July 16, 2015
TORONTO ââ'¬" Penn State rising senior women's swimmer Alyson Ackman (Montreal) swam the third leg of Canada's 4x200-meter freestyle relay and helped the team win the bronze medal Thursday evening at the 2015 Pan American Games in the Pan Am Aquatic Centre.
Ackman's swim concluded the participation for three Nittany Lion swimmers at the Games, as classmate Melissa Rodriguez (Chihuahua) and incoming freshman Monika Gonzalez-Hermosillo (Mexico City) both competed for their native Mexico, as well.
Ackman and her Canadian teammates completed the 4x200m in 7:59.36, 5.04 seconds off the pace of the gold medal-winning United States entry and three seconds behind runner-up Brazil. She earned two international medals in the same event last year, taking silver in the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland, and bronze in the Pan Pacific Games in Gold Coast, Australia.
On Tuesday, Ackman helped Canada earn a gold medal in the 4x100-meter freestyle relay, swimming for the team in the preliminaries as they placed second in 3:42.83 in the initial round.
Ackman holds Penn State's records in the 100- and 200-yard freestyle events, while her time in the 200 is also the Big Ten's standard. A CSCAA Scholar All-American, Ackman earned All-America honors this past season as a member of Penn State's 800 freestyle relay team and honorable mention All-America honors as a member of Penn State's 200 free relay team and individually in the 100 and 200 frees. She has earned a total of 10 All-America honors in her collegiate career.
Ackman will continue to swim for Canada following the Pan Am Games, also competing in the FINA World Championships, Aug. 2-9 in Kazan, Russia.
Gonzalez-Hermosillo swam for the first time in the Pan Am Games Thursday competing in the 400-meter individual medley and the preliminaries of the 4x200m free relay. She advanced to the finals of the 400 IM and ultimately placed seventh in 4:53.83.
Wednesday, Rodriguez placed fifth in both the morning preliminaries and evening finals of the 200m breaststroke. Her prelim time of 2:28.73 was a personal best, while she touched the wall in 2:28.87 in the finals, 4.49 seconds off the pace of the Pan Am Games record and gold medal clinching time swam by Canada's Kierra Smith, the reigning Big Ten Swimmer of the Year for Minnesota.