Shauna Lee, a top-flight freestyler from Great Britain, has committed to swim for the Georgia Bulldogs.
Lee is currently training with Plymouth Leander Swim Club, and has also trained for the Hatfield Swimming Club; both well-known clubs in Great Britain. In 2011, she was a silver medalist at the Commonwealth Youth Games as a member of the 4×100 meter freestyle relay; she also made an appearance in the championship final of the 100 meter freestyle, where she placed sixth overall.
She ranks 16th all-time in British Swimming history in the 200 free in long course, and 13th in the 100 free.
Best Times (LCM/converted SCY)
50 free – 26.21/22.89
100 free – 55.35/48.42
200 free – 1:59.37/1:44.65
400 free – 4:16.48/4:47.37
100 fly – 1:01.59/54.22
Lee is ecstatic about her upcoming opportunities at Georgia and living in the United States.
“It’s just something I have wanted to do since I was young and to finally have the opportunity is amazing,” she said. “This way I can keep up my education and keep progressing in my swimming, so following in my dad’s footsteps and leaping across the pond.”
Her father, Kevin Lee, swam at the University of Houston and competed at the 1980 Moscow Olympics.
Lee is primed to have a huge impact on Georgia. The 2015 NCAA team title runners-up Bulldogs have been the NCAA’s best women’s middle-distance program in the last decade, and Lee’s converted times fit into the type of Megan Romano/Allison Schmitt mold that they’ve had so much success with. In an off-year for Georgia’s 2014 star Brittany MacLean, the Bulldogs only had two A finalists and one B finalist at the 2015 SEC Championships in the 200 free. Lee’s converted time of 1:44.65 would have won that A final last year. Her converted time in the 100 free would have placed 4th at SECs, too.
Of course, one cannot simply take a converted time and assume that a swimmer will be able to repeat such success in a different length pool. However, there is no denying the talent and international experience that Lee brings to the Bulldogs program. Georgia won last season’s SEC titles in both 400 and 800 free relays, and they followed that up with third place finishes at NCAAs in each. With the graduations of 400 free relay members Lauren Harrington and Maddie Locus, along with 800 free relay members Amber McDermott and Jordan Mattern, Lee’s arrival to Athens is very well timed.
She’ll join Caitlin Casazza and Sam Fazio in the incoming freshman class for Georgia, in what has been a relatively small class for Jack Bauerle after a big group the year prior.
Lee will turn 20 in September, shortly after arriving in the United States in August.
As her uncle I have watched her train hard, very hard over the years and I’m so proud of her as she enters the next stage where I know she will do well…..go you beast!