A Look Back - 2002/2003

In Ryan's speech a couple of weekends ago (see video on April 25 entry below), he said he got serious about swimming in college. Here's a look back at how he progressed each year, starting with his freshman season in 2002-03. Ryan did really well that year but it is amazing how far he has come.

2002/03 Florida

U.S. Open - December 2002

• 4th in the 200m IM (2:04.63)
• 6th in the 400m free (3:59.44)
• 4th in the 1,500m free (15:50.17)
• 3rd in the 400m IM (4:29.37)
  
• 6th in the 400m free relay
• US Open Male High Points Award (66 points)
  

SEC Championships - February 2003

• 1st in the 800 free relay
• 2nd in the 200 IM (1:45.05)
• 2nd in the 200 free relay
• 1st in the 400 IM (3:43.31) - Ryan's goggles broke at the beginning of the race
• 1st in the 1,650 free (14:55.03)
• SEC Male High Points Award (57 points)
• SEC Swimming of the Year & Freshman of the Year
  

NCAA Championships - March 2003

• 4th in the 200 IM (1:44.58)
  
• 7th in the 200 free relay
• 2nd in the 800 free relay
• 3rd in the 400 IM (3:41.45)
• 8th in the 1,650 free (14:59.18)
• 7th (tied) in the 400 medley relay
  
• 7th (tied) in Male High Point Award (42 points)
  

2003 Pan Am Games

The swim meet at the 2003 Pan Am Games took place in the Dominican Republic from August 12-18. Ryan was part of the gold-medal winning 4 x 200m free relay along with Daniel Ketchum, Jeffrey Lee and Bryan Goldberg.

For his individual events, Ryan swam the 200m IM and 400m IM as exhibitions. This means that his qualifying times for the Pan Am games were not fast enough to allow him to swim the individual events, but he was allowed to swim in the prelims as an exhibition. The results were very good.

In the 200m IM, Ryan swam a 2:00.34, which was the 8th fastest time in the world in 2003. It would have placed Ryan 2nd if he had been allowed to swim in the finals.

In the 400m IM, Ryan's time was 4:16.80, which was the 7th fastest time in the world in 2003. It would have placed 1st in the finals.