Shane Ryan Wins Three In Final Home Meet as Penn State Sinks Navy

Navy at Penn State

• Complete results
• Hosted by Penn State (State College, PA)
• January 21, 2017
• 25 yards, dual meet (men, women)

Meet Scores

• Men: Penn State 173, Navy 127
• Women: Penn State 199, Navy 99

Recap

Irish Olympian Shane Ryan bade farewell to the McCoy Natatorium in style, as he won three events in his final home meet as a Nittany Lion, and both the men’s and women’s teams defeated Navy.

Ryan set a new pool record in the 100 free with his time of 42.99.  That time, despite being done at a dual meet and not at an invite, would rank him in the top 16 in Division I this season, had he not already been ranked 7th with his 42.49 from the Ohio State Invite in the fall.  After sitting out the 2016 season to focus on the Olympics, Ryan could be poised for a big meet at the NCAA championships in March.  Tonight, Ryan also won the 50 free (19.76) and the 100 fly (48.01).

Another Nittany Lion, freshman Kaelan Freund, also touched first in three events, winning the 100 breast (55.10), 200 breast (2:02.17) and the 200 IM (1:50.60).  Freund was also Penn State’s winning medley relay, and the Penn State men bookended the day with victories in both relays, taking the 400 free relay at the end of the meet thanks to Ryan’s strong anchor leg.

The women’s side of the meet also featured a triple event winner, but this time it was a Navy swimmer.  Sophomore Lauren Barber won the same trio of events as Freund, taking the 100 breast in 1:02.17, the 200 breast in 2:14.09, and the 200 IM in 2:02.04.  However, Barber’s feat wasn’t enough to overcome a Nittany Lion team that narrowly won the opening medley relay, then swept the top three places in the 1000 free, and continued to roll from there.

Penn State Release

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – Led in part by seniors swimming and diving for the final time in McCoy Natatorium, Penn State swept Navy in a dual meet Saturday afternoon, with the women earning a 199-99 victory and the men a 173-127 victory.

The Penn State men and women improved to 3-3 and 3-4, respectively, in dual meets, while both Navy teams slipped to 7-2.

Senior Shane Ryan (Havertown, Pa.) won three individual events for the men, breaking his own pool record in the 100 freestyle by touching in 42.99 seconds, and he rallied the 400 freestyle relay team to a come-from-behind victory on the final leg to close out the meet. Freshman  Billy Beard (Pottstown, Pa.), senior Bob Bantley (Maple Glen, Pa.) and freshman  Austin Wilson trailed Navy’s team by exactly eight-tenths of a second after three legs of the 400 free relay, but Ryan regained the lead by 0.18 seconds after 50 yards and ultimately out swam Navy’s anchor leg by exactly two seconds to win the race. His other individual event wins included the 50 free in 19.76 seconds – four-hundreths of a second shy of his own pool record set last week – and the 100 fly in 48.01.

Four Nittany Lion women’s swimmers won multiple events, including seniors Casey Francis (East Meadow, N.Y.) and Katie Saloky (Bloomsburg, Pa.)

Senior Mackenzie Cornell (Germantown, Md.) swept the women’s diving events, highlighted by a personal best score of 318.22 in the 3-meter. Christina Crowell (Bedford Hills, N.Y.) and McKayla Mawn (Kennett Square, Pa.) grabbed the second (256.58) and third (250.80) for maximum team points in the event, while Cornell also won the 1-meter with a score of 272.39. Sophomore Hector Garcia Boissier (Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain) won the 3-meter (397.87) and 1-meter (361.27) on the men’s side, and classmate Jack Crow (Bethesda, Md.) was second to him in the 3-meter (338.92).

The women were dominant from the start, winning the opening 200 medley relay followed by a 1-2-3 Nittany Lion sweep of the 1000 freestyle led Francis in a personal best 9:48.93. Ally McHugh (Philadelphia, Pa.) finished second in 10:04.19 and freshman Amber Glenn (Ventor, N.J.) was third in (10:05.44). Francis also won the 500 free in 4:52.07 to lead a sweep of the top four spots, and was followed in the scoring positions by classmate Katelyn Sowinski (Severna Park, Md.), who touched second in 4:57.32, and freshman Cara Treble (Massapequa, N.Y.) who touched third in 4:58.41. Sowinski also claimed the 200 fly in an NCAA B-cut of 1:58.94.

Saloky won the 50 free in 22.92, with Katrina Kuhn (Piscataway, N.J.) following in second (23.97), and Saloky also won the 100 fly in 54.76. Saloky, Francis, Sowinski and senior Megan Wujciak (Livingston, N.J.) teamed up for the 400 free relay to conclude the meet, and placed first officially in 3:25.69.

