West Newsmagazine 4-19-17

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Glaser ends S&T career with top prize
By WARREN MAYES
Forget about the alarm clock going off
shortly after 5 a.m. every day. Jon Glaser
will get to sleep in a little later now that he
has finished his swimming career at Missouri
S & T.
The Lafayette graduate
left his mark on the Miners’
program after swimming
well at Lafayette and the
Rockwood Swim Club.
The 6-foot-1, 190-pound
swimmer from Wildwood
won 14 Great Lakes Valley
Conference championships
in four years. He finished
among the top eight on 16
occasions at four NCAA
Division II championship
meets.
“Jon has left his mark in
a big way, four individual
and part of three relay
school records,” Missouri
S&T coach Doug Grooms said.
This season, Glaser was selected as the
GLVC’s “Swimmer of the Year” after winning
four events – two with conference
record times in the 100- and 200-yard freestyle
events with times of 43.67 seconds and
1:35.42 seconds, respectively. He set new
school records in both events as well as part
of the 800-freestyle relay team.
Glaser finished his career at Missouri S&T
holding school records in four individual
events – 100, 200, 500 and 1,000 freestyle –
as well as in all three freestyle relays.
“Being awarded ‘Swimmer of the Year’
in my senior year was quite an accomplishment,”
Glaser said. “Going into my final
year at S&T, I had every intention of making
it my best year. The ‘Last One, Fast One’
mentality was what drove me every morning
when that 5:15 a.m. practice alarm went
off. I knew I had to make every practice
count in order to see the results I wanted to.”
As his time swimming with the Miners
went on, Grooms said Glaser kept getting
better. “Jon started off as a mid/distance
freestyler and ended up being more of a
sprinter,” Grooms said.
Heading into his final conference meet,
Glaser said he believed he would do well.
“I felt confident I was going to be fast but
I wasn’t sure how fast. Everything came
together at the right time and great things
happened,” Glaser said. “I thank Coach
Grooms for his skills in being able to rest
his athletes so they perform at their peak
when it mattered,” Glaser said. “You could
be in the best swimming shape and had
trained your heart out all season but if you
don’t have a coach who knows how to rest
you, you will not perform at your maximum
level.”
Jon Glaser with his “Swimmer of
the Year” award
Setting the conference and school records
in the meet was nice, Glaser said, but not
what he aimed for.
“I see setting records as an added bonus to
swimming fast but definitely not my main
priority,” Glaser said. “All I was interested
in was to see how fast I
could be every time I dove
in the water. Just trying to
be the best I could possibly
be.”
With his times, Glaser
qualified for his fourth consecutive
NCAA Division II
Championship. This year’s
national meet was held
in Birmingham, Alabama.
For his last NCAA meet,
Glaser said he put his faith
in Grooms.
“There’s nothing like the
atmosphere at the national
level compared to other
meets throughout the
season,” Glaser said.
He finished seventh in the 100-yard freestyle
in a school record time of 43.96 seconds.
“Unfortunately, I was about a half second
off my best time but finishing top eight again
at NCAA still brings a smile to my face.”
Glaser had a higher finish in the 200
freestyle. He came in fourth with a time of
1:36.84.
“Finishing fourth in the 200-yard freestyle
at NCAA was quite the accomplishment,”
Glaser said. “I was going for first or second
heading into the meet but it was still a great
swim.”
Glaser was part of the 400-yard freestyle
relay team that placed seventh. He also was
on an 800-yard freestyle relay team that finished
in a tie for fifth with a time of 6:30.81
to break the old record by 0.04 seconds.
“Swimming on relays is definitely more
fun than swimming individual events,”
Glaser said. “Not only do you get to share
the swim with three other teammates but
also the atmosphere is way more hyped-up.
The crowd always gets into it and drives you
to swim that much faster.”
The swimming championship capped off
Glaser’s career in a unique way.
“This year, NCAA’s was quite the wrap-up
to an awesome swimming career as it was
the Festival Year for NCAA,” Glaser said.
“Every four years in Division II, swimming,
wrestling, and [indoor] track and field all
compete under the same roof. [I] couldn’t
think of a better way to finish up my four
years of college swimming.
“Having over 20 All-American finishes
over the course of four years of college
swimming means the world to me. It was
one hell of a run and couldn’t be happier
with how everything went.”
April 19, 2017
WEST NEWSMAGAZINE
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