Former Texas Longhorn Kaitlin Harty will transfer to Tennessee with two years of NCAA eligibility remaining.
Harty told SwimSwam back in January that she was transferring away from Texas, but didn’t have a destination finalized yet. She competed two seasons at Texas, but didn’t compete at all in the 2018-2019 season, which should leave her with two years of eligibility remaining as of next fall. Harty announced her new home on Instagram this week:
Harty is an outstanding two-distance backstroker, though she hasn’t bettered any of her best times since joining Texas in the fall of 2016. Her best times are listed below, with her collegiate bests in parentheses:
Harty’s Top Times
- 100y back: 51.67 (53.81)
- 200y back: 1:50.68 (1:54.28)
- 500y free: 4:43.99 (4:56.78)
- 200y free: 1:47.70
- 100y free: 50.38
- 100y fly: 53.71 (57.27)
Harty hasn’t made NCAAs in either of her seasons at Texas, though her best times would rank 5th (200 back) and 15th (100 back) on this year’s NCAA psych sheets. She’ll join a young Tennessee team that should return most of its firepower. If Harty can get back towards her best times, the pickup would be huge for Tennessee’s medley relays. The Vols swept the SEC medley titles this year, but were forced to use star freestyler/butterflyer Erika Brown on backstroke. Harty could fill the back spot, allowing Brown to replace outgoing senior Maddy Banic on fly, or put up a huge 100 free anchor leg.
Harty should make her debut next fall for the Volunteers.
Being from Tennessee I was weird and always rooted for the Florida Gators. Vols are making it really hard not to root for them
Nice pickup! Welcome to the LV family 🙂
Sounds like a good move for all involved. Welcome to Tennessee Kaitlin.
Wonder why she didn’t improve.
Because…. of course she did
Well, at least it’s still UT.
Uh, different shade of orange & different culture (don’t think Knoxville has adopted and embraced the “Keep Knoxville Weird” slogan (I don’t believe) like Austin has (“Keep Austin Weird”). It’s a “mindset” there!!
So is anyone gonna get mad cause she will be 1 year older when she’s done swimming or are people just gonna be happy that a swimmer is trying to find a good fit. I’m with the second one. But judging how mad people got over division 2 NCAAs idk
People are goofy, having an age limit on NCAA sports would be like telling veterans they’re too old to go back to college. Everybody has a different path
wasn’t she injured fairly early in her college career?
Not really one injury, but a slew. Heard she was quite a trouble to Carol and the team in her years at Texas. Hopefully she can get back on track at Tennessee.
She got very sick near the end of high school if I remember correctly