This summer, senior swimmer Bailey Grinter represented Edwardsville at the Olympic Trials. Next year, she will be representing her hometown at the University of Tennessee.

Grinter made her choice to swim for the Volunteers on Sept. 19 over offers from University of Florida, University of Kentucky and University of Alabama.

“I felt like I belonged there,” Grinter said. “Tennessee had the best sprint program so that played a big part.”

Even though Grinter is only a senior, she has already had her taste of national success; she competed in the U.S. Olympic Time Trials this summer in Omaha, won the 50-meter backstroke at the YMCA Long Course National Championships in Indianapolis and was even featured in Sports Illustrated in a column called “Faces in the Crowd” that highlights rising high school athletes.

“It’s just been one exciting thing to the next,” she said.

Even after so much recognition, Grinter is still looking to the future and believes Tennessee can help her reach her full potential and even reach her ultimate goal: to make it to the Olympics.

Fellow senior swimmer Spencer Sholl believes Grinter has had the potential and work ethic to be great since they were children.

“I always knew she would swim in college; it was just a matter of where,” Sholl said. “I think Tennessee will help to make her one of the best collegiate swimmers, if not one of the best internationally.”

According to her senior teammate Callista Poiter, not only is Grinter dominant in the pool, she is also a great student. She hasn’t decided on a major but believes that Tennessee will offer  many options to choose from when it comes time to  decide.

“Bailey works hard every day; she does extra workouts in addition to our 5 a.m. weights and two-hour practices,” Poiter said. “Her grades are stellar, and she took so much time off of school to visit colleges to make sure she was getting exactly what she wanted from her future home.”

Committing to swim in college is  something that Grinter has aimed for her entire swimming career. She has “been in the water” since she was six months old and has swum  competitively since she was eight.  

“It feels fantastic,” she said. “It feels like a huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders.”

Grinter’s teammates are rooting for her and hope she will do well in her swimming career at Tennessee as well as after.

“I have swum against people from all across the country and had several friends swim at universities, but I have yet to meet someone who I feel has a greater chance to become an Olympian than (Grinter),” Sholl said. “She has the skill and the drive that make the possibilities for what she can accomplish nearly endless.”