It’s March, and that means a new Athlete of the Month! March doesn’t have much to offer; it’s like the loading screen for fall sports. But, we have one person who stands out more than any other in the school right now, and that is swimmer Ian Vandervort.

Vandervort is one of the hardest working athletes at our school, and last month made his second appearance at States for Swim, where he placed 25th in the 100 Freestyle and 30th in the 50 Freestyle. This is an astounding performance for Ian; only 32 out of thousands of kids in the entire state make it to States for Swim.

Ian shared his trials and tribulations that got him to where he is now.

“…when Covid-19 hit, I took a small break and missed one season of both summer and winter swimming during my eighth-grade year. I also moved to Poland in 2021. After, I joined new teams and had to bounce back from the weight gain and muscle loss as a result of sitting around. My freshman year of high school, what I call my “bounce-back season”, had some of the best time drops in my entire life, and I have improved upon those times since then,” said Vandervort.

Vandervort has also been swimming for 11 years; that’s 10 summer and winter seasons and 3 high school seasons. The amount of work that Vandervort has put into Swim is almost unmatched. Vandervort also does plan to swim in college, but he doesn’t know where yet. He does have one more year of high school to decide where he wants to go.

Vandervort believes that he can improve his times further in his last year of high school too.

“In order to try to improve my times for my senior year, I plan on practicing hard through the spring and summer and keeping up the momentum from this season. I am also going to keep up my level of activity by training for a triathlon this spring and running cross country in the fall,” said Vandervort.

Some other acknowledgements that Vandervort has this year was breaking two school records, and making first team all NE8.

Vandervort’s career has been very impressive, and he still has more time to get even better than he was before. We wish Ian a great season next year, and a great season in his other sports, which are Track and Cross Country.