[media-credit name=”Lisa Staton” align=”alignnone” width=”300″][/media-credit]As spring sports begin, many students prepare for their last season of high school sports before summer begins. For seniors, this will be their chance to prove themselves as superior high school athletes before their college career starts.

This month’s student-athlete of the month is senior Adam Fecher, a star on Carlmont’s swim team.

Fecher started swimming at the young age of six, and excelled as a member of the Peninsula Covenant Aquatics team. As his speed increased, he earned notorious time standards including Junior Olympic and Far Westerns cuts. He emerged as one of the top backstrokers in the Bay Area.

One of his most memorable swims was at age 15 when he finished 5th at Junior Olympics in the 200 yard backstroke with a time of 2:05.86.
Although his talents lie in swimming, Fecher is known for his multiple sports accomplishments, mostly in aquatic sports.

Earlier this fall, he returned for his fourth year on Carlmont’s varsity water polo team as its captain and leading scorer.

Known for his work ethic and ability to turn on his “game face” when the time comes, Fecher’s teammate from water polo Julien Lavanchy stated, “Adam is known for the hard work he puts in and how intense he can get. He’s also a really fast swimmer which helps him juke everybody.”

Apparently the coaches in his division agree, as this year he was voted second team all star for his plays in the more competitive Ocean league.

Fecher’s four years on varsity water polo combined with his four years on varsity swim team makes him one of the few athletes at Carlmont to have eight varsity letters.

During his high school swimming career, Fecher’s proudest accomplishment is a 4th place finish in the 500 yard freestyle at last year’s PAL championships.

At last years dual meet with Woodside, the men’s varsity win came down to the last 4 x 100 freestyle relay, where Fecher anchored the team. He dove in two body lengths behind the Woodside team and managed to make up enough ground to make it a close race.

Unfortunately, he was just touched out by one tenth of a second, but his split was a full three seconds faster than his best time. In a race that is measured by hundredths of seconds, a full three seconds are considered a lifetime. For his effort, he was granted the swimmer of the meet award.

In terms of school records, Adam was a key member of last year’s 200 yard freestyle relay, which notched an 11th place finish at CCS and broke one of Carlmont’s oldest records.

Although his swimming has earned him media attention in newspapers such as the San Jose Mercury News, Fecher manages to juggle extracurriculars and a job on the side.

Fecher states that “Although it can be overwhelming at times, I understand how important my schoolwork is.” He still knows how to enjoy himself at school, stating that “Green tech and ASB are by far my favorite classes because of how they feel different than most classes.”

His cumulative GPA of 3.7 says it all, and he is known as an A student in most of his classes, many of which are advanced or AP.

Hoping to major in civil engineering in college, Fecher believes that classes such as ASB have “helped me learn how to become a natural leader.”

After graduating Carlmont, Fecher hopes to get accepted into the University of California Santa Cruz, where he will swim on their highly ranked swim team.

As he dives into his last swim season, Fecher hopes to continue his good grades and earn a CCS berth to raise his swimming to the next level.