May 11, 2004

Duquesne junior Ryan Bender (Indiana, PA / Indiana) has been named to the Atlantic 10 Men's Outdoor Track & Field Academic All-Conference Team, the league announced Tuesday.

Bender's first place finish in the 10,000 meter race and by coming in fourth in the 5,000 meter race at the Atlantic 10 Championships earlier this month helped the Dukes to a fourth place finish. This is the Red and Blue's highest finish ever in the league championship tournament. Bender accumulated 15 of the Dukes' 106 points.

The Indiana, Pa. native, who has a 3.93 grade point average in pharmacy, is also this season's Atlantic 10 Student-Athlete of the Year for men's cross-country. This season, Bender set two new outdoor track school records. Completing the 5,000 meters in 14:54.11 at April's Bucknell Classic set one mark and his time of 30:50.03 in the 10,000 meters at March's Raleigh Relays established the other new best performance.

The Dukes' season continues this weekend at the IC4A Championships which begin on Thursday, May 13th at Yale University in New Haven, Conn.