Dec. 6, 2009
Friday Results / Saturday Results / Sunday Results
Duquesne's men's swimming team wrapped up the fall portion of its schedule with a fourth place showing out of 10 teams at the 2009 Akron Invitational, Dec. 4-6.
Day one of the three-day event saw the Dukes capture two second place finishes as Edward LeBlanc placed second in the 500-yard freestyle with a DU season-best time of 4:38.54 and Roman Becicka finished second in the 200 IM with a DU season-best time of 1:52.89. Jim O'Hara turned in a fourth place showing in the 50 free with a team season-best time of 21.20 while the Red and Blue placed second in the 400 medley relay with a season-best time of 3:23.82 to slot the Dukes in fifth place as a team at the end of day one.
On Saturday, the Red and Blue took either first or second place in six of the seven races with six season best times set. The day opened with the 200 medley relay team taking second place in 1:33.09 and Becicka followed with a second place showing in the 400 IM in 4:01.09. The Dukes then ran off three straight first place finishes with O'Hara winning the 100 butterfly in 50.15, LeBlanc setting a school, meet and pool record in the 200 free in 1:38.23 and Mark Krchnak winning the 100 breast in 57.98. Ian Walsh made it a 1-2 finish for DU, taking second in the 100 breast. The day wrapped up with the 800 free relay team finishing second in 6:49.32 keeping Duquesne in fifth place overall.
On the final day, the Red and Blue took home three more gold medals. Becicka led off the day by winning the 1,650 free by over six seconds with a time of 16:03.30. Chris Kobela also scored points in the event, placing sixth in 16:35.15. Greg Matuszewski followed with a seventh place showing in the next event, the 200 back with a time of 1:54.75 before LeBlanc won his second gold medal of the meet with a pool and meet record time of 44.97 in the 100 free. Walsh and Krchnak finished third and sixth respectively in the 200 breast followed by O'Hara and Brian Bouvier who placed third and eighth in the 200 fly. The meet ended on a high note for Duquesne as the Dukes won the 400 free relay with a time of 3:04.87.
The Red and Blue are finished competing for the semester. They will train for 10 days in Pompano Beach, Fla. during Christmas break, before returning to competition on Saturday, Jan. 16 when they take on Cleveland State and Xavier in Cleveland.
