Pine-Richland grad Schonbachler prepares for ACC meet

In his third season with the Pitt swimming team, Pine-Richland product Ryan Schonbachler is continuing to improve his resume as a long-distance swimmer while also displaying his versatility by incorporating some intermediate-distance events into his repertoire.

With less than a month to go until the ACC championships, set for Feb. 26-29 in Greensboro, N.C., the Panthers junior is escalating his training and says he hopes to showcase his well-rounded talents in three separate races.

“For dual meets, my main events are the 1,000 free, the 500 free and the 200 fly, but at the ACCs, I’m hoping to be swimming the mile, the 500 and the 200 fly,” Schonbachler said.

“Last year, I scored in the mile at ACCs so the goal this year is to score in every event and try to move up to that top-16, top-8 place in the standings.”

To date, Schonbachler has put up the Panthers’ second-fastest time in the 500 freestyle (4:27.61), the 1,000 free (9:25.09) and the 1,650 free (15:40.40).

Those events have long been a staple of his skill set, as evidenced by his 2017 WPIAL gold medal in the 500 free, but the former Rams athlete also is flashing some serious ability in the 200 butterfly. In fact, his Nov. 23 time of 1 minute, 50.26 seconds in the 200 fly stands as the fourth-highest time for any swimmer on Pitt’s 2019-20 roster.

While competing in such a wide range of distance events has been a physical challenge for Schonbachler, he says his success has been due in large part to a more effective training regimen that has helped him form a strong mental approach for each of his races.

“Personally, I feel like I’ve done very well this season. We’ve been training at a new level under assistant coach Marc Christian, and he’s been really pushing us as a distance group, and you can see that reflected in our times,” Schonbachler said.

“We do a lot of work on short-interval pacing, and I think that’s really helped me with my swimming along with working on my race strategy. I think the way I’ve been swimming my races has been a lot smarter this year, which is why I’ve seen some drops in my times.”

Pitt will compete in the Ohio State Winter Invitational in Columbus, Ohio, from Feb. 14-16 before participating in the ACC women’s championships Feb. 19-22 and the ACC men’s championships Feb. 26-29.