James Rankin was going that extra yard as a member of the St. Bonaventure University swim team last season.

Those yards began to seem like miles so the Knoch graduate has found his way back to Western Pennsylvania at Clarion University.

"It just didn't click for me," said Rankin about the New York school. "The program was totally different that Knoch.

"It was a lot of swim, swim, swim. They'd say 'You'll get better by swimming' but it was a lot of yardage, a lot out pounding. I was used to technique.

"I thought a small school, that would be like Knoch, would be better for me. Clarion has that same atmosphere," he added.

Mark Van Dyke, Clarion's coach and a native of Butler, recruited Rankin out of high school but was glad he eventually chose the Division II school.

"He decided to give St. Bonaventure, Division I, a shot," said Van Dyke. "I knew the program he came from. I swam at the Butler Y. I knew he was a great talent. He just needed the right situation to develop.

"St. Bonaventure is a high-yardage program, but I like to work things out with each individual swimmer," Van Dyke added.

Rankin began swimming as a sophomore at Knoch. By his senior year, he was the WPIAL Class AAA champion in the 50 freestyle. He also placed fourth in the 100 freestyle and finished 10th at states in both events.

The 6-foot-6 swimmer also competed in the 50 freestyle, 100 freestyle, 100 breaststroke and all three relays at the YMCA Nationals in 2001 and 2002.

After spending last year at St. Bonaventure, Rankin finds himself on a team loaded with freestylers, but he found a niche in the breaststroke.

"We told him when we recruited him he had a chance to go to nationals with his times in the sprints," said Van Dyke. "As of now, he's our fastest 100 breaststroker."

Rankin has taken part in the 50 and 100 freestyle events, 100 breaststroke and the relay events, but that doesn't mean he's not open to doing more.

"James will do anything," said Van Dyke. "He's willing to do the 200 breast and one of the things we've talked about is putting him there.

"He can be our best breaststroke. He's willing to take the challenge on," Van Dyke added.

Coming to Clarion has allowed Rankin to get back to the fundamentals and develop from there.

"I knew I didn't do as well as I did the year before, and coach told me we would go back to the basic things from high school," said Rankin.

This season, Rankin already has qualified for the NCAA Division II nationals as a member of Clarion's 200 freestyle relay team with a time of 1 minute, 23.34 seconds at the Zippy Invite at University of Akron in early December, a standard that also set a meet and pool record.

Rankin recently knocked off 1½ seconds in his 50 freestyle time and is optimistic he can also qualify for nationals in the 100 breaststroke since he is only 0.4 seconds off that mark.

He does have the top 100-breaststroke time on the team, so that could be his future event.

"We do have upperclassmen sprinters that are just a little better than me," said Rankin. "I'm probably third or fourth on the team, but I'm No. 1 in the 100 breaststroke.

"I feel the breaststroke is something I can achieve and I can see myself excelling in that," he added.