Reported by Braden Keith.
Tennessee junior Jasmine Rumley underwent a second shoulder surgery in August to correct thoracic outlet syndrome in both shoulders. She was cleared completely in November and has been building her way back to competition in a dual meet against Missouri last week – which was her first meet since the NCAA Championships.
Rumley was an All-American relay contributor last season for the Volunteers, swimming the anchor leg of the Volunteers’ 15th-place 200 free relay. She also raced the 50 free (22.20 – 29th place) and 100 free (49.21 – 47th place) individually. Against Missouri, Rumley split 22.87 to anchor Tennessee’s winning 200 medley relay and swam 23.53 in the 50 free individually.
With the team’s top sprinter Mona McSharry being called into breaststroke duty on the medley relays, there is still room for Rumley if she can get close to her peak form, even coming off an injury. Her flat-start best times are 21.81 and 48.41 in the 50 and 100-yard freestyles, respectively.
She is one of two Tennessee swimmers who sat out most of the fall semester after shoulder surgery. Highly-touted freshman Regan Rathwell swam two meets but will redshirt the season after undergoing surgery of her own.
That leaves one big remaining unknown for the Volunteers with a month to go until conference championship season: the status of Ellen Walshe, the SEC co-swimmer of the year last season. She was at home training and taking classes remotely in the fall and was expected back in the spring but did not appear in the team’s first meet of the semester.
So happy to have her back! She’s the xfactor of this team IMO. Don’t see another 21 anchor for those 200 relays without her.