Shane Ryan’s historic Penn State swimming career comes to an end

He holds three individual school records, three relay records, two NCAA medals and four All-America nods.

But, for the first time since 2012, those numbers won’t increase again next season. Penn State senior swimmer Shane Ryan swam for the last time as a Nittany Lion on Saturday, after one of the most distinguished careers in school history.

Ryan clocked a time of 42.14 seconds to finish 10th Saturday in the 100-yard freestyle. It was his third career honorable mention All-America honor.

“It’s been an honor to work with him and coach him,” coach Tim Murphy said in a news release. “We’ll see what’s ahead for him. I think, on a world level, that his best swimming is yet to come. I wouldn’t be surprised to see him in Tokyo in 2020, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see him swim the final heat there.

“He’s represented Penn State well in a lot of different ways.”

Ryan, the first Penn State swimmer to advance out of the preliminaries at the Olympics this past summer, added an All-America nod Friday in the 100 backstroke. He finished in sixth place.

The Pennsylvania native did not swim at Penn State last season because he instead spent 18 months training for the Olympics by representing Ireland. He is the first swimmer in program history to return to Happy Valley after competing in the Olympics.

Ryan holds school records in the 50 freestyle (19.36), 100 freestyle (42.08) and 100 backstroke (44.78).

This story was originally published March 25, 2017 at 11:42 PM with the headline "Shane Ryan’s historic Penn State swimming career comes to an end."