March 8, 2009
COLUMBUS, Ohio - -
Contact: Julie Farr DeLima
Four Cleveland State men's swimmers represented the Vikings at the Ohio State Last Ditch NCAA Qualifier meet in Columbus on March 8. Juniors Jakub Dobies, Todd Winchell, Stephen Grove and freshman Mark deSwardt all went to the meet in hopes of improving their top times of the season and earning a chance to participate in the upcoming NCAA Division I Swimming Championships. The NCAA should release its list of participants on Wednesday, March 11.
"It's tough to get up again a week after the Horizon League Championships, but we swam hard and fast," assistant coach Andrew Hancock said. "Now it's out of our hands and we'll have to wait and see."
Dobies is already expected to be solidly in the field in the 100 breaststroke at the NCAA Championships after a 52.94 conference title swim last weekend. He swam the event at OSU in 1:00.91 to finish second.
Grove and Dobies are also hoping to earn a trip in the 50 free as well though neither matched their fastest swims of the season from last weekend's Horizon League Championships. Grove, who swam a season-best and school record 20.09 last weekend, swam a 20.53 in the preliminaries and did not swim in the finals. Dobies' fastest swim last weekend was 20.18, and he swam a 20.80 prelim time at Ohio State before a swim of 20.57 (4th) in the final heat.
Mark deSwardt is hoping to qualify in the mile swim after setting a school and league record with an NCAA "B" cut time of 15:02.06 at the Horizon League Championships. He swam another "B" cut time at Ohio State (15:17.25) to finish second at the meet. deSwardt also swam the 200 fly, finishing second in 1:50.46 after a prelim swim of 2:01.56. His fastest 200 fly time of the season was 1:15.16.
In the 100 fly, Winchell swam a prelim time of 49.81 and finished 4th in 49.52. He swam his fastest time of the year, 48.61, last weekend in the Horizon League Championships.
"Based on the results today, we're pretty sure of Dobies' qualifying in the breast but we're never sure until it's announced. deSwardt is right on the bubble and we'll have to keep our fingers crossed for him," Hancock said. "Either way, we have two guys in the Top 30 nationally in their events. To be that highly ranked and to have two guys up there is quite an achievement. There aren't too many Mid-Major programs can say they have two Top-30 swimmers.
The men's NCAA Championships run March 26-28 at Texas A&M.
