardinals finished the individual events with several top five finishers in the MEC and one individual championship.
The final day of competition rounded out with the 400-Yard Freestyle Relay. Mandal and Miller were joined by Macie Williams and Maria Jones for their third relay event of the championship. They finished seventh in the MEC and 10th overall with a time of 3:52.28. The Women's Relay team had a strong showing at the championship event, setting the team up for success in the future.
The Swimming teams now head into the off-season as they look to continue to grow the program. Head coach Danny Murphy has strong building blocks for the future and will continue to build the team for the future.