Junior Tommie Dillione (Newtown, Pa.) won both the 100 (51.27) and 200 (1:49.37) freestyles, leading a sweep of the top five spots in the 200. Freshman Siena Salvaggio (Allentown, Pa.) placed second to Dillione in both the 100 (51.65) and 200 (1:50.17), while Wujciak rounded out the top three in the 200 free (1:50.57).

Niki Price joined Dillione as a multiple event winner touching first in the 100 (56.71) and 200 (2:00.98) backstrokes.

Underclassmen helped Ryan lead the men’s team, led by reigning Big Ten Men’s Freshman of the Week Kaelan Freund (Lethbridge, Alberta), who matched Ryan’s three individual wins and relay win with a sweep of the 100 (55.10) and 200 (2:02.17) breaststrokes and a win in the 200 IM (1:50.60). Freund also teamed up with classmate and countryman Liam Veregin (Ottawa, Ontario), sophomore Tomer Zamir (Gesher Haziv, Israel) and Bantley to win the day’s opening 200 medley relay in 1:29.48.

Zamir (49.27) and Veregin (49.34) also finished 1-2 in the 100 backstroke, and Veregin won the 200 back in 1:49.73 and was followed by sophomore Nathaniel Bledsoe (Carmel, Ind.) in 1:50.42.

Sophomore John Nunez (Hackensack, N.J.) won one of the day’s most exciting races, hanging on in the 500 free to touch first in 4:35.78 for a margin of victory of just 0.21 seconds over the second-place Navy finisher.

Penn State will next host the Penn State Zone A Diving Invitational Saturday and Sunday, Jan 28-29. The entire team will be back in action the following week at Villanova, Feb. 3.

Navy Release

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – Sophomore Lauren Barber (New Wilmington, Pa.) and a trio of men swimmers combined for six first-place performances as the Navy swimming and diving teams fell short to Penn State on Saturday at McCoy Natatorium. The Nittany Lions men’s team (3-3) defeated the Mids (7-2), 173-127, while Penn State’s women’s squad (3-4) recorded a 199-99 victory over Navy (7-2).

“Very pleased with the effort today as the guys stepped up and raced a good team,” said Navy men’s swimming head coach Bill Roberts. “In the end, Penn State just had a couple more events that they were stronger in and they were able to pull away towards the end of the meet.”

“We had a strong fight against a good Penn State team,” said Navy women’s swimming head coach John Morrison. “We came out ready to race and it certainly was a challenge for us all the way. We, however, did have several very good swims.”

“We went up against a very talented team from the BIG 10,” said Navy diving coach Rich MacDonald. “We have been working on putting all the hard work and training together the past couple weeks and it is starting to show. We still have some work to do to get ready for the championship season that is coming up soon.”

Senior Sam Ciocco opened up the individual events with a first-place finish in the 1,000 freestyle. Ciocco placed first with a time of 9:29.17, finishing ahead of teammate Brayden Lauffer’s (Apex, N.C.) time of 9:32.79

“Really proud of Sam [Ciocco] for stepping up in the first individual event in the 1000 free and getting us off to a good start,” said Roberts.

Following up Ciocco’s performance, teammate Joseph Jaime (Jr., San Antonio, Texas) captured the individual crown in the 200-yard freestyle with a time of 1:39.21, edging out Penn State’s Matthew Stasiunas by 0:00.18 seconds.

Navy’s 200-yard butterfly trio of William Rittenhouse (Jr., London, England), Hayes McCullagh (Sr., Charlotte, N.C.) and Nick Pfanstiel (So., Fishers, Ind.) recorded the top three spots in the event. Rittenhouse paced the Navy trio with a first-place finish of 1:52.20, while McCullagh and Pfanstiel hit the pool’s edge at the exact same time of 1:52.64 for second and third place, respectively.

For the second consecutive dual meet, Barber racked up first-place performances in the 100-yard and 200-yard breaststroke and 200-yard individual medley. The sophomore swimmer opened up with a first-place 100-yard breaststroke time of 1:02.17, which was a full three seconds faster than Penn State’s Carly Fried. Barber then outswam the 200-yard breaststroke field, clocking in a first-place time of 2:14.09, which was six seconds faster than Penn State’s Annalee Johnson. The New Wilmington, Pennsylvania, native capped off the meet with a first-place finish in the 200-yard individual medley with a time of 2:02.04.

“[Lauren] Barber led the way in the individual events and continues to compete and fight at the national level,” said Morrison.

Overall, the Navy men’s swimmers tallied 15 first or second-place performances in 17 events, while the Navy women’s squad combined for 10 first or second-place finishes at the meet.

Both Navy teams will continue the 2017 campaign on Wednesday with a three-team meet, featuring Johns Hopkins and Towson, at Lejuene Hall in Annapolis (4 PM).