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Libby Russum has announced that she will be staying in-state to attend the University of Tennessee after her high school graduation this spring. Russum currently lives only an hour and half away from the school in Kingsport. There, she does her club swimming with the Barracuda Swim Club of Northeast Tennessee and swims high school with Dobyns Bennett High School. She is a sprint freestyle specialist who finished in the top-8 of both her events at the 2021 TISCA State High School Championships.
I am so thrilled to announce my verbal commitment to swim and study at the University of Tennessee! Thank you to my coaches, family and teammates for helping me get to this point. Go Vols!🍊
Russum has been a two-event finalist at all three of her TISCA State Championship meets, improving her placement at each. As a freshman at the 2019 meet, she finished in 12th in the 50 free and 16th in the 100 free. A year later in 2020 she improved her 100 free to a 10th place finish while taking 12th in the 50 free for a second time. Last spring she saw a large improvement in both races, taking 4th in the 50 free (23.73) and 5th in the 100 free (52.08). Both of those times were lifetime bests.
In December, Russum hit three lifetime best times at the Winter Junior Championships-East. She claimed 30th in both the 50 and 100 freestyles, dropping time in both to touch in 23.33 and 50.86. She also added a third-best time in the 100 fly, stopping the clock at 55.00.
Top SCY Times
- 50 free – 23.33
- 100 free – 50.86
- 200 free – 1:57.80
- 100 fly – 55.00
The Lady Vols are incredibly deep in the sprint freestyle events, with 10 girls below 23.0 in the 50 free and 9 girls under 50.0 this season already. At last year’s SEC Championships, the program had multiple finalists in both events, with Bailey Grinter and Tjasa Pintar making into the A-final of the 50 and 100, respectively.
This season, the Lady Vols have gotten a big addition in the form of Ellen Walshe, who ranks among the best in the NCAA in the butterfly and IM events. In the 100 fly, only Maggie MacNeil has been faster this season. Walshe also holds the fastest time on the Tennessee team, having led off the school’s B-team in the 400 free relay at the Tennessee Invite. She touched in 48.70.
Tennessee has shown depth across the board this season, with SwimSwam’s projected NCAA cut list currently having them tied with Cal for most projected NCAA Championships qualifiers. The Lady Vols are currently expected to qualify 17 women for the NCAA Championships this spring. Last season, Tennessee finished 5th at the SEC Championships and 10th at the NCAA Championships.
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GBO!
Welcome Libby! Congrats!
Let’s go Libby!