That is not a desirable condition for tomato plants to be in. I would apologise for a lanky, skinny tall one somebody has to dig a trench to plant it in.

When mine overgrow in the cell packs, they get bumped into adequate pots and repriced. What did the stems look like on these plants? In the olden days it was permissable to use a growth regulator like B-9 on them, but that was stopped ages ago after the apple/alar situation. Short stubby plants are the result of adequate sun and proper watering, but sooner or later with close spacing they'll all stretch.

Short stubby plants are a result also of the proper grow on temp. See the other thread on "looking for research".