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Born and raised in Bloomington, IL, Ryan attended University High School where he was a consistent state contender in both cross country and track, in addition to setting school marks in both the 3200 and 1600 meter runs. When it came time to choose his next step, Ryan did not have to look too far, as he attended his hometown university of Illinois State. While competing for the Red Birds, Ryan was a two-time Missouri Valley Conference Champion, NCAA qualifier, and 2016 Illinois State University Athlete of the Year, all while earning a degree in English Studies, minoring in Cinema Studies. Now training with Team USA Minnesota, Ryan has already made his name on the roads, breaking the course record in 2017 for the Brian Kraft Memorial 5k and taking the victory at the TCO Vikings 5k, where he got to break the tape on the 50 yard line of USA Bank Field, home field for the Minnesota Vikings.

When not logging the miles and breaking the tape, Ryan watchs a lot of movies and tv to stay "culturally savvy," in addition to playing a lot of Pokemon GO to assist in maintaining an active lifestyle as part of the Twin Cities community. On his interests, Ryan says, "[These hobbies are not] typically associated with people that are elite athletes pursuing olympic dreams. I have many friends that spend much more time on some of these type of hobbies than I do, and I can relate to them on that level, but still get them interested in my unfolding story of running professionally. At the same time, I also love watching/competing in sports and have made many lifelong friends in doing so."

When his pro running career comes to an end, Ryan says "The main reason I chose to pursue an English degree for my major was to fine tune some of my writing skills so that I could either write for or review movies or tv shows in my spare time or maybe even as a career one day." He would like to pursue a career in entertainment writing, "and hopefully have a large enough audience and following to be successful with maintaining readers interest."