Swimming: Buffalo Grove’s dog-loving Rodriquez thrives on clocking the competition
By bill mclean Contributor January 24, 2012 2:32PM
Buffalo Grove's Ian Rodriquez reacts after winning the 200 IM in Saturday's Bison Invite. His time of 1:57,32 set a new school, pool and meet record. He currently has the fastest time in the state in the 100 breast. | Brian O'Mahoney~for Sun-Times Media
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Updated: February 27, 2012 8:14AM
In the middle of a recent boys swim practice at Buffalo Grove High School, Bison coach Jamie Klotz made a deal with senior Ian Rodriguez:
Swim 100 yards of freestyle, under 50 seconds, and you and your teammates get to leave early.
I-Rod’s opponent for the deal: the clock.
Just the clock.
The 6-foot-4, 180-pound Rodriguez absolutely loves any kind of a challenge. Not as much as he loves his dog, Archie, a schnoodle who gets absolutely rapturous as soon as Rodriguez enters his house. But it’s close.
Rodriguez and his teammates, before the deal was struck, had piled up 4,000 yards at the practice, and Rodriguez averaged about 52 seconds per 100.
“I was playing with him,” recalled Klotz days later. “Playing a mental game with him.”
Game on.
Rodriguez sped to a 49-something, much to the delight of amped-up, on-deck Bison, who immediately had some free time.
Some dry time.
“I got a lot of hugs that day,” Rodriguez said.
Klotz got to gloat, because Rodriguez’s time proved something.
“He has more to give, even after so many yards,” Klotz said. “Ian showed that, to all of us, in that deal that day.
“You can’t coach a killer instinct,” he added. “Ian has that. The great ones have that internal mechanism, that ability to turn it on when it’s time to compete.”
Archie’s best friend set two more school records last weekend, and one of them (59.15, in the 100 breaststroke) ranks No. 1 in the state this season. Mundelein junior superstar Connor Block had held that distinction, with a 59.18.
Rodriguez clocked his time in Friday’s 111-75 defeat of Prospect.
Rodriguez then zipped to a first-place and Bison-record 1:57.75 in the 200 IM at Saturday’s Bison Invite, supplanting his old mark of 1:58.32.
He owns five school marks.
The other three: 4:52.75 (500 free), 1:45.49 (200 free), 50.95 (100 backstroke).
That 50.95 occurred at last year’s state meet, swift enough for seventh place.
“When you first see Ian, out of the water, you think, ‘He doesn’t seem so competitive,’ ” said classmate Jon Mass, a sprint freestyler. “But when you see him in the water … different story. Totally different.”
Mass went begoggled head-to begoggled head with Rodriguez in the 50 free at a dual with Wheeling this season.
I-Rod won it in 22.64, edging runner-up Mass by three one-hundredths of a second.
“He out-reached me,” Mass recalled before Saturday’s home invite. “The first thing he said to me after the race was, ‘You’re mad, aren’t you?’ I wasn’t mad; I was a little disappointed. Ian is the kind of swimmer who, in races, does what he needs to do.
“He’s a natural in this sport, with great length,” Mass added. “And he uses that length to his advantage.”
He’ll certainly use that at Michigan State University, beginning with the 2012-13 season. Rodriguez received a scholarship to swim for the Spartans.
His sister, former Bison star Erin Rodriguez, is a junior swimmer at Illinois.
“It was great, growing up with her and competing against her,” said Ian, a club member of Arlington Heights-based Alligator Aquatics. “She helped me a lot in swimming, showed me things.”
Nearly an hour before Saturday’s Bison Invite, BG junior Matthew Schulstad recollected what Ian Rodriguez showed at a practice … the practice that got truncated, because of Rodriguez’s speed.
“He does some amazing things,” said Schulstad, a butterflyer. “He flew that day. He’s long and big, with huge hands and feet. And determined.
“But what makes Ian so good,” he added, “is his competitiveness.”
Cooking, at home: BG (199 points) finished third at Saturday’s Bison Invite, behind Lake Park (200) and champion Cary-Grove (239).
Rodriguez, Schulstad, Mass and Nick Poirer topped in the 200 medley relay field in 1:42.3; Rodriguez, after setting that BG mark in the 200 IM, touched first in the 100 back (52.6); and BG’s Julian Vasquez captured the diving title (316.45).
On the schedule: BG (4-0 in the MSL East) visits Rolling Meadows at 4:30 p.m. Friday for its final MSL East dual of the season.
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