Athletics

Ryan earns Big Ten 50 freestyle bronze in school record time

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Penn State senior Shane Ryan earned a bronze medal in the 50 freestyle in a school-record 19.03 seconds to lead Penn State Thursday on the second day of competition at the 2017 Big Ten Men’s Swimming & Diving Championships in Ohio State’s McCorkle Aquatic Pavilion.

Through seven events, the Nittany Lions rank seventh with 207 points. No. 4 Indiana leads with 562.

Ryan broke his own school record of 19.36 seconds, which he had previously set at the 2014 Big Ten Championships. The time was also the first NCAA A-cut by a Penn State swimmer this season.

It was not Ryan’s only A-cut on the night though, as he led off the 400 medley relay with a 100 backstroke of 44.95 seconds. As they did Wednesday in the 200 medley relay, freshman Kaelan Freund, Tomer Zamir and Bob Bantley followed Ryan, and they earned a fifth-place finish in a season-best and NCAA provisional qualifying time of 3:08.04 for the fourth fastest time in the event in program history.

“We were just off on the relay record, so maybe we will get a chance to break that at NCAAs,” said head coach Tim Murphy.

Freund also reached a final individually, placing 20th in the 200 IM in a personal-best and B-cut time of 1:46.52.

Hector Garcia Boissier led a trio of divers that all scored. Garcia just missed out on advancing to the main final, scoring 347.90 in the preliminaries to place ninth, but he scored 364.50 in the consolation final to maintain his ranking. Jack Crow placed 20th in 299.20 and Connor Scanlon followed in 21st at 296.35.

“Hector winning consols was huge for us,” said Murphy. “It was very important for them to put some points on the board for us and they are looking forward to the 3-meter tomorrow.”

The Nittany Lions missed out on the 500 free finals, as Matt Stasiunas swam a season-best and NCAA B-cut time of 4:23.61, but it was only good enough for 25th.

“Robbie Dickson and Stasiunas had decent 500s, but the meet is so much faster than it was last year,” said Murphy. “Robbie set a personal best time (4:27.59) and it was Stas’ best morning swim in a long time.”

Last Updated February 24, 2017