April 21, 2011 at 9:53 a.m.
Although there were plenty of schools interested in Lee's talents in the pool -- the University of Connecticut, Lehigh University, University of Nebraska, Washington State University of the University of Wisconsin were among Lee's official and unofficial visits -- she settled on the 50,000 student public college for a variety of reasons. "After spending the weekend with the team on campus, it felt like a good fit for me," she said. "I felt like my rapport with the team was best at Rutgers. They have a great swim facility and they have a couple of fast distance swimmers for me to train with."
She also noted that she liked the urban campus that Rutgers provides, and that when she wants to be a tourist, she is within an hour and a half of both New York City and Philadelphia.
It also came down to the type of offer that the Scarlet Knights made to Lee. "They made me an offer I couldn't refuse with a combination of athletic and academic scholarships," she mentioned. "I'm looking forward to focusing my attention on studying and training and not worrying about financial aid."
Lee, whose Wildcat career included a ninth, seventh and fourth place finish in the 200 freestyle and one fifth and two thirds in the 500 freestyle, is the first girl under Head Coach Ed Wakefield's direction to go onto Division I swimming.
"I'd like to thank my coaches, teammates, family and friends who have supported me during my high school career," Lee said. "There have been a lot of days when I wondered if all the hard work was worth it, but today wasn't one of them."
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