Last weekend, Abbey Glynn attended the prep state track and field meet at Jefferson County Stadium, and it became a trip down memory lane.
The Colorado Buffaloes’ star wound up watching a few videos of herself from her time at Mead High School.
“Itap crazy how far I’ve come,” she said.
Now a fifth-year senior at CU, Glynn will compete in the NCAA West regional preliminaries in Fayetteville, Ark., on Thursday and Saturday. One of the nation’s best 400-meter hurdlers, Glynn is also hoping to help the Buffs qualify for the NCAA championships in the 4×400-meter relay. The NCAA championships will be held June 6-9 in Eugene, Ore.
Overall, CU has 32 student-athletes competing in Fayetteville. The meet got underway Wednesday and wraps up Saturday.
For Glynn, this will be her fourth trip to the NCAA regionals. She has earned All-American recognition five times in her career, including first-team honors last year after she placed eighth in the NCAA finals of the 400-meter hurdles.
“Honestly, yes,” she said when asked if she’s amazed by her collegiate career.
A 2019 graduate of Mead, Glynn was an exceptional multi-sport athlete. In track and field, she was a four-time state qualifier and 14-time state medalist. She helped the Mavericks win 800-meter medley relay titles in 2018 and 2019 and she secured her lone individual state title in her last race, the 300-meter hurdles, in 2019.
At CU, however, she has found another gear, in large part because she’s been focused on one sport while also getting more coaching than was possible in high school.
“Here, you get a lot more one-on-one time and more specific workouts towards who you are and how you train,” she said.
In high school, Glynn didn’t have fast starts, but finished strong. In that regard, she said, she hasn’t changed much. But overall, she’s much better.
“My technique over the hurdle, my confidence is … I definitely know what I’m doing hurdling now,” she said. “So thatap the part that I see a huge difference in.”
At the Pac-12 championships on May 12 in Boulder, Glynn finished second in the 400-meter hurdles with a time of 55.31 seconds. With that time, she broke her own school record and hit the automatic qualifying standard for next month’s Olympic Trials in Eugene. Glynn currently ranks seventh in the NCAA and 23rd in the world in the 400 hurdles.
One of the best parts of that race, however, was hearing from former CU star Gabby Scott. When Glynn was a senior at Mead in 2019, Scott set the CU school record in the 400 hurdles. Glynn, who didn’t run her first 400 hurdles race until about a week before the 2021 Pac-12 championships, now owns the four fastest times in CU history.
“Honestly, I never expected to do this,” she said. “I just thought, like, I was gonna go to CU and be successful, but not as successful as I am. … I never expected myself to be able to beat Gabby Scott. That was such a huge name when I was in high school. It just means so much that she has reached out to me after all the success that she has had, too.”
On May 11, Scott ran the 24th-best 400-meter time in the world for 2024. The next day, Glynn posted her 55.31 in the 400 hurdles.
Glynn’s success on the track has impacted her off the track, too.
“I have a lot more confidence in who I am as a person than I did coming in my freshman year,” she said. “Itap a lot of just life experience, too.”
Going to college so close to home has allowed Glynn’s family to be there along the way, too. Her parents haven’t missed a meet, she said.
“Seeing how close my family is and like how much they’re willing to support me and my dreams, I think, has been the best experience,” she said.
Glynn said that two weeks ago, when she graduated and CU hosted the Pac-12 championships, felt like a turning point and “like it was all coming to an end.”
Soon, Glynn’s collegiate career will come to an end. She’s not sure what the future holds, but she intends to be involved in sports in some way and continue training to see how far she can go in track.
Right now, however, her focus is on Fayetteville and making sure she gets back to the NCAA championships and make some noise there, too.
“I’m not ready to be done (at CU), thatap for sure,” she said. “I feel pretty good. Itap basically what we’ve prepared for all season, so there’s a lot of confidence going into this weekend.”
