This article originally appeared in the 2024 College Preview edition of SwimSwam Magazine. Subscribe here to the SwimSwam Magazine here.
Bryn Greenwaldt
Two-Sport NCAA Qualifier
by Anya Pelshaw
Only 1,007 swimmers competed at the U.S. Olympic Trials in June after earning qualification standards. Bryn Greenwaldt was one of those 1,007 athletes but has additional accolades on her resume. In addition to being an Olympic Trials qualifier, Greenwaldt also is an NCAA qualifier in track and field as well as swimming.
Greenwaldt just finished her sophomore year at Division II Augustana University, located in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Not only does she swim for the University, she also is a member of the track and field team, competing in the high jump event.
She began her swimming career before she joined the track and field team. She started swimming in fourth grade and eventually joined the track and field team in seventh grade.
“We had club swimming that like ran through our school. You just go after school, and you join the club. My friends always talked about it at the lunch table, and I was like, I don’t really understand what’s happening. So instead of asking them what’s happening, I’m just gonna join the sport and involve myself.”
The 6-foot-tall athlete began her track and field career running around the track. She does not remember exactly how it started, but she ran a few 100-meter races back in the day and some relays.
“Even my senior year. They [coaches] were like, we’re going to put you in the 4×400 meter relay. And I’m like, that’s funny that you think I can run. If you look at me, I’m built like a runner. You look at me and you’re like, dang, that girl can run a mean 400. I cannot, I can’t. So, I kind of just stuck with high jump. I think that was the thing. I’ve always been tall for my age. And so that was one of those things where the coaches were like tall, high jump, you should jump. And then I really, really loved it. So, I just kept doing it and figured it out slowly.”
Greenwaldt has always considered swimming her “main sport.” In fifth grade, despite being unable to swim a 50 yet, she knew it was something she wanted to do for “the rest of my life.” Her college recruiting process was based on swimming. Despite basing her recruitment process on swimming, Greenwaldt would mention track and field to many coaches while on her visits.
“I knew I wanted to go Division II for swimming, and then when I was like on my visits being like, hey, do you have a track team or a track coach that I can talk to? That was pretty much how it was with all of them. I made it clear that I wanted to do track and swimming in college. I didn’t really consider anything else. When I was coming to college, I had in my brain I wanted to do track. I wanted to do swimming.”
As Greenwaldt knew she wanted to become a Division II swimmer, she knew that would also land her at a Division II track and field program. Despite knowing she would become Division II for track as well, Greenwaldt admits that she was “not really at that level at the time.”
“I am a high burnout athlete, especially when it comes to swimming. I did not swim more than three months out of the year until I got to college because I was just like, I need a break. Track was a really good way for me to ensure that I would get a healthy break and also get to do a sport that’s a little less pressure, I would say. It’s definitely become a sport that is more stressful, but more stressful than it was before just because I have gotten better at it and to a point where I have been able to go to like the national meet and stuff. To me, I could never envision myself being able to be a successful college swimmer without having the balance of being a track athlete as well.”
Being a student-athlete and balancing academics and athletics is already difficult with one sport, but Greenwalt manages to balance two sports, competing at a high level, and academics.
“It’s actually super convenient, the two sports that I chose. We have a girl on our team that does acro, and tumbling and diving, and the seasons are the exact same. She will practice like twice a day, every day, seven days a week. Like doesn’t have a day off, like never stops doing anything. And that’s kind of what you envision when you envision a dual sport athlete. But for me it’s super convenient because the swim season is September to March, and then the indoor track season is pretty much the same months, but the outdoor track season is April to May. So I get to do the entire swim season as normal and then join the track season for the outdoor season. I do one or two track practices a week during swim season when I have time. I have a balance that like doesn’t leave me without time or leave me losing my mind or anything like that. It’s honestly pretty chill, and I really enjoy the way I’ve been able to set it up practice-wise.”
Despite not competing during the indoor track season, the outdoor track season finished up just three weeks before U.S. Olympic Swimming Trials this summer. NCAA Division II Track and Field Championships occurred at the end of May, with Greenwaldt competing in high jump on May 25. Less than a month later, Greenwaldt was swimming the 50 freestyle at U.S. Olympic Trials on June 23. Greenwaldt took a unique approach to training up until Trials.
“That was actually more of like a hands-off approach. I did not swim at all from March until the day after track nationals. I swam a few times just to kind of like figure out technique work and stuff like that. So when I got back in the pool, it would be ‘here it all is’ and not have to worry about technique or like my start or things like that. It’s actually really nice because I was only doing a 50 at trials, so I did not need a huge aerobic capacity. I needed to be strong, and I needed to be explosive.”
“Once I got back in the water, I could build that up within a few weeks. High jump allowed me through lifting and through competing and through practicing to be strong and explosive. There was like a week transition to where coming back to swimming, it was just yards, yards, yards. It was tough and it was like mentally difficult to get through that, but that’s what I needed to do. If I was going to go from not practicing for months and then jump back in trying to get back in shape for trials, it needed to be an intense process when I got back. I got back and it was three weeks of pretty intense practicing. A lot like just throwing myself back into it and making sure I was ready to compete at trials. I honestly was very confident going into trials because I’m an athlete.”
