North Panhandle Times

Personal Bests Lead Korte/Graham to Cardinals High Flyer of the Week Award

It was a big week for Wheeling Athletics this past week as the past and the future came together for Alumni Day. The Cardinals responded with some big time wins and some big individual performances as the athletics department announced their weekly Cardinal High Flyers of the Week Women's Track & Field thrower Kamille Graham earned the Female High Flyer of the Week award while Men's Basketball player John Korte took home the Male High Flyer of the Week, with both producing personal best performances.

It was a big week for the department as a whole, with the winter sports combining to go 4-2 across six games during the week. The Men's and Women's Basketball teams took care of business in "The Battle for Wheeling" while Women's Basketball completed a perfect week with a win against Notre Dame College on Wednesday. Wheeling Swimming was also back in their home pool on Saturday, with the women picking up their fourth win of the season, beating Fairmont State 107-83. The Men did not win their dual meet, they battled hard throughout the afternoon, with Nathan Yost picking up first, second, and third place finishes. The final sport in action was Wheeling Indoor Track & Field as they began the 2023 portion of their schedule at the SPIRE Midwest open. 

Our first award winner comes from that Wheeling Track & Field team as thrower Kamille Graham takes home her first High Flyer of the Week award of the season. She participated in a pair of events at the SPIRE Midwest open, competing in both the weight throw and the shot put. She put together Personal Best performances in both leading the way in the throwing pit. Her day began with her strongest event, the women's shot put, where she placed fourth with a PR mark of 11.71 meters to get her day going. She ended the competition in the Women's Weight Throw, where she placed 15th with another PR mark of 12.10 meters. Graham started her 2023 season strong as she prepared for the MEC Championships in February. 

The Male High Flyer of the Week went to John Korte, who is also earning his first weekly award. He helped lead Wheeling's strongest offensive outburst of the season as he scored 40 points against West Liberty, and fell just eight points shy of the Wheeling single game scoring record. It was the fourth straight game where he scored atleast 27 points in a game and it was only the second time in his career where he has eclipsed the 30-point mark. Shadowed by this performance was his 29-point game earlier in the week against Notre Dame College. He picked up his fifth double double in that game and crept closer to the 1,000 career points mark. For his efforts, Korte was named this week's MEC Men's Basketball Player of the Week as they enter a big week of competition this week. 

The Wheeling Men's Basketball team earned their fourth Cardinal's High Flyer of the Week Award winner while the Indoor Track & Field team had it's second winner of the season. With a heavy week on the road to end the month of January, Wheeling looks to keep their success going and head into the February stretch playoff runs with momentum on their side. 

The next Wheeling University Athletics home event is on Wednesday, January 25th, when the Women's Basketball team takes on West Virginia Wesleyan with tip-off at 5:30 pm

Original source can be found here