Oswego State does not have a history of swimmers going to open-water races. Sophomore Daniel Rodriguez changed that, paying his own way to get to the College Swimming Coaches Association of America Open Water Championship.
Compared to NCAA Div. I schools, Div. III schools like Oswego State can not usually help swimmers with funds to get there.
“Daniel’s the first one [to swim there],” head coach Mike Holman said. “For us, he did this on his own. He paid his own way, drove there himself, found his way around. He’s probably one of the only ones who paid his way to get there, while others got a free ride.”
Rodriguez placed as the top Div. III time in the race, taking No. 20 overall.
The next Div. III swimmer came in at No. 33. Competing against him were other collegiate athletes, from all divisions and regions, as well as swimmers who were on national teams. “I was really proud of myself,” Rodriguez said. “I was competing against international swimmers with their national teams.” The winner of the race was from Peru, coming in at just under an hour for the time.
Rodriguez finished at 1:05:53.74, six minutes behind the winner. This was not the first time that Rodriguez swam open water, either. He won a national title in Spain in 2015. Before Rodriguez swam at the open water championship, he was a part of the Real Canoe Natacin Club. The team is located in Madrid, Spain, a country that does not have many swim teams.
“It was very competitive. There aren’t that many teams,” Rodriguez said. “There’s a lot of fast kids, it’s hard to get yourself in front of others. That prepared me well for college.”
It is a unique process to recruit international athletes, let alone a swimmer. Swimming is a completely different system compared to other sports like basketball or football. But Holman was able to find Rodriguez fairly easily.
“The process in swimming is, you’re looking for times first,” Holman said. “There’s a lot of resources out there. Finding kids isn’t that hard. Finding kids that will fit into this school is eight or nine months of trying to get to know people.”
The international recruiting process is a lot different, since most athletes will not do a weekend visit to a college. Thus, coaches have to heavily rely on different communication outlets like Skype. Rodriguez said a Skype call from Holman helped a lot. The choice of colleges for Rodriguez was easy. He wanted to go Div. III and fell in love with the Oswego State campus.
“It was easier for me to go Div. III rather than Div. I, because I would’ve been [below average] in Div. I,” Rodriguez said. “I chose Oswego because I liked it from what I saw. Also, Coach Mike was very supportive of me coming to Oswego.”
Throughout his freshman year, he was able to establish himself as a dominant distance freestyle swimmer, something he did in Madrid. He claimed the 1000 yard Freestyle and 1650 yard freestyle team records in his first season. He also won the 1650 yard Freestyle at the SUNYAC Championships last season.
“I always knew I had a good chance to win it. I had trained very well,” Rodriguez said. “It was pretty amazing to win an event as a freshman. My mom actually flew in to see me from Spain. It was a very happy moment.”
With Rodriguez’s top Div. III time in the open water championship, he hopes his momentum will continue into the Lakers’ season.
“This will make me work harder,” Rodriguez said. “It showed me I can achieve greater things if I work hard. I’m going to put myself forward this season.”
His goal, is to get into the Top 10 for Div. III in the mile race.
Holman has some different goals for him, though. A lot of includes working hard, top performances at SUNYACs and being a team leader as a sophomore. “Last year, he was the champion in the mile, and we’d like to repeat that,” Holman said. “From a team standpoint, I really hope he can rub off on the big freshman class, and buy into the work ethic he has.”
Photo provided by Rosanne Beltran
