West Virginia Men Defeat Cincinnati in Nail-Biter Two-Day Dual Meet

WEST VIRGINIA VS CINCINNATI (TWO-DAY DUAL)

• October 21-22, 2022
• Mylan Park Aquatic Center, Morgantown, WV
• SCY (25 yards)
• Results

WOMEN’S TEAM SCORES

1. WVU – 237
2. Cincinnati – 110

MEN’S TEAM SCORES

1. WVU – 179
2. Cincinnati – 174

The West Virginia University men’s and women’s swimming & diving program hosted the two-day dual meet against the University of Cincinnati at the Mylan Park Aquatic Center last weekend. While the WVU women won the meet decisively, the men fought until the end with a thrilling 200 free relay that secured a close win, scoring 179 points to Cincinnati’s 174.

WVU and Cincinnati have not raced against each other since their dual meet in the fall of 2012. The institutions were once rivals in the Big East conference (renamed the American Athletic Conference in 2013) until WVU moved to the Big 12 conference in 2012.

The WVU women dominated the meet, winning 14 out of 17 events. WVU had four multiple-event winners, two of whom were freshmen Ada Szwabinska and Mia Cheatwood.

Szwabinska, who joined WVU from Poland, demonstrated her strength in the sprint-free events by winning the 50 and 100 free. On the first day of the meet, Szwabinska won the 100 free with a 51.53, her fastest time this season. She won the 50 free the next day, going 23.50, which remains consistent with the low-to-mid 23s she has posted this season.

Cheatwood improved her season’s times and won the 100 and 200 breast. She went almost two-tenths faster in the 100 breast with a time of 1:03.32. She followed up with the 200 breast, winning the event nearly five seconds ahead of Cincinnati sophomore Annabelle Young (2:22.43). Cheatwood’s final time of 2:17.73 improved her previous time by a second and a half.

Szwabinska and Cheatwood were on the ‘A’ teams for all the relays that won. The 200 (1:43.79) and 400 medley (3:46.15) relays and the 200 free relay (1:33.38) consisted of the same four girls, with the other two being seniors Jacqueline McCutchan and Harna Minezawa. Junior Abby Reardon took the place of Minezawa on the 400 free relay (3:26.35) and improved her split from the previous weekend going from 52.33 to 51.98.

Reardon came away with two wins in the 200 and 500 free. She began the weekend with a best time this season by six seconds in the 500 free, going 4:58.42. Reardon was the only woman to dip under five minutes in the event. She went on to win the 200 free by almost two seconds in a time of 1:52.49, about half a second slower than her fastest time this season.

The final multi-event winner was McCutchan, who won the 200 IM alongside all the relays. McCutchan clocked in a 2:05.59, improving her time this season by over two seconds.

On the men’s side, Cincinnati junior Hunter Gubeno led the meet with the most individual wins, totaling three. He won the 100 back with his fastest time this season at 49.24. The next day, Gubeno significantly dropped his season-best times in the 200 IM (1:50.65) and 200 back (1:46.35). He won the 200 back decisively with a near-five-second lead over WVU junior Justin Heimes.

Cincinnati had two other multi-event winners on the men’s team. First, senior Michael Balcerak won the 100 fly with a 48.95 and 200 free with a 1:39.66. These were Balcerak’s fastest times this season.

Graduate student Conner Funke was the third swimmer on Cincinnati to win multiple races. He won the 100 breast with a 55.87 and 200 breast with a 2:03.14.

The WVU men’s relays swept with multi-event winner Conner McBeth as the anchor on all of them. The sophomore won the 50 free (20.79) and 100 free (45.24). McBeth had close races, edging out Cincinnati freshman Jet Fuhrmann by three hundredths in the 50 free and Cincinnati junior Thomas Matthew by over half a second in the 100 free.

Finally, WVU junior William Mullen demonstrated his strength in the long-distance events by winning the 500 free with a 4:32.19 and 1000 free with a 9:21.53. Mullen, like many of his teammates, dropped time from the weekend before at the WV State Games.

West Virginia was without Danny Berlitz at this meet. Berlitz, who has not yet made an appearance for the Mountaineers, swam his first two seasons of collegiate competition at Michigan before transferring to West Virginia in the offseason.

Other Event Winners

• Women’s 100 fly: Ella Chown (Cincinnati) – 56.71
• Women’s 100 back: Grace Gavin (Cincinnati) – 56.17
• Women’s 400 IM: Morgan Burton (WVU) – 4:28.02
• Men’s 400 IM: Spencer Sehlhorst (Cincinnati) – 3:57.47
• Women’s 1000 free: Miranda Kirtley (WVU) – 10:26.61
• Women’s 200 back: Lily Jones (Cincinnati) – 2:02.09
• Women’s 200 fly: Mia Walters (WVU) – 2:04.42
• Men’s 200 fly: Tommy Eaton (Cincinnati) – 1:50.04

WVU Diving Winners

• Women’s 1-meter: Marian Tiemeier – 266.25
• Men’s 1-meter: Owen Johns – 309.68
• Women’s 3-meter: Sarah Krusinski – 254.10
• Men’s 3-meter: Owen Johns – 321.98