When junior Zack Einhorn jumped into the water, CHS was in fourth place. This would not do, however, as the team needed to win as many events as possible to win the state championship. Einhorn swam hard, passing the swimmer from Walt Whitman, and then passing the swimmer from Richard Montgomery. He had propelled CHS into second place, keeping the team’s hopes of a state championship alive.

Einhorn started swimming for Regency Estates Swim club when he was 7 years old. In the beginning, swimming was only a hobby of his. He picked up swimming because it was what every kid did during the summer. In fact, he was not that good originally, but quickly improved and made swimming his passion.

“Once my coach taught me, I improved pretty quickly,” Einhorn said. “I started to swim year-round.”

Einhorn swam freestyle for CHS this year, finishing third in the regional final and second in the divisional final. He also won the state final for the mens 200-yard freestyle. Einhorn’s final time in the state championship was 1:42.91, a full second ahead of the runner up.

Einhorn believes his success in the state championship was a result of his training and time-management. He tried to manage his energy throughout the race to achieve the best possible time.

“Before the race, I had a strategy in my head,” Einhorn said. “In the beginning, people were pulling ahead, but they ran out of energy. I had more at the end because of my strategy.”

Einhorn swam freestyle in relays as well, where he helped the swim team win lots of races over the course of this season. In addition to engineering a come-from-behind second place finish in the mens 400 yard freestyle relay, he was also a big reason for the team’s second place finish in the mens 200 yard relay. Both victories pushed the team to win second overall at the state meet.

“We are all pretty fast and we can rely on each other,” Einhorn said. “So if one person doesn’t do well, we can bring it back.”

At 5’11,” Einhorn’s length helps him outpace the competition in the water.

“He has a great racer mentality,” sophomore teammate Robby Haynos said. “I can name three times he came from behind and won an event for the team.”

Einhorn prides himself on his hard work. In his mind there is no substitute for hard work. Swim can sometimes be an inconvenience, so focus is important to making it through them.

“I stay focused and work through all difficulties,” Einhorn said. “Some practices are difficult and you want to give up, but you can’t let yourself give up. Don’t skip practices, trust your coaches, make sure you’re having fun, or you won’t do anymore, you’ll just get slower.”

Einhorn’s work ethic is contagious, and his teammates look up to him as a leader. CHS has a lot of young swimmers, and the team looks for Einhorn’s hard work and success as motivation for them to go forward.

“He’s a hard worker, always consistent in meets,” sophomore teammate Ian Mackey said. “He’s definitely someone to look up to in the water just based on times alone.”

This season, Einhorn led the team vocally and was able to get gets kids motivated for every meet.

“He does a great job hyping the underclassmen up for events that are important to them no matter if they are exhibition or not,” sophomore teammate Ian Mackey said.

It was recently announced that Einhorn would be one of the team’s senior captains next year in his senior season.
“Zack leads by example very well,” Haynos said. “You see him race and it gets the team really hyped up and we all want to do better. I think he’ll make a great captain.”