Women's Swimming and Diving's Lee Sets ECAC Record

So many championships, so little time.

One week after raking in multiple first-place finishes at the Ivy League Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships, junior Danielle Lee continued to make waves this weekend. Representing the Crimson in the ECAC Open Championships held at the University of Pittsburgh, Lee broke both the pool and conference records in the 100 backstroke.

After finishing second in the prelims with a time of 54.20, Lee notched it up for the event finals. She finished in 53.16, almost half a second in front of the second place finisher, Pittsburgh junior Blair Wegescheide.

“When I’m competing, the records don’t really matter to me,” Lee said. “It’s just the results of my hard training. [Breaking records] isn’t really one of my goals that I go for, so if it happens to come along, that’s really, really nice.”

Lee’s name will now be seen in the record books of both Trees Pool and the ECAC, replacing two fairly young records. The previous pool record was set by Notre Dame’s Kelly Ryan in 2012, who recorded a 53.32 finish.

For the ECAC record, Lee championed the previous 53.43 time that had been standing for barely a year—a record that had been set by former Ancient Eight swimmer, Princeton’s Lisa Boyce, whom Lee had overtaken at last year’s Ivy League Championships. At Ivies, Lee edged out Boyce—then a senior—in the same event, taking gold by 0.02 seconds.

“Competition-wise, [Lee is] awesome,” freshman Gabby Sims said. “She’s someone that we can always rely on. She’s really consistent, and she can come through and carry the team when the team needs her to.”

But setting records and topping the podium is nothing new to Lee. As a sophomore, she set records for both Harvard and Blodgett Pool, swimming the 100 back in 52.77 as part of the 400 medley at Ivies. This year, at the Texas Invite, she shattered another program record in the 200 back, finishing in 1:54.63—a full 0.34 ahead of the record set in 2012.

In addition, Lee ranks third in the Crimson record books for her time in the 100 butterfly, fifth in the 200 freestyle, and ninth in the 100 free.

But with all her individual glory, Lee attributes much of her success to the presence of her team.

“Training with my team has just made it so much more enjoyable,” Lee said. “They make me love the sport so much. [Success] just comes with having fun every day at the pool.”

Her performance in the 100 back earned her an NCAA ‘B’ cut time last year, making her the only Harvard swimmer to qualify and compete at the 2014 NCAA Championships.

This year, Lee decided to aim for NCAAs again at the ECAC Championships with hopes of improving on her season-best time of 52.96. But despite her efforts, Lee was unable to dip below this time, which she swam at the Texas Invite in December. Thus, she will have to wait and see if she qualifies for the national tournament.

“One of my goals [for this meet] was just trying to better my times and trying to maybe compete in NCAAs in March,” Lee said. “Another one was just to compete just for fun, not really having any pressure—just doing it to see how far I can go.”

Even so, Lee has found success this year, routinely placing first in individual events and leading relay teams to victory. Looking forward, she hopes that the team will be able to fill the void left by the departure of this year’s seniors and claim the Ivy League crown.

As for herself, Lee has other ambitions, including qualifying for NCAAs, having the chance to compete at next year’s Olympic trials, and simply improving every day.

But behind the fast times and record-breaking swims is a leader who has earned the respect of her teammates.

“She’s a great person to have, she has a great energy,” Sims said. “She’s really fun, she keeps things light, and then she’ll get in the water and swim really fast. I love swimming with her because it makes me want to go faster too.”

—Staff writer Isabel DeLaura can be reached at idelaura@college.harvard.edu.