Knoch grad Traggiai breaks 3 school records as college freshman
WILMINGTON, Ohio — It did not take long for Trip Breen to see the potential in Caden Traggiai.
“It took just a few practices and his training was a great indicator,” said Breen, veteran swimming coach at Wilmington College, a Division III school outside of Cincinnati. “How he went about his work led me to believe that he had the chance to turn in a great freshman season.
“I mentioned that to him early on and I don’t know if he fully believed it at that point.”
But Traggiai, a Knoch graduate, began coming around to the same conclusion near the end of January.
“We started tapering for the conference meet and I saw my times dropping,” he said. “That’s when I started to believe, too.”
But his bolstered confidence did not prepare Traggiai for what he accomplished at Ocasek Natatorium in Akron last month.
At the Ohio Athletic Conference Championships, Traggiai broke three school records, including in the 500-yard freestyle (4:43.17) and 1,650 freestyle (16:23.40). His split time of 9:52.01 in the latter also broke Wilmington’s 1,000 freestyle standard.
He placed 6th in the 500 and 2nd in the 1,650.
“My goals entering the meet were to just make the ”A“ finals (top eight) in both events,” he said. “The school records were in the back of my mind, but I never thought I’d break all three.”
Traggiai began swimming when he was 8, but didn’t take up the 500, the longest event in high school, until he was 15.
“My times just took off from there,” he said.
“He did really well in longer distances in club swimming, so we knew he could fill a spot in the 1,650 for us,” Breen said.
As a senior in high school, Traggiai was the lone male swimmer at Knoch. Now he has 14 teammates.
“The team environment is the biggest difference,” he said. “There’s people to push you and that makes it more fun. It also allows me to swim on the relays, which I really like. It gives me the chance to swim some shorter distances.”
Traggiai is currently spending less time in the pool and more time completing dry-land workouts given to him by Wilmington assistant coach Paula Stewart. He plans to do long-course training with the Butler YMCA this summer. He welcomes the challenges that come with setting the bar so high and so early for himself.
“I’m going to use it as an opportunity to continue to push myself and go after the records I just broke,” he said.
“Weight training will be key in his progression,” Breen said, “but he has unlimited potential.”
