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Malone University Athletics

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Russ Hunt headshot 2017

Russ Hunt

Russ Hunt, a graduate of Upper Arlington High School who joined the Malone program as its head coach in the fall of 2014, is in his 16th year of collegiate coaching, gaining experience in all three divisions of the NCAA.  Hunt competed at Kenyon College, where he was a 17-time All-American, 10-time national relay and individual champion,  the 2003 100 yard Backstroke National Champion at the NCAA Division III level, and a member of the 2004 400 Medley Relay team that broke the National Record. 
 
Hunt will enter his seventh season at the helm of Pioneer swimming and diving in 2020-21. Last year, Malone men's and women's swimming and diving each picked up 3rd place finishes at the G-MAC/MEC Championships, including event championships in the men's 1650 Free (Nick Wertz), women's 100 Free (Denise Quentin) and women's 400 Free Relay (Denise Quentin, Abby Reynolds, Kinsey Knoch and Macy Williams). Five school records were broken at this year's conference championships and 11 over the course of the season.

As Malone head coach, Hunt has led the team to a finish no worse than 4th in both men's and women's competition at the G-MAC/MEC Championships since the event was created in 2017. Coach Hunt led the men’s team to an undefeated dual meet season, as well as a third-place finish at the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Championships in 2015, and the women’s team to a top seventh-place finish in the Appalachian Swimming Conference in 2017, the program’s best finishes to date. Malone’s first ever NCAA Championship Qualifier, Marta Jankowska, competed at the 2016 DII National Championships under Hunt. Overall, school records have been broken in 30 different events in Coach Hunt's tenure thusfar.
 
Russ began his coaching career at Ohio Northern University, where he worked as a graduate assistant for three seasons, before joining Colgate University as an assistant coach. There he concentrated on the sprinters, coached the School’s first NCAA Division I National Championship qualifier, and oversaw 26 new school records between the men’s and women’s team.  From Colgate, Hunt served as the head swimming coach at Marshall University, and in three seasons was instrumental in the program’s best finish at the Conference USA Championships, and seven varsity records. 
 
Prior to taking the helm at Malone, Hunt returned to Ohio Northern University where he served as an assistant coach, playing a role in both men’s and women’s team Ohio Athletic Conference Championships, and nine NCAA DIII B standard qualifying times and 2 NCAA DIII A standard qualifying times.
 
Coach Hunt is a Columbus, Ohio native, but is now a proud representative of swimming in Stark County. Russ resides in Canton, Ohio, and serves as an adjunct professor, teaching legal & ethical issues in sport in Malone’s sports management department.  

Get to know more about Russ through Malone's Pioneer Spotlight