March 28, 2008

Contact: Brian McCann

FEDERAL WAY, WASH. - It was a bittersweet day for Cleveland State's Jakub Dobies on Friday as the Plack, Poland native recorded the top finish ever by a Viking at the NCAA Men's Swimming & Diving Championships but came up just short of becoming the first All-American in program history.

The NCAA Championships are being hosted through Saturday by the University of Washington at the King County Aquatic Center.

Dobies, who entered Friday's preliminary heat in the 100-yard breastroke with the 13th-fastest time in the nation this year (53.64) swam a near-perfect first 70 yards before encountering difficulties during the final 25 yards to finish 22nd in the 38-swimmer field. The top 16 advanced to Friday night's finals with each earning All-America honors.

Stanford's Paul Kornfeld posted the fastest time during the preliminaries, a 52.40 effort.

"I am so proud of Jakub and how he performed not only today, but all season long," CSU Director of Competitive Aquatics Wally Morton said. "We've never had a swimmer qualify for the NCAA's as both a freshman and sophomore until he came to CSU and I see great things for him during his final two seasons.

"Jakub was the only swimmer from the Horizon League to qualify for the NCAA's this year and when you look around at the school's competing you notice that there are an awful lot of really large schools that don't have a swimmer in this field."

Dobies, who turned in a 53.77 time to finish 28th in the event at the NCAA's last year, entered the championships after earning Horizon League Athlete of the Year honors this past season. He set four CSU school records during the year, including both the 100 (53.64) and 200-breast (2:00.43).

Dobies opened the race on fire, posting an 11.20 time in the first 25 yards, the second-fastest time among the participants. A 13.40 effort in the second 25 yards raised his time to 24.60 to rank him third among the field at the halfway point. He appeared headed to the finals when he turned in a 14.18 time in the third 25 yards to rank eighth after 75 yards (38.78). But problems coming into the final turn cost Dobie, resulting in a 15.22 time in the final 25 yards, the second-slowest in the field.

"I'm not exactly sure what happened," Dobies said. "The first 70 yards were perfect but I left my final turn a little short and it cost me. I'm not sure if my rhythm was off or what. Maybe I started out too quickly and it caught up with me. We'll have to take a good look at it."

"We really concentrated on the start this year," Morton said. "Last year he got out of the blocks slowly and was never able to catch up so we focused really hard on getting a good start, which he did.

"It's a funny thing that when you compete at this high of level, the smallest thing can mean the difference between being first and last. He just got his synchronization out of whack late in the race and then tried to muscle through it,"

"It's hard to believe that you can be disappointed by doing something that has never been accomplished in either Cleveland State or Horizon League history, but Jakub competes at such a high level that he is very unhappy with his finish. His effort today was his fastest preliminary time ever and it was the third-fastest time in the event in school history, beating his time from last year.

"Jakub is only a sophomore and I am positive that he is going to learn from this experience because I envision him as being capable of winning this race in the next two years," Morton said.

Before he can do that however, Dobies will have one more chance to earn All-America honors when he competes in the 200-yard breast on Saturday afternoon. He posted a "B" provisional time of 2:00.43 during the year, ranking him 38th in the 40 swimmer field.

"The pressure will be off Jakub on Saturday because this is not his best event," Morton said. "Still, he is capable of some amazing things in the pool and it wouldn't surprise me if he exceeds our expectations tomorrow."