Meet the Villanova swimmer putting forth quite the show, in and out of the pool

Charlie Hinckley sat in Villanova’s Pavilion Pool bleachers balancing his two identities. He wore a Villanova swim shirt, showing his pride for a program he holds a record in. His hat celebrated the 2022 NCAA Final Four.

Hinckley’s no basketball player. But minutes before the ball tipped in New Orleans’ Superdome, he was on the floor with former head coach Jay Wright and Villanova’s basketball team.

He didn’t line up with the hoopers. No, he stood at center court, looking out at a crowd of 70,000 people.

Then the swimmer began to sing.

Hinckley, a senior, fits the mold of a Villanova student: from New York City, majoring in real estate at Villanova’s School of Business.

Where he differs is in the pool. He holds the school record in the 500-meter freestyle, finishing in 4 minutes, 24.80 seconds at the 2022 Big East championships — to beat an hours-old record held by Villanova teammate Jake McIntyre.

“I was excited, obviously, and I was in shock that I, one, went that fast in general, but also, that I broke that record,” Hinckley said. “I wasn’t expecting to be able to do that.”

He didn’t have a typical recruitment to Villanova. Most swimmers compete in club swimming as high school underclassmen, but Hinckley quit as a freshman. However, he improved while competing for his school team, and when his American College Testing tutor told him swimming competitively would help him get into a better college, he returned to club swim.

Hinckley came to Villanova as a sprinter. His older brother, CJ, swam distance at Penn, and when Villanova associate head coach Laura McGlaughlin saw Charlie, she realized he had a similar stroke. Plus, both Hinckleys had a habit of swimming fastest in the final lengths — McGlaughlin called it “the Hinckley thing.” She suggested he switch to distance, and Charlie was open to it.

“Most of the time you see the opposite,” Villanova head swim coach Rick Simpson said, as usually distance swimmers want to become sprinters. “... Lo and behold, he’s our school record holder in the 500. It was a really great and mature decision on his part. It’s very, very uncommon for an 18, 19-year-old athlete to decide they want to actually increase their commitment.”

Hinckley found success in longer races. McIntyre, one year older, was the established leader in distance swimming, but over time, Hinckley has taken that spot. As a three-time all-Big East honoree in the 500 free, he no longer sees himself as an underdog. Now, he feels pressure to hold that top spot.

Though Hinckley’s brother is also a swimmer, his real family talent comes in music. His dad sang a cappella in college and postgrad, while his great-grandfather sang in New York’s Metropolitan Opera. Hinckley has followed in all of their footsteps his entire life, singing solos in middle school and choir and a cappella in high school.

He, a natural bass, wasn’t sure if he’d continue in college. He focused on swimming as a freshman in 2020, but when pandemic restrictions loosened, he realized he missed performing. He auditioned for a Villanova a cappella group called the Supernovas.

He felt like his audition went terribly. He forgot the lines to his audition song, had to look it up — and as a result assumed he’d never hear from the Supernovas again. Instead, the group’s only bass was a graduate student, so impressed with Hinckley and needing another low voice, the group brought him into the fold.

He was eased in. The graduate student had the main bass mic, so Hinckley mainly sang in the background for his first year. The next year, he became the one everyone could hear.

“When we’re performing, I’m usually the one to hold down the chord, and like everyone builds their chord off of what I sing,” Hinckley said. “So if I go sharp or flat, I’m going to screw up everyone else. It’s a lot of pressure, in that sense.”

The a cappella calendar centers around the ICCAs (International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella), the competition Pitch Perfect is based around. It’s split into regions, and there are multiple, smaller competitions just to advance to the regional championship.

The Supernovas won the Mid-Atlantic Championship in Hinckley’s first year in 2022, advancing to the competition final and performing in New York City. They advanced to the semifinals in 2023.

As for his journey to the Final Four? Well, that was a little shorter. He was told there was an opportunity to sing the national anthem somewhere, but he was standing in a coffee shop in Bryn Mawr when he found out that opportunity was at the Final Four in New Orleans.

It’s been a tradition for years. The NCAA historically has selected a musically gifted student-athlete from each of the participating schools, and the four combine to perform the anthem ahead of the semifinal matchups. At some schools, there’s an audition process held just in case the team ends up qualifying. At Villanova, there were few candidates.

“At the time, there were two other people who are in a cappella groups who are athletes, and I was the only one who wasn’t in season,” Hinckley said, smiling. “[The organizer told me] ‘You were basically… kind of like the only option.’”

He flew to New Orleans on Thursday and rehearsed that night with Hanna Hawks, a golfer from Kansas, Delaney Graham, a midfielder on Duke’s women’s soccer team, and Kaimon Rucker, a North Carolina linebacker. They rehearsed again on Friday and then performed on Saturday. Surprisingly, Hinckley wasn’t nervous.

His life didn’t change after the performance. The anthem wasn’t shown at Villanova’s on-campus watch party, so while some people complimented Hinckley on Bourbon Street after the game, his “five seconds of fame” generally didn’t extend to campus.

“I got like three new followers or something, maybe, from it,” Hinckley said, smiling.

However, teachers took note.

“I remember my professor came up to me after one of my tests and was like, ‘Hey, come here,’” Hinckley said. “I thought he was going to tell me I did something wrong on the test or I did really bad on the test or something. He was like, ‘Oh, great job with the national anthem. I think you should put this on your resume.’”

Back in the bleachers in 2024, Hinckley’s better rested than he usually would be on a Monday. Though his course schedule reflects his second-semester senior status, the last three weekends had been spent at swim competitions. Other weekends had been consumed by a cappella “boot camps,” or weekend-long all-day practices to prepare the Supernovas for ICCAs. This past weekend had been his first one off in weeks.

That grind is coming to an end, all at once. The ICCA Mid-Atlantic Quarterfinals were the next Saturday at Drexel, and the Supernovas finished fourth, two places from advancing. His swim career is coming to an end, too: the Big East Championships start Wednesday in Indianapolis. The 500 free will be on Thursday.

Some might be clinging to the final days, but Hinckley’s ready to move on. He won’t miss the 6 a.m. practices, and he’s looking forward to moving back to New York City and pursuing real estate. He’ll still swim, though not competitively. As for a cappella, he’s not sure if he’ll keep it up.

But the Big East Championships are his chance for one last performance.

“I’m really glad with what I’ve accomplished so far with swimming, and I’m excited to see how I do at Big East this year,” Hinckley said. “We’ll see. I think I’m excited to kind of end at Big East, on that note.”