Avon Swim Team athletes commit to NCAA DI programs

Two Avon Swim Team athletes plan to continue their careers at the NCAA Division I level.

Rising senior Breck Boyd committed to UC Santa Barbara earlier this spring and Emma Lindstrom is headed to Colorado State University in Fort Collins in the fall.

“The program has definitely grown,” said Avon Swim Team coach Meghan Hershey. “I think what you’re seeing now is a lot of hard work over many, many years.”

When Hershey took over the program less than a decade ago, Boyd was just an 8-year-old. The Vail Ski and Snowboard Academy student vividly remembered how Kylee Smith and Charlie Kiddoo — who went on to swim at Gettysburg College and Washington College — made him feel welcome.

“That kind of got me into swimming and I realized I had the talent,” said Boyd, who also credited his rapid rise to Hershey’s one-on-one attention. Through the years, the coach has helped her “very coachable,” late-blooming pupil navigate technique changes and learn to “trust the process” as his body grows.

Support Local Journalism

Donate

“That’s one of our team’s slogans — and it works,” Boyd said. “And a lot of people don’t do that. They don’t like changing their strokes because you get worse before you get better.”

Dedication to the grind paid off for Boyd this season. At the start of December, he notched a personal best in the 100-yard back, claiming gold in his signature event at the Winter Classic in Orlando, Florida. He flew to Texas the following weekend for the Speedo Winter Junior Championships, where he competed in three events.

“That was a really big thing for me because it was the first time I got to talk to coaches and meet them in person and shake their hands,” Boyd said.

From there, the junior balanced recruiting trips to Colorado Mesa, Southern Illinois and several DIII schools with an extensive competition schedule. He raced in Virginia, Austin (again) and St. George, Utah, as well as Grand Junction and various stops along the Front Range. In May, he took the silver medal at the CHSAA 4A state meet in the 100 back.

“Probably the most electrifying meet out of all of them because high school swimming is so much different than just club. It’s all team stuff,” said Boyd, who also catapulted Glenwood Springs’ 200-yard free relay team from third to first with a blistering 20.07-second final leg at state last year. After spending most of this spring deliberating, UC Santa Barbara’s coach, team and beautiful campus, sold him on California for the fall of 2026.

“I’m really happy with where I landed,” said Boyd, who plans to study communications. Hershey believes Boyd will thrive on a bigger team where he can be pushed more consistently.

“He has so much more potential because he’s not done growing. He’s still relatively underdeveloped when it comes to working out outside of the pool,” she said. “I really do think he can make the (Olympic) Trials one day.”

Lindstrom arrived in Vail as a sophomore after growing up and competing in various Front Range clubs.

“She’s a gem. She started on the team and immediately everyone flocked to her. She just has this awesome leadership presence and positive attitude all around,” Hershey said. “She’ll have hard sets and hard days, but she’s the one always encouraging people to push through it.”

In February, the senior won the 200 free at her final high school state swim meet and was runner-up in the 100 free as well. A month later, she claimed three podiums — including a win in the 100 free — at the senior Western Zones in St. George, Utah.

“I was shocked about that, so it was a pretty great ending to my season,” she said.

Lindstrom said Hershey was one of her first coaches to focus on technique.

“I’ve seen incredible improvements since I joined this team and started working with her,” she explained.
“I’ve definitely seen my love for the sport grow and she’s inspired me to take on wanting to coach in the future.”

Lindstrom plans to study sports psychology at CSU. Her dream is to be either a collegiate swim coach or a sports psychologist for USA Swimming. She said she chose to be a Ram largely because of head coach Christopher Woodard’s philosophies.

“They don’t focus as much on yardage,” Lindstrom said. “They focus on technique and race strategy, and that’s something I’m really interested in.”

Avon Swim Team continues to climb

There isn’t really a secret to the Avon Swim Team’s success except patience, persistence and good, old-fashioned hard work.

“We’re not big on garbage yardage,” said Boyd, who is in the pool by 6 a.m. a few times every week. On Tuesday and Thursday, he returns in the evenings for distance intervals or sprint sets, too.

“We’re constantly tweaking and looking for ways to improve and keep these kids really engaged,” added Hershey, who is leading her largest team ever with 20 kids. One recent change she made was to partially overlap older athletes’ practices with the new swimmers’ sessions.

“It allows the younger kids to look up to the older kids, develop friendships and relationships there and it allows the older kids to really take a leadership role in addition to thinking about their stroke mechanics,” Hershey explained. “I think it’s helping them grow on both levels.”

Boyd has already qualified for long-course junior nationals later this summer. Lindstrom has a few upcoming opportunities to lower her times and join him. Even she doesn’t, she’s looking forward to starting her next chapter in the fall.

“As a person, I have grown a lot through swimming,” she said. “And I want to continue to see who I can be.”

“They’re just awesome,” Hershey said of both athletes. “They’ve worked super hard in the pool and it’s amazing to see them excel and achieve their goals they’ve set for themselves. I’m really pumped to see where they go.”