Inside HOKIE SPORTS | Vol. 10 No. 4 | March 2018

inside.hokiesports.com 35 Fast Forward Document Solutions Proud to Support Virginia Tech Athletics MFPs I Document Management I Managed Print Services I Production Print Roanoke • New River Valley • Lynchburg • Charlottesville Richmond • Hampton Roads • Shenandoah Valley VAbusinesssystems.com • 540-362-3300 It’s how you win. And it’s how we deliver. Teamwork . VBS VT 1-3 page ad_Layout 1 7/21/16 11:52 AM Page 1 designed a 3-D shoulder rest that fits him for when he plays his violin. He put his musical talent on display last April at The Gobblers, which is the year-end athletics department awards event. Some more of Ho’s recent projects include a 3-D printed case for his 3-D mouse and a lamp that he made out of pipes. These may sound like odd projects to those not familiar with engineering, but these projects challenge Virginia Tech students, and other top engineering schools assign similar projects as well. As for the next step, Ho still has one year of eligibility left for swimming. He plans on pursuing a master’s degree in mechanical engineering at Virginia Tech, so much more remains for the talented sprinter who keeps beating his own times. However, Ho knows that his time with the team remains short, and there’s no doubt that he’ll miss it once he touches the wall for the final time, whenever that time arrives. “You spend 20-plus hours with these guys. Day in and day out, you have 5:30 workouts, weights, dry lands, afternoon workouts, meets, and it’s going to be hard to say goodbye,” he said. Once he finishes with school, Ho hopes to pursue a career in additive engineering, but he admits that he struggles to look ahead to the future. Instead, he prefers to let things happen, much in the same way they happened for his swimming career. From swimming for Blacksburg High School to swimming for one of the better programs in the ACC, Ho has taken things one lap at a time, and it seems to have worked out perfectly. Unlike many Virginia Tech students who move away from their hometowns, Ho already knew what Blacksburg provided and never wanted to leave. There was a sense of comfort and familiarity that already existed. After finding success in both the pool and the classroom in his hometown, he, for sure, knows what it’s like to be a Hokie. After walking on to Tech, Blacksburg native Ian Ho holds the school record in the 50 freestyle event, which makes him one of the fastest swimmers in Tech history.