GREAT FALLS — With each state title that comes her way, it becomes more and more clear that Butte High’s Catherine Russo is, in fact, a fish.
The sophomore is now a perfect four-for-four in state title attempts over her first two high school seasons. She dominated the individual portion of the state swim meet in Great Falls on Saturday, shattering a pair of Montana records, including an old record of her own.
Russo finished the 100-meter butterfly in a blistering 54.15 seconds, nearly two seconds better than the previous mark of 56.07 seconds. She then went for her biggest goal of the season, a chance to break 23 seconds and break her own state record in the 50-meter free.
Of course she did it.
“I didn’t even know what to think,” Russo said about seeing that she had won the event in 22.76 seconds. “It was just a crazy reaction. There were so many emotions.”
She is well on her way to joining a short list of Montanans to take home eight individual titles. She credits the help from her corner for pushing her to new heights.
“I have my whole team (here),” she said. “As soon as I was up (on the board), they said my name, they started cheering for me … just all of the amazing support that I’ve had throughout this whole meet that really pushed me to do it.”
And with the second half of her high school career to come, she may run out of other swimmers’ records to break.
