Like most competitive swimmers, Christopher Lee hasn’t had a chance to take part in a meet since the high school season ended in February and has had his practice time limited because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
But that didn’t stop college coaches from pursuing the Columbus North swimmer, who is about to begin his senior season. He recently accepted an offer to walk on to the team at Indiana University.
“It’s literally my dream to swim there with all those Olympians and the history that they have,” Lee said. “Ever since my freshman year of high school, I’ve really wanted to go to IU. They have a really good school for the major I’m trying to go into (environmental policy), and the campus felt like home. I felt like I belong there.”
Lee had a partial scholarship offer from Denver, but said it will cost less to walk on at IU than it would be to attend Denver.
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“I was also really interested in Denver, but IU is closer to home, and it’s cheaper, and I feel like I fit in more with the coaches (at IU),” Lee said.
Lee is coming off a strong junior season in which he set school records and earned All-American honors in both the 50-yard freestyle and 100 backstroke. He finished ninth at state in the 100 backstroke and 10th in the 50 freestyle in earning The Republic Boys Swimmer of the Year honors.
Since then, however, Lee and his teammates haven’t been able to train as much as in past offseasons. The North High School and Donner Park pools were closed, but Lee did get to spend some time training at Seymour’s Shields Park pool with Donner Swim Club.
“It ended up being half as much swimming as we usually do,” Lee said. “The rest, we had to do dryland on our own. It was really mentally challenging. Not having a meet in six months is bad, but we’re all in the same situation, and there are a lot of people who are a lot worse off than we are.”
Lee figures he will swim the 50 freestyle, 100 backstroke and 100 freestyle at IU.
“It’s a great fit for him,” said North and Donner coach Logan Schaefer, a former Hoosier swimmer. “He is looking for continued growth, challenges, opportunities to swim fast, and it’s a great place for him for all those things.”
Lee will join fellow Columbus resident Michael Brinegar, who is a redshirt-sophomore on the IU team. Looking at the big picture, Lee realizes his biggest impact for the Hoosiers likely will come as an upperclassman.
“I feel like I can make a contribution to the team culture, for sure, by being the best teammate I can be,” Lee said. “But points-wise, I think it would be really ambitious and really cool if I could get on the varsity team. But that’s a long time from now.”
In the meantime, Lee’s competition season season is about to ramp up. On Saturday, he has a club meet at IU for 50 swimmers who have met Junior National time standards. He also plans to swim in the U.S. Nationals Nov. 14 and the Junior Nationals Dec. 2.
The Bull Frogs’ high school boys season begins Nov. 24 at Franklin.
“I took a little bit of time off because I felt like I needed a break,” Lee said. “But I’m more excited than ever for high school season and these national meets coming up. “I want to re-break my records that I set.”
His coach is confident that he can.
“I think what we’re focused on is the process and doing things that Christopher needs to work on to continue to improve, and even with the uncertainty of meets that we’ve had this summer and this fall, I feel like we’re in a good spot, and we’re setting ourselves up to be in the best position possible for February and March,” Schaefer said.
