Feb. 27, 2015
IOWA CITY, Iowa - Senior Nate Savoy (Reading, Pa.) and junior Shane Ryan (Havertown, Pa.) helped Penn State secure a total of 59 points, Thursday as the Nittany Lions sit in eighth place with 89 team points following Day No. 2 of the 2015 Big Ten Championships.
Ryan was the highest placing PSU swimmer in any individual event on the championship session's second day as he finished third in the 50 free with a season fastest time of 19.49. He was just off his career best time, which is also a school record in the event of 19.36 that he set in 2014. Nevertheless, his bronze put 16 points up on the board for his teammates.
Savoy then racked up 11 points of his own during the 200 IM with a time of 1:45.76, finishing eighth in the 'A' Final. His 1:45.03 performance in preliminaries earlier in the day qualified for a career best.
Savoy then swam leadoff for the third place finishing 400 yard medley relay team which touched the wall in 3:08.01, also a season best time. The bronze performance from Savoy, Andrew Schuehler (Camden, N.J.), Kyle Madley (Madison, N.J.) and Ryan earned head coach Tim Murphy's squad a net of 32 points.
Another swimmer getting on the scoreboard on Day No. 2 was senior Nick Ankosko (East Brunswick, N.J.), who placed third in the 'B' Final but 11th overall in the 500 free with his season best time of 4:20.33.
In the diving portion of the session, senior T.J. Schenkel (Richboro, Pa.) placed 15th in the one meter with a score of 301.65, competing in the 'B' Final.
The Lions will be back in action Friday, looking to gain ground on seventh place Northwestern, whom they trail by just nine points.
Preliminaries get underway in Iowa City at 12 p.m. eastern and will be streamed live via Hawkeyesports.com.
Finals will again take place at 7:30 p.m. eastern and live results will be made available via Hawkeyesports.com as well.