Woodrow Wilson High School senior Landon Fike placed first in his events (100-yard butterfly and 50-yard freestyle) at the 5-A meet in Austin. Photo courtesy of Dallas ISD Athletics/Todd Lamb.


Woodrow Wilson High School senior Landon Fike is reaping the benefits of his training. 

Fike is on the school’s swim team, and he has been swimming for about 10 years. Last year, he advanced to the state contest and won second place, but now, he placed first in his events (100-yard butterfly and 50-yard freestyle) at the 5-A meet in Austin. 

“That was the goal at the start of the season, so it’s good to get that done,” Fike said. 

To get to state, Fike competed in the district and regional contests. Since he won gold in those meets as well, his victory at state constitutes a sweep. He was also named “Athlete of the Meet” at all three competitions. He won a similar award for the year at the Texas Interscholastic Swimming Coaches Association. 

Despite this major accomplishment, Fike’s performance didn’t quite surpass his own goals. He beat WWHS’s record in both events, but he said his times were good but could have been better. 

“I went 20.03 in the 50-yard freestyle. I wanted to go a few hundreds of a second faster, go 19, break 20,” he said. “There’s not that many people that do that before they go to college, so that would have been really cool. But obviously, I couldn’t not be happy that I won both, especially the 50(-yard freestyle), which was a bit of a less sure thing. Like the 100(-yard butterfly), I kind of knew I was going to win. The 50 was a lot closer.”

WWHS senior Landon Fike ahead of the state meet. Courtesy photo.

His coach at Woodrow, Shelly Thibodaux, sees continual improvement since his freshman year, all while making good grades in his classes. Beyond his performance, Thibodaux is impressed with how Fike handles himself out of the pool. Even his fellow swimmers at competitions have positive things to say about him.

“He’ll hold little powwows with the younger swimmers and just share his experiences and his knowledge,” she said. “A lot of times, you don’t see that in high school athletes.  … But he’s a helper. He’s a mentor to the younger kids (on the high school swim team).”

Since his parents swam competitively in college, the sport came somewhat naturally to Fike, who took to swimming early. But that doesn’t mean that he hasn’t worked hard for his accomplishments.

“It’s such a ‘the work you put in is what you get out’ sport,” he said. “However hard you work during the season is exactly what’s going to show up on the board at the end. So that’s probably my favorite part about it.”

Swimming is the only sport that Fike competes in, and he has a full-time schedule. He was practicing before school at a pool around Downtown for his Woodrow team and makes the trip to Frisco after school for club swimming training. His season is basically year-round starting in summer for club swimming and then throughout the fall and winter to prepare for contests. He only planned to take another week off before getting back at it.

Fike plans to swim in college, and after that, he has an eye on trials for the Olympic Games. 

“I’d like to make the 2028 Olympic trials. That would kind of just be going for the experience, like I wouldn’t final in any event,” he said. “Then maybe 2032 if that one’s a possibility, that one would be cool.”