Girls swimming: Hsu’s performance making waves

Updated: November 7, 2011 8:15PM

A small pool in the basement of an Oak Brook office tower is not a place where you’d expect to find one of the best swimmers in Illinois.

Yet, that is where Glenbard South senior Connie Hsu trains along with her teammates on the Glenbard West Co-op squad, which includes swimmers from Glenbard West and Glenbard South.

Neither Glen Ellyn school has a pool, so the team, in just its second year of existence, must make a 15-minute drive to a private practice pool, which is only 23 yards long with four narrow lanes.

“It seems kind of tough, but we make a lot of fun with it,” Hsu said. “We carpool, we play loud music in the car and the whole way there we’re just singing at the top of our lungs, so I feel like the team has made it a whole lot easier. So it’s not as hard as you might think.”

Glenbard West coach Chris Flamion is hoping to persuade the Glen Ellyn Park District to build a pool that his swimmers could use. If he’s successful, future Glenbard swimmers will have to thank Hsu, whose exploits have shined a light on a sport that was little noticed.

Hsu finished second in the 100-yard butterfly and third in the 200 individual medley at last year’s state meet and could become the first swimmer in her school’s history to win a state championship. The only other Glen Ellyn swimmer to do so was Glenbard West’s Bridgett Bowman, who won five individual titles from 1984-86.

“I’m hoping [to win] the 100 fly,” said Hsu, who will swim at Harvard. “I know there’s a lot of tough competitors out there but I feel like I’ve been working on sprinting for fly much more this season, so I’ve got a pretty good shot.”

Hsu does not have a favorite event and has always trained all four strokes, which is one reason why she is so versatile. Another is fitness.

“[Hsu has] just an unbelievably large gas tank,” Flamion said. “Her aerobic and metabolic conditioning are very impressive.”

Her abilities aren’t limited to the pool. Hsu is ranked No. 1 academically in her class, plays the flute and piccolo in the band and is a member of the match club.

Hsu has qualified for the 2012 U.S. Olympic Trials in the 200-meter butterfly and was one of three Illinois girls who competed for the U.S. at a meet in Osaka, Japan, in September. In her first international competition, she made the finals in all four events she entered, taking fourth in the 200 fly.

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