West Virginia Invitational: Wins Spread Evenly on Opening Day
If parity is your thing, then the West Virginia Invitational is the meet of choice this week. The 10 events on the opening day were won by swimmers from five different schools, with four schools evenly divvying up the relay victories.
While the United States Naval Academy is comfortably ahead of the hosts in the men’s team competition, the women’s team race is led by William & Mary’s 156 points after one day, followed by West Virginia with 155 and Villanova at 151.
Yet neither of those three schools won either of the day’s first two women’s races. The 200 free relay went to the University of Northern Iowa, which won by more than a second and a half in 1:31.35. Faith Larsen, Abby Lear, Amber Finke and Morgan Meyer comprised that squad. (William & Mary’s A squad was disqualified.) Larsen returned to win the 50 free in 22.54 seconds.
The 500 free went in a different direction altogether for the entire podium: Seton Hall’s Allie Waggoner was the decisive winner in 4:47.73. She was ahead of Lauren Hartel of Delaware, with East Carolina’s Emilee Hamblin following in third.
William & Mary’s Sophia Heilen won the 200 individual medley with a time of 1:58.38. Only she and WVU’s Mia Cheatwood cracked two minutes, the latter only .02 under. Heilen swam fly as the Tribe won the 400 medley relay, teaming with Kat Vanbourgondien, Ellie Scherer and Flynn Truskett.
Navy took a little time to assert command on the men’s side of the meet, but it was the only team on either side to medal in each event.
Jonah Harm had a hand in both gold medals. He won the 50 free in 19.96, with teammate Patrick Colwell third and three other Midshipmen in the A final. Harm swam breaststroke in the 400 medley relay, which Navy won in 3:12.20, a margin of 1.68 seconds over Drexel (that’s another medalist!) Ben Irwin, Colwell and Everet Andrew rounded out Navy’s foursome. Andrew was second in the 500 free. Harm led off Navy’s 200 free relay in 19.96 en route to second place.
The hosts won the opening 200 free relay in dominant fashion. Danny Berlitz, Roanoke Shirk, Braden Osborn and Conner McBeth clocked in at 1:19.10, more than a second up on Navy, which went 2-3.
Berlitz went 1:44.78 to win the 200 IM, blowing out the field. Old Dominion’s Bryce Mortimer was second, just shy of 4.5 seconds back. McBeth was second in the 50 free.
Seton Hall swept the 500 free races, with Clil Halevi winning the men’s in 4:26.63.
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In a dominating fashion, the West Virginia Mountaineers go 3-0 in the Tucson Regional to advance to the program’s first ever Super Regional, defeating Grand Canyon University 10-6.
In Randy Mazey’s final season as a head coach and his twelfth at WVU, the program that was built from the ground back up to reach all new levels over the course of those twelve years has reached its biggest one yet.
In the first inning, West Virginia got the scoring started immediately scoring two runs off of a Reed Chumley sacrifice fly and a Grant Hussey rbi single. They would, however, leave the bases loaded to end the inning at a 2-0 score.
Grand Canyon would respond quickly in the bottom of the first, running Hayden Cooper, who got the start for WVU, off the mound before he could even record an out. Cooper let up three straight hits to start the game, bringing in one run and then walked the next two batters to bring in another run before being replaced by Aidan Major. Major was able to get out of a bases loaded jam with no outs by only giving up one run on a sacrifice fly-out.
The third run on the inning for Grand Canyon was also credited to Cooper. The Mountaineer starter’s stateline for the night finished at 0.0 innings pitched, three hits allowed, two walks, and three earned runs.
The West Virginia offense was on full display all night and continued into the second inning. After JJ Wethholt’s first hit of NCAA regional play, Logan Sauve, Sam White, and Reed Chumley all hit rbi singles to take back the lead and head to the bottom of the second inning with a 5-3 score.
After GCU did not score in the second, the Mountaineers continued to pile on the scoring in the third. After Wetherholt’s second of three hits on the night, Suave was able to drive in his third rbi of the night with a two rbi double, making the score 7-3 in favor of WVU. The catcher finished the night 3-5 at the plate with a team high three rbi and three runs scored.
Aidan Major would get the Antelopes to go three up, three down in the bottom of the third before his offense tacked on yet another run in the fourth from a Ben Lumsden rbi single to extend the lead to 8-3. It was Lumsden’s only rbi on the night.
Major was able to pick up a strikeout in the fourth innings, walked one, and did not allow a hit to get out of the inning scoreless yet again. Sam White would pick up his second hit and rbi in the game after ripping an rbi double down the left field line. Two batters later and Hussey would add the final run of the game for WVU when he drove in White with an rbi single.
Grand Canyon would get a run back in the bottom of the fourth and knock Major out of the game with a couple of hits and an rbi single to get the score to 10-4. Carson Estridge would replace Major and strikeout the first batter he faced to get out of the inning.
Major’s final line for the evening was 4.2 innings pitched, only two hits allowed, one earned run, two strikeouts, and five walks.
Estridge would pick up right where Major left off, recording four straight outs to start his game and would go all the way into the ninth inning before being pulled after allowing a single that would eventually score a run to his line.
In the ninth, West Virginia was holding on to a 10-4 lead when Maxx Yehl came into the game for Estridge after allowing a single. Yehl would let up a deep home run to right field to make the score 10-6 and a little more interesting. Yehl would then allow the very next batter to reach with another single.
The next move made by Randy Mazey was a power move for sure. Just two days after throwing a complete game and over 100 pitches, All Big 12 First Team pitcher Derek Clark was chosen to come out of the bullpen to get the final two outs.
Clark would have the first batter he faced lace a single up the middle to risk bringing the tying run to the plate for Grand Canyon. But Clark would ultimately get back-to-back strikeouts to end the game with a score of 10-6 and send West Virginia to its first ever NCAA Super Regional after a 3-0 outing in Tucson.
The Mountaineers will be paired up with another team on the road as a lower seed to compete in a three game series. When are where West Virginia will be playing will be decided after the conclusion of all Regional brackets on Monday.
Dandridge (Tn.) Jefferson County 2025 defensive lineman Nic Moore wanted to get a more up-close look at West Virginia and his official visit to campus accomplished exactly that.
Moore, 6-foot-2, 288-pounds, had been to Morgantown before but this trip was a lot more detailed and informative than those previous stops on many different fronts.
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