July 31, 2017
BUDAPEST, Hungary/BARCELONA, Spain - Penn State swimming alum Shane Ryan contributed to a record Irish relay effort at the FINA World Championships and current diver Hector Garcia Boissier won a National Championship in Spain in the 3-meter dive to cap successful month for the pair abroad.
Ryan and his Irish teammates swam the 400-meter relay Sunday in 3:36.61 to earn a top-16 finish at the World Championships in Budapest. The same group will try to improve on the record further at the World University Games in August. Ireland is looking to qualify a relay team for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, where only the top-16 compete.
Ryan opened Worlds with a semifinal performance in the 100m back last week with a time of 53.94 seconds to place 12th overall, improving four places from his 16th-place finish at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio. The time was 0.18 seconds shy of earning a finals berth. Friday, Ryan swam the 50-meter free in a personal-best matching 22.97 seconds to place 40th overall, and then Saturday, he swam the 50-meter back in 25.48 to place 23rd.
Ryan was the second of two Penn Staters to compete at this year's World Championships, as Garcia narrowly missed the finals of the men's 3-meter synchronized dive Saturday, July 15, as he and his brother Nicolas totaled 372.30 points to place 13th for their native Spain, missing out on the finals by 2.10 points.
Motivated by coming up just short at Worlds, Garcia bested Spain's World Championship qualifiers in the 3-meter dive to win the Spanish National Championship in the event with a score of 407.20, besting his brother, who was second at 385.40.
"I'm super proud of Hector for showing the maturity it took to learn from prior experiences, refocus, and get the job done," said Penn State diving coach Dennis Ceppa. "I'm looking forward to a great winter season with him this coming year."
Check GoPSUSports.com for coverage of the Penn State swimming and diving teams during the season. Follow the team on Twitter at @PennStateSWIM and on Facebook at http://facebook.com/pennstateswimminganddiving.