Bad news for Ivy League swimmers: Tommy Glenn thinks he can get faster.
Yep, the 19-year-old sophomore from Brown University, who just won the Ivy League championship in both the 100- and 200-meter butterfly, thinks he can do it even better next year.
Glenn, 19, a graduate of Haddonfield Memorial High School, captured the Ivy League title in the two grueling races and, in turn, qualified to compete in the NCAA swim tournament.
Glenn’s time in the 100 fly was an Ivy League record-breaking performance of 46.73-seconds, besting the old record of 47.04-seconds.
He was awarded dual First-Team All-Ivy honors for the two races.
At NCAA swim tournament, Glenn will be competing against swimmers from universities and colleges throughout the entire nation.
He finished 13th in the nation in 200-fly, he said, but did not finish in the top 16 for the 100-fly.
“You have be one of the fastest 16 to make it back,” he said. “But the NCAA tournament is all of college swimming, so I was 8th in the country going in — and I am 10th or 9th coming out in the nation.”
The funny thing, Glenn said, is he wasn’t much of a fast swimmer when he competed with Haddonfield Memorial High School. His strength was endurance, he said, and he could swim forever — but he just wasn’t all that fast.
In fact, each year through his club swim team, the squad would compete in a 5,000-meter freestyle event for charity.
Swimming 5,000-meters equals about 200 laps, or 3 miles, Glenn said.
While the other swim team members used freestyle in the 5,000-meter event, Glenn actually swam it straight using the butterfly stroke, a much more strength-consuming swim style.
“I’ve always had natural endurance,” Glenn said. “The speed has really come to me in college.”
Now, through his strict training regimen — with the Brown University swim team — his speed gets better each year.
In training sessions, Glenn says he typically wakes up at 5:30 a.m. and swims from 6 to 8 a.m. Afterward, he’ll eat breakfast and then go to his morning classes — he’s majoring in economics — and then return to the pool and swim from 3 to 5 p.m.
After that, he’ll typically lift weights and then run.
It’s all in a day in the life of a typical collegiate swimmer, Glenn said.
Glenn said some of his success was also set up through swimming with HMHS.
Prior to high school, Glenn did most of his swimming with a local club team, which stresses individual achievement over a team oriented approach.
In high school, however, it was all about the team.
“My whole life, I did my club team, but HMHS was great because it was my first experience of being on a team that cared about the entire group. In the club team, you try to get better yourself, but with the high school team you would support your teammates and have them support you also,” Glenn said. “People really cared about how the team was doing in high school. It was great.”
Up next for Glenn?
Hopefully a trip to the 2016 Summer Olympics after he graduates from Brown.
He’s already good enough to qualify for the 2012 Olympic trials, which he will swim in this June, but he said he’s not holding out much hope to make the team this year.
“This Olympics … I don’t really expect to make the team,” Glenn said. “But depending on how good I do, it will definitely be a good experience.”
