Haverford High Senior Does Well At Nationals

It wasn’t exactly what envisioned, but the rising senior swimmer did gain something by swimming last week at the Senior Nationals at Palo Alto, Calif., at Stanford University’s Avery Aquatic Center.

Ryan reached personal-best times in all the events he swam, though he didn’t reach the ultimate goal of what he intended—making United States Junior National team that will compete at the Junior World Championships in Lima, Peru, from Aug. 16-22.

At Nationals, Ryan swam in the 50-meter freestyle, 100-meter freestyle, 100-meter backstroke, 100-meter butterfly and 200-meter backstroke. His best finishes were taking seventh overall in the 100 freestyle among the 18-under competitors, sixth in the 100 backstroke in his age group.

Ryan has already received college offers from Penn State and Tennessee. Virginia, Georgia, Auburn, Louisville and Cal-Berkley, where he visited on Saturday, have also shown considerable interest in Ryan.

“Shane has gotten all of the personal-best times in every race he’s been in, but he hasn’t had the huge monumental drops like this time last year,” said Matt Stewart, Haverford’s coach who accompanied Shane and his family to Nationals. “He’s been self analyzing, which has been very helpful. He’s learned that he has to work harder. Shane was absolutely one of the younger swimmers there; Shane has never really lifted that hard, and he’s racing men who are 6-foot-6, and weigh 190, 200 pounds.

“He was in there against world-class swimmers like Ryan Lochte and he’s seeing big-time talent. There are some kids in his age bracket that are a little ahead of him, and he hasn’t really lost any of his rankings. He’s right where he’s been. The training he did this summer will be key down the line. Shane knows he has to work harder and it’s important that he sees the top college talent. What has gotten me is the size of these athletes.”

Stewart pointed out that that the 50 freestyle was a man’s race with world-class swimmers, the kind of event you won’t find anyone under 18, like Ryan who is 17, finishing among the top 30. Still, Ryan swam well in that race.

“Shane knows what he needs to work on,” Stewart said. “He’s learning he has to finish stronger. You as a coach tell your athlete that’s what they have to do, but when they see it and go through it themselves, they realize it. Shane is kicking himself a little bit. He’s done great here, but he expected to do better. He knows what he has to work on, and knowing Shane, he’ll work on it.”