March 13, 2009
CLEVELAND, Ohio - -
Contact: Julie Farr DeLima
The NCAA made its official invitations to the annual swimming and diving championships on March 11, and CSU junior Jakub Dobies earned his third invitation in as many seasons. Dobies, a 2008 Mid-Major All-American by collegeswimming.com, will swim the 100 breaststroke event at this year's championships on Friday, March 27 at Texas A&M. Preliminary swims begin at 1:00 p.m. EST with the final heats beginning at 8:00 p.m. EST.
"With Jakub's third appearance at the NCAA Division I Championships, he becomes the first swimmer to achieve this in the history of our program," head coach Wally Morton said. "Our goal is for him to enjoy the experience and swim his best time. When he improves on that time, he will be representing the CSU Vikings in the finals."
Dobies is also the only swimmer in league history to make the trip to the NCAA Championship since the conference adopted the Horizon League name. The league, formerly called the Midwestern Collegiate Conference, became the Horizon League in June 2001.
In 2009, Dobies earned his third NCAA invitation based on a school and Horizon League record showing in the 100 breast with a win in 52.94. The time is good enough for him to enter the NCAA Championships as the 14th seed. Damir Dugonjic of California has the fastest time in the country (51.41). Dobies is also aiming to become the first swimmer to earn All-America status in both Cleveland State and Horizon League history, needing to finish 16th or better to earn the honor.
"My main goal going into this year's NCAA Championship is definitely making the Top-16, which consequently means All-American honors," Dobies said. "The time that separates me from the Top-8 is only 0.21 of a second, which with the proper training and great effort is possible to achieve."
As a freshman, Dobies became the first Viking swimmer since Harold Wagner in 1986 to qualify for nationals. He followed that up with invitations in both the 100 and 200 breast as a sophomore when he set new CSU records in both events. During his sophomore campaign, Dobies entered the 100 breast seeded 13th (53.64) and finished 22nd in 54.00. His time of 2:00.43 in the 200 breast was good enough for a 38th seed. His time of 2:07.45 in the 200 breast finals placed him 35th overall. Dobies was also seeded 13th as a freshman going into the 2007 national championship meet (53.77), eventually placing 28th overall (54.39) in the event.
"At both of the previous NCAA meets I made some mistakes that gave me feedback on how I should swim now," Dobies said. "Just watching some of the fastest guys in the world, many of them Olympians, is a great lesson. I also learned that in swimming it's not the size of the dog in the fight that matters, but the size of the fight in a dog. I was amazed at how often some of those huge guys got out-swam by shorter and smaller ones, me included. Just watching the best guys in action brings a great deal of experience and what's most important, motivation."
As a group, the Vikings had one of their most successful seasons in school history, and the best of any Horizon League school, with "B" cuts by three individuals and two relays.
"This is the most NCAA "B" cuts we've ever had at CSU since that system was put in place," Morton said. "Only one other swimmer in the Horizon League swam a "B" cut time this season and we had five achieve NCAA cuts."
Prior to the NCAA Championships, Dobies recorded the 14th-fastest time in the 100 breast (52.94) while sophomore Deni Gasparin swam the 62nd fastest time (54.46). In the mile, freshman Mark deSwardt just missed the NCAA qualifying field with the 29th-fastest mile time of 15:02.06. The men's 200 free relay (1:19.50) and 200 medley relay (1:27.58) both had the 32nd fastest times in the country during the regular season.
