Andrew Aguilar waited a whole week before letting his inner swagger out. He had to get acclimated to his new Cal State Fullerton digs, settle into that student-athlete thing, take the lay of the new land and understand what being a Division I decathlete entails.

This acclimation period didn’t take long. Then again, Aguilar isn’t one for patience. Nor is he one for ambiguity, something Cal State Fullerton head track and field coach Marques Barosso realized not long after Aguilar arrived from Mt. San Antonio College.

“The first thing I did was tell Coach that the 22-year-old (school decathlon) record by Brandon Campbell, that’s going to be gone this year,” Aguilar said. “That’s a promise. That’s an absolute guarantee.”

This is not to be confused with what Aguilar told Barosso when he was being recruited. Again, Aguilar didn’t mince any words or cloak his intentions.

“I remember when we were recruiting Andrew. He saw that we never had a decathlete compete or score for us in the Big West Conference,” Barosso said. “Andrew said he wanted to come to Fullerton to become the first.”

Aguilar isn’t one for ambiguity or patience. But chalk him up for prognostications.

By mid-April, Campbell’s record was gone. Aguilar broke it at the Bryan Clay Invitational. By the first Saturday in May, that record was gone. Aguilar broke it by 269 points en route to winning the Big West decathlon title.

Aguilar broke it by setting five personal bests in the 10 events: the 100 meters, the long jump, the high jump — which is Aguilar’s self-described worst event — the 400 meters and the pole vault. He won the 400 by a full second. His first-day point total of 3,603 points was a personal best.

Aguilar went into the second day in third place. He was in second going into the final event: the 1,600 meters, despite having issues in all three throwing events — the shot put, discus and javelin. Aguilar needed to win the 1,600 and win by enough of a margin to make up 26 points. That was his deficit to leader Joshua Godfrey of UC Santa Barbara.

“I did psych myself out a little bit. Before the race, I had a little block of silence. I told myself a few things I may not have liked to say about myself,” Aguilar said. “But it pushed me. It pushed me to do the very best I could. With that mentality, I was locked in.”

At the gun, Aguilar took off like he was shot out of a cannon. He led from start to finish, wiring the field in 4:30.8, only three seconds off his personal best. The moment Aguilar broke the tape, he turned around and looked to see where Godfrey was — much like Secretariat’s jockey, Ron Turcotte, turned around to see where the rest of the field was during his epic 1973 Belmont Stakes title.

Godfrey finished 15 seconds back.

“Even though I felt like I was running by myself, I imagined someone at my heels the whole time,” he said. “So, I had to stay calm and understand that if I didn’t think someone was right behind me, I wouldn’t have been able to push as hard as I did.”

This gives you an inkling into Aguilar’s mindset and degree of next-level thinking. He’s not only thinking about how he’s going to win, but why he won and what it means in the big picture.

“It sunk in,” Aguilar said. “It fully sunk in when I got back to campus on Monday and heard my name all over the place and saw my face all over the Internet. On that day, it sunk in then. Immediately within 24 hours, I saw a lot of people retweeting I won. They were reposting the Fullerton page showing I had won on Instagram. I almost had to shut my phone off, because I’d get a text congratulating me, send a thank-you text, and five more messages would come in.

“It felt very overwhelming emotionally to see people were so behind me and they wanted me to win this as much as I did. It was a really good feeling.”

That era of good feeling carried over into the Titans winning their second consecutive Big West men’s track title, one coming in Barosso’s first year at the helm.

“(It’s) huge for the program,” Barrasso said. “Since I’ve been a coach on staff (eight years), we have never come into the second week of conference (championships) with points. Andrew is adding another dimension to the way we compete for championships.”

And Aguilar is adding another personality dimension to the Titans. Outgoing, frank and utterly devoted to self-improvement, Aguilar leaves nothing to the imagination when he competes. You know where Aguilar is. You know what he’s up to, where he sits and how he’s doing. He does not court ambiguity or anonymity.

He courts assurance. Self-assurance.

“I’m a very, very enthusiastic and charismatic guy,” he said. “At the Bryan Clay, I was wearing neon orange. It wasn’t hard to find me at the track meet.

“When I was at Mt. SAC, there were many, many times when I went into an event or meet not knowing if I was the best guy. After my last decathlon at Mt. SAC, I got a little tired of being humble about myself and my abilities. I knew that I needed to have more confidence going into the Big West or if I go further. I can’t have this humble personality. Going into the decathlon in the Big West Conference, I have to have the mentality I’m the best guy. Everyone has to try to beat me.”

That Aguilar won the conference decathlon title as a Titan was a bit overdue. Coming out of Chino High School, Aguilar said he ended up at Fullerton “by happy accident.” He was accepted to CSUF out of high school but had his application rejected after he missed orientation. That’s how he ended up going to Mt. SAC, until Barrasso — in search of a decathlete — found Aguilar right under his nose.

Speaking of “under,” it’s that underdog mentality that fuels Aguilar’s swagger. Given the physical demands of the decathlon, Aguilar’s swagger is another suit of armor. Listening to him describe his workouts is exhausting. And he’s the one doing them.

“I’m from Fullerton. Nobody’s won this event from Fullerton. They’ve never had a decathlete win the conference title in school history,” Aguilar said. “I was overlooked. I was the underdog going in. Now, the Big West knows I’m the top dog. I have to work hard to defend, to be the top dog going in again. I don’t mind working hard to defend it.”

Did you know…? Aguilar backed into being a decathlete, “like the way every decathlete starts.” He was a hurdler in high school and his coach needed someone to run the 100. Then, he needed someone to run the 300 low hurdles — and Aguilar won. Then, his coach needed someone to long jump. “That same process happened week after week, and I became a decathlete because I was gifted in athleticism and I don’t mind hard work, so I was the perfect fit.”

He said it: Aguilar on what goes into being a decathlete — “That’s a question I have to answer every single day to my teammates. They always tell me they don’t know how I’m able to walk up after a sprint workout and go to my next event on my workouts and just repeat the process. The number one thing I need to have for the mindset to be a decathlete is to know that I can do something that others cannot dream of. … The old saying, ‘Being a jack-of-all-trades is the master of none, but it is still better than the master of one.’ That is a hard-driving factor.”

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