Pirates junior has improved plenty
By Justin Feil, Assistant Sports Editor
Grant Lee comes into the Mercer County Championships a far better swimmer with much higher goals than his first two seasons.
”Last year, my goals were just to make it back to consolation finals,” said the West Windsor-Plainsboro South junior. “This year, I’m hoping to make it back to finals in all of my races.”
The boys preliminaries are scheduled for today at Lawrence High with the finals scheduled to begin Saturday for both boys and girls, who were scheduled to swim preliminaries Thursday.
”I do feel a lot more pressure going into the counties,” Lee said. “I’m a much bigger swimmer for the team now.”
Lee has been a consistent scorer for the Pirates in the 200 freestyle and the 100 backstroke as well as the 400 free relay. He is hoping that he’ll be a big scorer at the county meet.
”There’s a lot of good 200 free guys,” Lee said. “I might do the 400 free. I’m still not sure yet. I just want to make it back to finals in whatever I swim and get as many points as I can.”
Lee is better equipped to score big points for the Pirates this season, which he can provide in any event he swims.
”This has definitely been a breakthrough year for him,” said Pirates head coach Paul Hamnett. “He’s stepped up in his role for the team. He’s competing for a spot in the A relays as well.”
Lee came into the season knowing that he was far improved. It started in the summer with a big finish to the long course season that reaffirmed that he was ready to take a big leap.
”Definitely my new club team has helped me a lot,” said Lee of joining Tigers Aquatics this year. “And how much I practice and how hard I practice. I did have the sense that I’d be a lot better than I was last year.”
With his improvements have come higher expectations, but Lee isn’t backing away from them.
”The pressure does help sometimes,” he said. “Sometimes it helps me go faster and gets me pumped up for important races.
”I’ve definitely been trying as hard as I can in the races I’ve swam. I’m trying to get as many points as I can.”
The Pirates will need them in another tough county competition. Notre Dame is the defending boys champion, but it is Princeton High that is the favorite after an unbeaten regular season in the Colonial Valley Conference. WW-P South lost only to the Little Tigers in the CVC, and they’re looking for a big meet.
”We’ve had a couple weeks where haven’t been challenged,” Hamnett said. “It’s been a couple weeks since the Pirate and Princeton meet. It’ll be interesting to see how we do. Training has been interrupted by the weather. It’ll be how pumped our guys get and how ready they are to compete.
”Pennington also has some top guys. They’ll be in there in the relays. I don’t know about Pennington’s depth. We’re hoping to finish second. We know Notre Dame is always great at counties. We know Pennington has good swimmers. Our goal is the top three.”
WW-P South finished third last season, nine points ahead of Pennington. An improved Lee gives the Pirates the chance to be even better this year after he took a bigger step than anyone could have predicted.
”He’s really kind of stepped it up,” Hamnett said. “He went from an outside lane swimmer to now he’s our middle lane 200 freestyler. He’s come through for us in some big meets for us. Against North and Notre Dame, he had some big finishes to pick up some key points.
”The biggest thing is his training. He came in as a high school only swimmer. He wasn’t sure of his abilities. He’s really worked very hard to get where he’s at. Getting bigger and stronger has something to it. He has size 14 feet, and I don’t think he’s done growing. I fully expect him to be one of the top swimmers in the CVC next year. He’s on the fringe of becoming a really high caliber swimmer.”
Grant Lee will have his chance today and Saturday to show how far he has come in the county, and he will have the chance next season to build on his breakthrough.
”Last year, I was definitely happy with my progress,” Lee said. “This year, I’m much happier. It’s a much bigger jump.
”If I can continue making this progress,” Lee said, “that’d be really good.”