Boys’ swimming: CCS qualifier make waves toward top three

Every time science teacher and swim coach Kristin Thomson checks her box in the main office, she seems to always have a stack of letters piling up. They come from colleges in Florida, Texas, Virginia, Indiana and everywhere in between and they all want the same thing: the chance to have Adam Hinshaw on their swim team in two years.

Hinshaw, a junior, is one of the top recruits in the nation. His resume includes a high school national record, a high school national championship, an Olympic trials qualifying cut and four top five individual finishes in CCS, including a second place in the 500 freestyle.

What’s the secret to his success? For one thing, Hinshaw comes from a strong aquatic bloodline. His dad played water polo at UCLA and holds the record for the swimming leg of the Iron Man Triathlon. His oldest brother Ryan swims at Indiana University. His other brother, Ben, swims at Berkeley and recently placed among the top swimmers at the NCAA Championships.

Hinshaw also has an inner drive that’s hard to teach. “My motto in swimming since I was 6 has been crush, kill, destroy,” said Hinshaw.

And Hinshaw is doing just that this season for the Falcons. He has not lost a single individual event all season and hopes to break his brother’s 500 freestyle record at CCS on May 21 and 22.

Hinshaw is one of the four individual CCS qualifiers so far this season. Senior Kyle Borch, Junior Justin Chung and sophomore Ian Burns have also qualified for individual events. The 400 Freestyle relay consisting of Chung, Borch, Hinshaw and Burns and the 200 Medley Relay team of Chung, junior Tim Rollinson, Burns and Hinshaw have also qualified.

Other swimmers hoping to make the cut at the upcoming league meet on May 5-7 include junior Will Tang, Rollinson and sophomore Mac Hyde. Hyde and Rollinson both competed in CCS last year and are very close to their qualifying times this year.

Coach Christian Bonner expects the boys CCS team to place in the top three overall.

“The league season has been a struggle because we don’t have the depth we did last year,” said Bonner. “I still think the team will hit its stride at the CCS meet.”

The boys swam at Palo Alto April 21 and Monta Vista April 23. They lost to Palo Alto despite victories in all but one individual event (the score was unavailable). They finished the league season against Gunn April 29. Due to printing deadlines the results of the last two meets could not be printed.