In her first season on the Rowan women’s swim team, Lilyanna Martin is already making her presence known.

She initially etched her name in the history books with the 200 fly (2:09.32), taking out a program record of 2:09.77 at the Franklin & Marshall Invitational that stood for four years. As if that wasn’t enough for her, Martin would go on to better that mark with a 2:08.33 finish and earn her New Jersey Athletic Conference (NJAC) Women’s Swimming Rookie of the Week honors.

“I didn’t have an expectation to break any records coming in, but breaking the record at our mid-season meet definitely grew my confidence for the rest of the season,” Martin said. “It’s a great goal to accomplish, but I’m always trying to improve my times.”

The Harrington Park, New Jersey, native is no stranger to tough competition. She swam on both her high school and club teams before making her way to Glassboro. 

“I’ve been swimming since I was like five or six years old. I think with COVID and not being able to swim kind of made me realize how much I wanted to get back in the water and how much I missed the sport itself,” Martin said.

Despite her passion, she says at one point she got burnt out from swimming, something competing at the collegiate level has remedied for her.

“I definitely was dreading high school [swimming] more because I was also doing club at the same time, so I really began dreading the meets,” Martin said. “But I feel like now here, I’m excited for the meets and the energy is a lot higher.”

With a new program record already under her belt, Martin says her freshman season has played out better than she could have ever hoped.

“It’s been memorable for sure considering I broke a record and I’ve gotten a few personal bests,” Martin said. “Which for me, it’s been a long time since I’ve gotten a personal best, so I think this season was definitely memorable.”

Building off her strong start, Martin looks to continue growing with her team and qualifying for the NCAA Division III Championships.

As for her 200-fly record, she hopes to one day break that mark again, adding to her already impressive resume. 

 “I’m most looking forward to continuing to train with the rest of my team and I just want to keep improving,” Martin said. “Then I definitely want to accomplish breaking my record again.”

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