SANTIAGO, Chile – Stanford junior Jack Ryan won the 3-meter springboard diving bronze medal at the Pan Am Games on Monday.
Ryan, representing the U.S., scored 435.35 on six dives at the Centro Acuatico to win his first senior international medal.
Ryan and sophomore Andres DuPont were Stanford's representatives at the Pan Am Games. DuPont concluded his busy meet on Wednesday, helping Mexico place fourth in the 4x100-meter medley relay.
DuPont raced in six events – the 100 freestyle and five relays. Four of his relay teams placed fourth, another was sixth, and he was seventh in the 100 free (49.03).
The meet concluded a series of international events for Stanford swimming and diving in the past two months. Others were freshman Ethan Harrington at the World Aquatic Junior Swimming Championships, and sophomore Hayden Kwan and freshman Jonathan Tan at the Asian Games.
Ryan started off with 79.90 points on a front 2 ½ with two twists and then followed up with 66.50 points on a front 4 ½ tuck before earning 72 points on his back 2 ½ pike.
Then in round four, he put down a reverse 3 ½ tuck that scored 82.25 points. It was then that Ryan thought a medal might be a possibility.
"I knew it after round four, I think," Ryan said to USA Diving. "After my gainer, I realized I had pretty much hit four dives in a row. The front is a new dive for me, so 6.5s on that was a hit. Once I knew I hit four dives in a row, I thought this might be getting pretty serious."
Ryan followed up with 61.20 points on an inward 3 ½ tuck and closed out his list with 73.50 points on a reverse 1 ½ with 3 ½ twists to grab the bronze medal.
Ryan was just short of silver medalist Luis Felipe Uribe of Colombia, who scored 444.25. Mexico's Osmar Olvera was the runaway winner at 536.15.
After Saturday's performance on 1-meter, when misses on his front and inward dives knocked him out of the medal hunt and into seventh, Ryan talked to coach Patrick Jeffrey and turned the disappointment into a positive.
"I just took a day to brush it all off and change gears and go from 1-meter to 3-meter," Ryan said. "I was going over on fronts and inwards on 1-meter, which we turned into a positive so that when we add a flip on 3-meter those kickouts are going to be straight up and down. We took all the missed dives and kept the positives, and we turned all the misses into hits."
Here are their Pan Am results:
Jack Ryan (USA)
1-meter springboard: 7th, 339.50.
3-meter springboard: 3rd, 435.35.
Andres DuPont (Mexico)
100 free: 7th, 49.03.
4x100 free relay: 4th, 3:19.19.
4x100 medley relay: 4th, 3:37.79.
4x200 free relay: 4th, 7:17.66.
Mixed 4x100 free relay: 4th, 3:28.87.
Mixed 4x100 medley relay: 6th, 3:54.37.
