Oswego State men’s swimmer Daniel Rodriguez shattered a school record for the fastest 1,000-yard freestyle by over five seconds this past Saturday against Wells College, leading the Lakers to a victory.
The freshman swimmer finished with a time of 9:54.07 and beat Jason Cotter record of 9:59.69. This was a record that was held for nearly ten years.
“I wasn’t expecting it,” Rodriguez said. “A week ago I swam a 10:29 so as soon as I hit the wall I felt surprised with my time. You don’t get to break a school record every day.”
Coach Michael Holman, now coaching his 10th year for Oswego State’s swim teams, echoed Rodriguez’s comments.
“I wasn’t expecting it this early so that was a special thing,” Holman said. “We don’t get school records in the middle of the season very often.”
Holman said that swimmers usually build on their endurance as the season goes on. This would suggest that there is room for even more improvement on Rodriguez’s record time. Holman was mostly surprised by the splits of the race. He efficiently swam his first 500 yards in only 4:52 and nearly kept that pace going during the second half of the race.
Rodriguez, who is from Madrid, Spain, has been swimming for nearly nine years but has not seen significant improvement until he switched swim teams a year ago. Since that time, he made it to Senior Nationals and Olympic Trials. After the Olympic Trials, Rodriguez took three weeks off and began to slowly start up his routine again.
“I started swimming little by little, building myself up to 2,000 yards in Spain,” Rodriguez said. “Then I flew here and swam a little more trying to maintain my form.”
Rodriguez, now an experienced competitive swimmer, has an extensive pre-meet workout ritual that helps prepare both his mind and his body for the race ahead.
“Before races I always listen to music, usually Spanish rap,” he said. “Then I start stretching my arms and legs to warm up my muscles. Finally, right before the race I pour pool water on me so that I get a sense of how the water is going to be before I jump in.”
The men’s swim team improved to 7-3 last year after a 5-5 season in 2014-2015. Still, there is even room for more improvement as the team placed sixth out of nine teams in the SUNYAC Championships. Holman sought to improve his practices this year to continue to improve his team.
“We added in a pretty heavy kicking proponent,” Holman said. “We have a pretty rigid program that we instilled that I think is paying dividends so far and we’ll find out if that pays dividends towards the end of the year.”
The men’s next meet is this Saturday against Clarkson University. Holman is excited because the meet is at home and the team tends to do better at home due to the excitement of the crowd. Rodriguez and his teammates hope to take advantage of their home meet by getting their second straight victory.
