MOSCOW, Idaho – This week's Vandals of the Week award will recognize sophomore Holly Keir and sophomore Colt Sherrell for the continued hard work and success that that have achieved inside the classroom.
 
Keir, a swimmer for the swim and dive team, is majoring in computer science with a minor on business. Keir has maintained a 3.87 cumulative GPA through unpredictable times with the pandemic.
 
"It was definitely difficult at the beginning while I was trying to balance being with my parents and doing schoolwork, but we got through it and I am glad we were able to come back and be in-person this year," Keir stated about the constant changes to the school curriculum this past year.
 
"I enjoyed the fact that we got a regular practice schedule. We swam with who we roomed with, so it was not too difficult to social distance. We still get the whole team into practice at one time, we got to do a couple swim meets, and it was nice to be back to normal."
 
Sherrell, a junior golfer for the men's golf team, studies marketing with a focus on entrepreneurship and has maintained a cumulative GPA of 3.78.
 
"My favorite class has been data analytics," Sherrell added. "It is fun to see what we have been learning for the past two years to see how you can take in all the information through the math and excel to see what the numbers are really telling us."
 
"The main skill that I have learned through athletics is to build a relationship with your professor. Especially for golf, we leave every weekend throughout the rest of the semester. It is impossible to go out and do these things without having that relationship with you professors."
 
Keir and Sherrell were appreciative of the acknowledgment of their continued hard work on and off the field.
 
"Being recognized as a student-athlete means that you are a student first, and it is nice to know that they don't just care about how we perform in the pool. It's all about how we are doing in the classroom," Keir added.
 
"To be recognized in the classroom is pretty cool," Sherrell said. "I have been grinding pretty hard through-out my career. My mom always said that you are a student-athlete, and the student part comes first."