CAMDENTON, Mo. (KY3) – With the blink of an eye, it is possible to miss a state record in the making.
Camdenton’s Ethan Vance set a Missouri state record this year, swimming 19.97 seconds in the 50-yard freestyle
“It was a beautiful swim. I mean he came out a body length ahead of everybody else,” said Camdenton Swim Coach Sarah VanBebber. “And just to hear the whole crowd cheering for him was…awesome. I’m just watching him and watching him turn off the wall. And you look up at the clock and you’re like ‘oh my gosh’ what is this.”
“I wasn’t really swimming for myself,” said Camdenton senior Ethan Vance. “I was swimming for my team to get as many points. I was swimming for my dad who just had open heart surgery.”
The senior is making a splash in a sport he picked up just two years ago. With the help of his dad, a former Missouri State swimmer.
“Seeing his reaction is always my favorite,” Ethan said. “I just wanted to blow his mind and give him something good to look for.”
As well as from his friends who convinced him to come to a swim practice.
“My two best friends invited me to practice one day and I kind of fell in love with it from then,” Ethan said.
Ethan is diving in head first, competing nationally and receiving interest from division one colleges. One of those programs, sitting close to home.
“Mizzou and I, we have a long history,” Ethan said. “When I had cancer as a kid, all of their sports teams came and visited me in the hospital.”
Ethan was diagnosed with lymphoblastic leukemia at the age of three. He was in remission at seven years old and continues his yearly check-ups.
“I wasn’t able to play any sports because I was so fragile,” Ethan said. “My parents kept me out of sports until I was in probably the sixth grade, I think that’s the first time I played sports. And then it just kind of progressed.”
His ambitions are set high.
“I knew it was possible, I didn’t think I was going to progress as fast as I did,” Ethan said.
“To see this kid who just had a natural ability for swim has been really cool. And he also has that fresh love that little kids have for a sport and to see that with a high schooler who isn’t burnt out on the sport but just wants to keep going and going and going has been really exciting to see over the last few years.”
Be on the lookout for more records to be set by Ethan, as he is not satisfied just yet.
