INDIANAPOLIS — It was an up-and-down Friday night for Christopher Lee at the Boys Swimming state prelims at the Indiana University Natatorium on the campus of IUPUI.
Even though there were a lot of fast times overall, no records were broken, but there is a very strong chance that will change for today’s finals.
Facing many of the top swimmers in the state, Lee’s time of 20.77 seconds was just one-one hundreth of a second short in qualifying for the finals in the 50-yard freestyle, finishing in ninth. The top eight made it to today’s championship heat, while swimmers 9 through 16 made the consolation heat.
To put into perspective how close the times were in the 50 freestyle, Braden Rollins of Boonville had the fastest time at 20.18. Lee was seeded third in the 50 freestyle with a 20.61 heading into Friday’s prelims.
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“It’s heartbreaking, but it can be an unforgiving sport, and that’s something I love and dislike about it,” Lee said. “I love swimming, and I love everything about it.”
Lee is a junior, and the odds are with him on making the top eight for the finals next season.
“It was a great performance, and was just a little off getting into the ‘A’ final,” North coach Logan Schaefer said. “Chris’s mindset is great going into (today). He is focused on the swims that he’s got, and we’re going to do the best on what we have and what we earned.”
In the 100 backstroke, Lee swam 50.36 for 14th, and made his way today’s consolation finals in that event’ as well. Friday’s time was an improvement from his seed time of 51.23. Wyatt Davis of swimming powerhouse Carmel had the top time at 46.85.
“I was very pleased with how I executed the race,” Lee said. “It was the best time for me by about three-quarters of a second, which in this sport, is a lot of time. So I’m really pleased with myself. I’m also pleased with the attitude that my teammates brought in the pool deck. They were really supportive.”
The Bull Frogs’ 200 freestyle relay team of Daniel Utterback, Lee, Tristen Cook and David Fry finished in 19th place with a time of 1:28.10. Their seeded time going in was 1:27.73. Hamilton Southeastern finished with the best time at 1:23.57.
“I was very proud of our relay,” Schaefer said. “A couple of them finished with their best swims of the season on that relay. I’m really proud of them.”
Today’s swimming finals and consolations begin at 1 p.m.
