By: Evi Fromm

“Hard work and faith” are the two things that led senior Andrew Bruckart to be the person he is today, the top athlete on the cross country and track teams and at the top of his class. Bruckart will graduate as a valedictorian in May. After graduation, he will continue his athletic and academic career at Cedarville University. 

Becoming a College Athlete

Starting high school, Bruckart did not see himself where he is today. Bruckart was originally a member of the BHS soccer team during his freshman year. 

“I only ran competitive road races against or with my little brother Jackson as a child, but never trained or ran on my own for the fun of it in that stage of my life,” Bruckart said. “When I played soccer through middle school and my freshman year of high school, I began to run a lot more as part of soccer practices. After my freshman year soccer season, I started running on my own to stay fit over the winter and loved it! I decided to try to track out that year to see what it was all about.”

Bruckart eventually joined the cross-country team fall of his sophomore year and has stuck with it and track for the rest of his high school career. He has shown impressive drops in time throughout the cross-country season and won the SWBL meet as an individual during the fall season 2024-2025. During the track season, he leads the team in the 1-mile and 2-mile events. 

“My teammates will all say that I complain a lot about running the 5k (which is true), so I would not necessarily say that I enjoy competing in longer distance events,” Bruckart said. “I do enjoy training or running long distances at paces slower than my race pace, though, so my love for the sport is about everything other than the actual races themselves. I compete quite a bit in longer distance events, but I also compete in mid-distance events as well, so I’m not strictly a distance runner according to the definition.”

Bruckart is verbally committed to run both track and cross-country at Cedarville University. He will be officially signing at the spring signing night on Monday, April 28. 

“I have always been very impressed by Cedarville’s authentic and intentional faith life. My parents were both graduates of Cedarville University, so I grew up visiting the campus all the time,” Bruckart said. “When I toured the engineering department last year, one of the head professors spent over three hours talking with me and my parents, answering our questions, and even eating dinner with us. I was also very impressed by the willingness of the coaches and the team to spend time talking and getting to know me more.”

“Choosing where I would study, and deciding that I would run in college happened around the same time, so Cedarville was a no-brainer!” Bruckart said. “I’m so blessed to have the opportunity to go there for the next four years.”

“Andrew is going to go on to do great things,” Varsity track and cross country coach Mike Baumer said. “He has an amazing work ethic and Cedarville will be lucky to have him.”

Earning the Title of Valedictorian

The Bellbrook High School class of 2025 Valedictorian is Andrew Bruckart and the Salutatorian is Darius Gainer.

“Being named top of my class was something that I thought about going into high school, but never really considered as an actual possibility until junior year,” Bruckart said. “So in that sense, it was a goal of mine, but not one that I thought I could ever achieve until junior year. I was aware that I was higher up in my class about halfway through my junior year, so I was not surprised when I found out.” 

“Our roles were determined based on our 7th semester cumulative weighted GPA, meaning that year-long classes during our senior year would NOT count toward rankings,” Bruckart said. “This allowed me to devote more time to my athletics and college classes than my year-long class grades, which is something I still feel a little guilty about. If Valedictorian was a competition of pure hard work ethic, then there are numerous individuals who deserve the honor more than me, including our Salutatorian, but I got selected in the end, given the way the numbers game played out.”

Bruckart will address his class during the Class of 2025 graduation ceremony on May 17.

“The biggest thing that has motivated me through high school is most certainly my faith,” Bruckart said. “I say this not because I am trying to act humble, but truly because I could not have done any of this on my own strength. Being able to trust God through every academic, athletic, social, and mental challenge, asking Him to let His will be done in every situation I face, and trusting that His will is always best for me, in the long run, is the reason I can say without a doubt I would not be here without His great forgiveness.”

“If it was God’s will that I lose my legs and permanently damage my brain today, then I would praise His name evermore for taking away the things that He Himself gave me and giving me a greater realization of how much He has truly blessed me,” Bruckart said.