Lucy Thomas is a Freshman on the Varsity swim team here at Brookfield East. From breaking national records to the Olympic Trials, how does Lucy Thomas have time for anything else?

Thomas first started swimming at the age of seven. Her dad was a swimmer so swimming was always important to her family. She also enjoyed getting into swimming as a sport. Today, Thomas enjoys swimming because she finds it a great way to get in shape and spend time with her friends.

Swimming at a competitive stage is very time-consuming. Thomas says, “My lifestyle has changed a lot, I miss out on a lot of things like school. I’m missing about three weeks this year because of swim.”

Lucy Thomas is doing club swim for Elmbrook Swim Club this year, as well as high school. To her, there isn’t much of a difference between club and high school swim. She said, “I like them both equally, they’re just as much fun.”

Thomas is most excited for the upcoming state meet at the end of the season. The Varsity swim team has been working very well and Thomas believes they are going to do well in State.

Thomas plans to go to the Olympic swim trials in June, something she is able to attend because of her strong performance at the tryout. As for the next four years at East, she plans to grow as a swimmer and get faster. After that, the goal is to get a college scholarship. Thomas would like to attend Stanford, Michigan State or California Berkely.

Of all the people, Thomas’s teammates motivate her the most during swim meets. She says “every time someone on the team, Varsity or Junior Varsity, gets up on the blocks, they’re always supported by their teammates. We motivate each other to do better and swim faster.”

Thomas has clearly built a lot of camaraderie with her teammates as her two favorite parts about high school swim are the team cheers and the carbo crams. Carbo crams are where a swimmer holds a dinner where everyone on the team comes over to eat carbohydrates before a big meet. Thomas feels like her team is a second family.

Thomas has already had some good memories this year in swimming. Her favorite one so far was the dual-meet against Brookfield Central. She said, “It was so much fun. Everyone was so excited and nervous to get back in the water again. [We all] motivated each other to be the best [we] could be and we won.”

Thomas has already had some amazing accomplishments so far as a swimmer. She has won three relays this year with Brookfield East, she has also broken some of the records for her club team along with some state records.

Thomas also holds two national age-group records. She holds them in the 200 medley relay for ten and under, and the 200 medley relay for 13 and 14-year-olds. Along with the 50-meter breaststroke record when she was ten and some more relay records when she was 11 and 12.

Although Lucy Thomas is a very accomplished and great swimmer, even the best have setbacks. She said, “Two years ago, I was living in Milwaukee, and I wasn’t growing as a swimmer, then I moved here and there was a lot of change.

Thomas says that the change was for the better as the Elmbrook swim program has helped her grow so much as a swimmer. For starters, she made Varsity as a Freshman, something that isn’t seen often. To Thomas, Varsity was intimidating because everyone else knew what they were doing and the role they had on the team. But as the season went on, the bond of the players grew. She said, “Everyone is super nice and we treat everyone equally. We really get along well.”

As a freshman, Lucy Thomas has already made a splash at Brookfield East. With three more years to learn and grow, who knows what Lucy will be able to accomplish?