Rodriguez's Journey to a CUNYAC Title

Walter Rodriguez Has Comeback During His Senior Season

New York, N.Y. - Senior Hunter College cross country runner Walter Rodriguez has spent his collegiate career in search of one goal: to win the City University of New York Athletic Conference Championship race. After a second-place finish at the 2015 championships, Rodriguez worked hard in the off season to come back and eventually win the conference title this year.

Before becoming a CUNYAC Most Valuable Performer, Rodriguez spent his four years of high school playing basketball. It wasn't until his senior year that he decided to run cross country and fell in love with the sport.

The Richmond Hill, N.Y. native spent his freshman and sophomore seasons at Hunter as one of the top runners on the team, but his junior campaign is where he began to hit his stride. Rodriguez finished first for the Hawks in all five races during 2015 and was poised to lead all runners at the conference championships.

On October 25, 2015 he fell just short of the individual title, placing second with a time of 29:34.6, while the first-place finisher from John Jay College won by only five seconds.

"That was a really big loss for me," said Rodriguez. "I knew I never wanted to have that second-place feeling again so I took it and turned it into a positive. I used it to drive me through all of the miles and workouts during the offseason and pushed myself to where I could be better than I was the day before."

Rodriguez states that while he worked hard over the summer before his senior year, he did not do anything different in training besides keeping the championships on his mind. His training remained consistent and he trusted in head coach Daniel Selsky's plan. He credits another year of experience in running as a major component in his senior year success.

When the 2016 season began, Rodriguez started back where he left off, leading Hunter in every race of the regular season. Once the CUNYAC Championships took place on October 30, he felt prepared and followed Selsky's game plan.

"After a whole year of training and racing I knew how my body worked during races, especially after last year's champs where I took the first mile too fast," said Rodriguez. "I knew I had to go out controlled and keep the field within a reachable distance."

Rodriguez finished first in the race to capture the title, posting a time of 28:56.9 and narrowly beating his second-place opponent by two seconds.

"The last two miles I started to try to hammer down," he said. "Benjamin from CCNY, who is very talented runner, had the lead with less than a mile to go but I just tried to hang on and trust my fitness.

"Down the home stretch I could feel myself fading and the only person I heard in the crowd of screaming people was my dad yelling 'you got it this year- it's yours' and that's what helped me finish and secure the win."

With his victory, Rodriguez led Hunter to a second-place team finish at the championships and won Most Valuable Runner honors.

Now that his eligibility is over, he wants to continue training and competing unattached, while also helping out the team as much as possible. He recently took the USATF level I coaching certification course and will start looking into using his future economics degree after he graduates from Hunter.

"Running has helped me develop traits I didn't even know I had," said Rodriguez. "It has molded me into a leader, taught me teamwork and developed my work ethic. The sport has prepared me so that I know I can handle any hurdles that life throws my way in the future."

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Players Mentioned

Walter Rodriguez: 6' 0"; Graduate Student; Sr.

Players Mentioned

Walter Rodriguez
: 6' 0"; Graduate Student; Sr.