Greenwaldt’s background as a dual-sport athlete also benefitted her ability to make the transition from the track season with high jump to swimming the long course 50 freestyle at Trials.
“I only trained three months out of the year before I got to college. So I’m an athlete that is used to working on tight time frames, and so I wasn’t super worried about where I was going to be afterwards. I just wanted to focus on one sport and then kind of move to the next. And I think the transition part was honestly like the few days in between I jump nationals and the first swim practice was probably the hardest part of it all, just like trying to switch my brain over.“
Greenwaldt also had a quick transition from the NCAA Swimming season to the track season. She finished her sophomore season at the 2024 NCAA Division II Swimming and Diving Championships, swimming to second-place finishes in both the 50 and 100 freestyle as well as a ninth-place finish in the 100 backstroke. Three weeks later, she competed in her first track meet for the outdoor season.
Greenwaldt’s U.S. Olympic Trials cut was historic for the Division II program as she became the first swimmer in program history to earn a U.S. Olympic Trials cut. She swam to a 25.69 in the 50 freestyle at the Coyote Invitational last November, tying the cut exactly.
“The meet where I qualified was the first long course meet I’ve ever done in my entire life… it was super cool because in the first race I was with about five other people. I touched and I looked up and I was like, yeah, there’s no way that this is happening. It was like a lot closer than I thought it was going to be. It was like a 25.95 and the cut was a 25.69.”
After missing the cut in her first attempt and her first long course meet ever, Greenwaldt swam the race again.
“My coach is like, well, you’re doing it again. Shocker. And so I got up and I did it again. There were probably two or three girls with me in that heat and I think I dropped even more time.”
Greenwaldt got even closer to the cut of a 25.69 this time, swimming a 25.88. The crowd’s reaction became a motivator to earn the cut. On her third try, Greenwaldt earned the time standard.
“It was even cooler because I was at a spot in the pool where I couldn’t see the scoreboard right away, so I could tell if I got it or not by hearing the crowd. The first time, nobody knew what was happening. They didn’t know that was something I was going for, so it was like pretty chill, whatever. But the second time, everyone knew by that point. I touched and I just heard everyone go “Ugh” and I was like, oh my gosh, this is so heartbreaking, I can’t do this. I was like getting on the block [for the third time], I was like, I do not want to hear the crowd make that noise again, you’ve got to give it everything. For the last race I touched, and I just heard everyone go crazy. I was like, yeah, they’re lying to me, this is not real. It was such a surreal experience ‘cause it was never even on my radar, because I never thought it would be something possible for myself.”
As Greenwaldt explained earlier, she was not at the Division II level for high jump coming into college, but fast-forward a few years later, Greenwaldt was at the top of the Division II level for high jump, earning an NCAA invite after jumping 1.74 meters in April, just a month after the 2024 NCAA Swimming Championships.
“This year everything just clicked. My swimming was working, the coaching was working, the lifting was working. Being there every single day at practice and working as hard as I could. It was all working and for track, all of the technique work that we did the year before when my coach said we’re going to break down your jumps so that we can build it up. Everything that I had worked for the past however many years of my life, it all just clicked. It was just super cool to see how it all came together. I don’t have a lot of time during the school year to practice for high jump because I only have three months of consistently practicing outside of the once a week, which makes it hard to like perfect technique. But I just had a few days where everything came together perfectly and allowed me to get to a place where I was able to qualify for the national meet, which was beyond anything I could have ever hoped for. Coming into college, I honestly didn’t think I would ever qualify for nationals for swimming, even individually. So I like to think that I was doing that in a second sport is something that I never would have seen coming at all.”
Only two years into her four-year collegiate career, Greenwaldt has goals in mind for the next two years.
“I’m kind of going in with the attitude the sky is the limit. I could not have predicted the stuff that I did this year and last year. I’m going to set big goals, but I’m not going to limit myself because clearly, I’m capable of more than I ever thought possible. And so, I have a lot of really big things that I’m hoping for.”
One of her specific goals in the pool is to win an NCAA title. She just missed that goal this past season with her two runner-up finishes, which was still an improvement from a runner-up finish in the 50 free and a seventh-place finish in the 100 free as a freshman. She also made another final this year with her “B” final win in the 100 back, after not even earning a finals swim in the event as a freshman.
In addition to winning an NCAA title, Greenwaldt wants to continue her balance of her two sports. This upcoming NCAA season is a unique one for Division II as it is a “festival year.” Festival years occur once every four years, and all the Division II Championships for the seasons take place at the same location.
“There’s a possibility that I could qualify for swimming in indoor track nationals and compete in them in the same week, which has a lot of moving parts.”
This goal of competing in the festival would mean that Greenwaldt will be competing in the indoor track and field season this year. The balance of the two sports will be more intense. For now, the two-sport NCAA qualifier and U.S. Olympic Trials qualifier will primarily focus on her high jumping during the summer with her sights set on not just one but two NCAA Championships this upcoming March.
