T-R PHOTO BY THORN COMPTON - Marshalltown senior Ryne Downey, seated second from right, signed his National Letter of Intent to join the University of Missouri-St. Louis men’s swimming team on Thursday in the team room of the Roundhouse. Joining Downey at the table are, from left, his brother Tyler, father Matt and mother Sarah. Behind is MHS boys swimming head coach Mike Loupee.

Marshalltown senior Ryne Downey signed his National Letter of Intent to join the University of Missouri-St. Louis men’s swimming program on Thursday in the team room of the Roundhouse.

The Bobcat sprinter has been a great asset to the MHS boys swimming team for the last two seasons in particular, and in his final year he helped set two new Marshalltown records in the 200-yard freestyle relay and 400 freestyle relay, reaching the podium at the state meet with a in the former with a sixth-place finish.

Downey said he chose to continue his swimming career with the Tritons for many factors.

“I really liked the coach, Tony Hernandez, he’s young and seems like he’s more up to date with the swimming world and he seems really knowledgeable,” Downey said. “I also really like the campus, it’s not some tiny, small campus, it’s a full-sized campus and it’s got a lot of new buildings. I liked the atmosphere of the campus.”

UMSL is a member of the Great Lakes Valley Conference in the NCAA Division II. This year Hernandez led the Tritons to a program-best fifth-place finish at the GLVC championships, and Marshalltown head boys swimming coach Mike Loupee said their program just got better with the addition of Downey.

“Ryne has always enjoyed swimming and always displayed that desire to continue to get better, that’s probably been the major key to his success,” Loupee said. “He never rested and said, ‘OK, I’m good enough,’ he always wanted to continue to improve. With that mindset, he’s going to continue to get faster.”

Aside from the obvious draws in the pool, Downey said he liked the opportunity UMSL provided to move to a bigger city.

“That was one of the things I was thinking about when I was trying to pick a school, I wanted to be somewhere bigger than Marshalltown where I would have options of things to go out and do,” he said.

When Downey first started with the Bobcats as a freshman, Loupee said he wasn’t a guy that immediately jumped out as a stellar swimmer. That changed throughout his years because of the effort Downey was willing to put in.

“Ryne’s development has been absolutely tremendous, probably from freshman year to senior year, one of the biggest spreads of improvements that we’ve had since I’ve been a coach here,” Loupee said. “He’s developed himself into a very strong sprinter, he’s got all the strokes so at the next level there’s still improvement, there’s always improvement, but I look for him to continue to grow a little bit physically and I think he will continue to get a little bit faster.”

Even after competing in the state meet in the 50 freestyle and 100 freestyle individually as a junior, Downey said he hadn’t looked into the possibility of swimming in college yet, so the opportunity to sign with the Tritons was almost too good to be true.

“I decided last year that I wanted to try and swim in college somewhere, so when I got in contact with the University of Missouri-St. Louis I was really excited that I could be a part of their team,” he said.

Over the last four years Downey has been mainly a freestyle sprinter for the Bobcats, and he said at least initially that’s where he will fit in with UMSL as well.

“There’s potential to where I can make some of their relays, if I really drop some time and work hard I could maybe do that as a freshman,” he said. “For the most part I think at first I’ll be on a lot of ‘B’ relays and be a No. 2 or 3 guy.”

While Loupee is sure Downey will get the opportunity to swim in the same races he did in Marshalltown, he also said Downey will get some other chances to swim in a variety of other races at the college level that just aren’t available in high school.

“Through the years that we’ve had him he’s obviously been a good sprinter and we had to use him where his strength was,” Loupee said. “At the next level I hope that he is able to expand his events and his strokes and be a more versatile swimmer.”

Ryne is the second Marshalltown record-setting swimmer to sign on at the next level this year, as girls butterfly queen Shakira Herrera will also be competing for Luther College in the fall.

Downey said the swimming community in Marshalltown is a big reason why athletes in the area are able to have success.

“Being here I got taught a lot of good lessons about leadership and everything and the role where I can fit in on the team,” he said. “Hopefully I can carry those on to UMSL and make an impact on their team too.”

Loupee said it’s no coincidence that two of the top swimmers from the program in recent years have been awarded the opportunities they have, it all boils down to what is being taught in the MHS program.

“The kids that come and swim for [girls head coach Angie Nelson] and [assistant coaches Sam Backstrom and Leah Barkema] and myself, if they want to listen and grow I feel that there’s not a better coaching staff anywhere in the state with the knowledge base that the four of us have,” Loupee said. “If a kid wants to come and listen and work to improve and put in the work in the pool and in the weightroom, we can continue to have success and set records here in Marshalltown. Both Shakira and Ryne are excellent examples of kids that have a little bit of talent and put in a lot of work toward that talent and had success. We are all excited to see what Ryne does at the next level.”