WHEATLAND – Wheatland High School sophomore Desirae Iacovetto is affectionately called “Dezi” by her coaches, friends and family. They also call her “incredible.”

From her infectious smile to her outrageous laughter, Iacovetto has won the hearts of the Wheatland community and the respect of fellow athletes.

This winter she not only participated, but platformed four times at the 2023 State Indoor Track & Field Championships held March 3-4 at the Campbell County Recreation Center with her indoor track team which was a combined team from Wheatland and Douglas athletes. Her team placed 11th overall with a team score of 18.

“I really liked participating in track in middle school,” Iacovetto said. “When I got to high school, I didn’t really want to do basketball, so my mom (Anita Iacovetto) and I really worked hard to try to get an indoor track team. Along with others who wanted to get a track team going, we all of a sudden got one. But we co-op with Douglas.”

Iacovetto, is a sophomore who took third in state in the 55-meter dash with a time of 7.53 seconds.

“I think I could have done a little better,” she said. “But my starts weren’t very good. I just really need to work on that. I also got fifth place in high jump and only jumped 4’10” which was not my personal record (PR) but I did not do very good that day. I then took fifth in the 200-meter run which I wasn’t very happy with either. But I did PR for my prelims and my time was 27.07. The final fifth I received was with my team as we ran the 4x200-meter relay and I think we had a time of 1:54.31. My teammates were Emma Kaushagen, Julianna Swanson and Riley Cook.”

Iacovetto not only excels in indoor track, but also in spring track for WHS. In last year’s state track meet Iacovetto earned all-state honors taking second place in the 100-meter dash and third place in the 200-meter dash. Last fall, her varsity volleyball team took third in state. How she got to Wheatland and to be a force for this high school began in a Haiti orphanage.

“I was adopted at the age of five from an orphanage in Haiti,” Iacovetto said. “My family lived in the Pullman, Washington, where I went to school for kindergarten and half of first grade, and about eight years ago, my family moved here because my dad (Jason Iacovetto) got a job as a pastor, but now works at Western Building Supply.”

Growing up with a family in ministry that included her parents in the pastorate and also missionary work, Iavovetto remembers being at the church a lot growing up. She also said that school was not always a favorite thing for her and she said that she really had to focus to make it through.

“School’s like not my favorite thing,” she said. “I’m good with it, but for me it really takes a lot of effort. The sports definitely keep me going because I really, really, really like sports. Once I got to high school, I’ve gotten better at it.”

Iacovetto competes hard and the talent for sports seems to come naturally for her. She realized that in middle school.

“In middle school, I was pretty good at track,” she said. “But when we went to conference I got my butt whooped and I didn’t make podium. Although I did pretty good at high jump. Freshman year I was like, ‘Oh, I actually may be really good at this sport.’ Now my favorite sport is track.”

Iacovetto has gone to a few recruiting camps where collegiate scouts were watching, but I haven’t gotten any interest yet. She has tightened her focus and her passion toward the two sports early in her career.

“I think I center on those two because I think I have the most potential there,” she said. “And, I like those sports the best. I love the team building of volleyball and the fact that you need everybody to be able to be successful. And in track, I like that because it’s your own sport, so if you do good, it’s on you. And if you do bad… you get better. I also don’t like to lose. Like, if I get beat at a track meet, I find the person that beat me and I think to myself, ‘That’s not happening again.’ It’s really not.”

Iacovetto is already looking toward college where she wants to try do both track and volleyball and cites her mentor’s college history as something to shoot for.

“My mentor is definitely Mrs. Nichols,” she said. “She’s helped me so much and in middle school she was my coach and now again in high school. She’s definitely intense and I love that, but I think it’s helpful because she knows that you can do better so she pushes you to get there.”

As far as her collegiate major, right now Iacovetto has a passion to be a pediatric nutritionist.