Freshman Brenno Varanda had a breakout performance for the Binghamton men’s swimming team this season. The engineering student from Sao Paulo, Brazil, won four events and had two second-place finishes at the America East Championships, helping the Bearcats snag second place in the competition. Pipe Dream’s Anna Komor caught up with the freshman phenom during practice.

Anna Komor: How’d you get into swimming?

Brenno Varanda: In Brazil, the first thing I tried was soccer and it was quite embarrassing because I had no skills whatsoever. The fun thing to do on Sunday afternoons was to come out to the pool and play around. My dad started teaching me how to get along in the water and eventually put me in a swim clinic.

AK: Do you have any swimming role models?

BV: The one that’s struck me is my teammate Dave Holmes. I don’t know how to say it in words, but he blew me away with crossing over the limit with swimming. He put another perspective on how a person is towards you, how a person is personality-wise outside the water and how a person swims in the water. He is completely different from what you would expect of somebody so fast. You expect somebody fast to be bigheaded, cocky and a person you’re afraid to talk to. When you’re talking to Dave, he’s just another teammate and you’d never know he’s a scholarship swimmer.

AK: What about Michael Phelps?

BV: I came across him twice in my career. When you have somebody so important and it happens that you did your warm-up in the same lane as him, it’s an honor. It makes you look insignificant though, like you’re just a tiny snowflake in a snowstorm. He really blows everybody away when he is in the water.

AK: You didn’t do too badly in your rookie season yourself.

BV: It was the most surprising year I had in swimming in the past 13 years. It proved to me, which is the most important, that I’m capable of improving times in a different environment.

AK: Did you achieve your personal goals this season?

BV: All the goals were achieved [at the America East Championships]. After I was done with the 400 IM, all the splits that I had set up in my mind were exactly what came out on paper. More importantly, the team goals were achieved.

AK: Yeah, I couldn’t believe you guys finished ahead of Stony Brook.

BV: Everybody was surprised because we weren’t supposed to get runner-up. It was a chain effect though. When somebody has an incredible swim, everybody else follows in that path. It doesn’t matter if you’re a freshman or senior, or if you’re from another state or another country, the whole team came to work together.