By Wayne witkowski
Staff Writer
Brick Memorial swimmer Tim Conway, who was recovering this summer from a broken wrist that kept him out of the long course national championships late last month at College Park, Md., is rounding back into shape for a college career at the University of Maryland-Baltimore County.
"I got the cast off over three weeks ago and just started training again," said Conway. "It’s not bad at all and I have full movement now. I’m stretching and using weights."
Conway, coming off a great spring for the Ocean County YMCA team, which set four records at the YMCA short course nationals in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., in April, was gearing up for his first long course national championships when an unfortunate mishap occurred. He was playing basketball on June 8 and, while going up for a dunk, hung on the rim a little too long and came down on his left wrist.
"My legs kept going and were too far in front of me," Conway said as he saw his plans for the summer swim showcase go out the window.
"I was definitely disappointed," he said. "It was something I hoped to do to help me get prepared for college. Now I’ll work that much harder. I’ll spend my first two weeks down there training hard to get back into shape."
Conway leaves for school on Aug. 23 and said he expects to compete in the backstroke and the 50- and 100-yard freestyles. Despite the injury, he feels he can have an opportunity right away to compete on the varsity team. In the short course nationals, he swam personal bests 53.71 in the backstroke and 47.39 in the 100 freestyle, both good for 19th place out of 150 entrants, as well as making Ocean County YMCA team records.
"I know my times are among the three best on that team," said Conway. "The coach really wanted me to come and was waiting on my decision."
Conway also visited Lehigh, American and James Madison universities while deciding his future path.
"I liked the people there (at UMBC) and the campus is near Washington, D.C., and Baltimore, which is good for a journalism major," said Conway. "The coach is a young guy whose program is nice, and the program is more up-to-date on the newest techniques, very much on the cutting edge. He doesn’t make you train just at the distance you swim but has you train at different distances."
Conway set nine records at Brick Memorial, winning both sprint freestyle events to earn the Outstanding Swimmer award at the Ocean County Championships last winter. He was tied for first in the 50 meters and a close second in the 100 in the Shore Conference Championships.