LEE DAVIS, YOUTHFUL RECORD SMASHER
Dearborn Youngster Has Broken 10 State Marks
Lee Davis is a pretty 12-year-old miss who will bear
watching when trials
are held for the 1964 Olympic swimming team.
Since last fall the Dearborn Township youngster has
broken 10 state
records in the 11-12 age group. The only event to escape her onslaught
has been the breaststroke. She also has set five records in Ohio meets.
An all-A student at the Haston grade school, the
5-foot-3, 110 pound
swimmer is a member of the Patton Pool team and is coached by Harry
Hauck.
Her father is an accountant with General Motors.
Her phenomenal achievements in the pool prompted her
to challenge the
unlimited age group in a mile swim final for girls over the weekend at
Patton. The result was slightly surprising, too.
Lee bettered her own 24:42 record for the
11-12-year-old bracket by
2:12 with a clocking of 22:30 that spelled a second-place finish to
16-year-old
Lynn Makkonen, also of Patton. Lynn's sister, Joan, 14, was third in
23:02.
The former 14-15 year age mark was 23:55 by Laura Frost. Other
finishers
were Peggy Wirth, of Turners; Debbie Davis, of the Women's City Club;
and
Cynthia Osgood, of Turners.
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Sue Thrasher, of the Ann Arbor Swim Club, who won
the event a year ago
with a state record clocking of 21:57.4, did not compete.
In other age bracket competition at Patton, Miss
Frost, 14, took the
13-14 age mile in 25:15 and her Patton teammate Bonnie Danboise, 12,
paced
the 11-12 age mile in 26:38. Flint's Susan Easter topped the
10-and-under
event in 28:50.
Next Sunday Miss Davis will team up with the Makkonen
sisters and Mary
Abbey in the national junior 200-yard medley relay at Flint. Lynn will
swim the backstroke leg, Miss Abbey the breaststroke, Lee the butterfly
and Joan the freestyle.
Last summer in a mile swim at Huntington, Ind., Miss
Davis bested 73
other girls in her age group with a 25:58, only slightly slower than
her
sharp bid Sunday.
Lee, who will be 13 in April and 15 when the Olympic
trials are held
in 1964, never misses a day of practice. She swims twice on those
Saturdays
when no meets are held. She seldom swims less than two miles a
day.
Her state records are in the 50 (28.1), 100 (102.1),
and 200-yard (2:18.8)
freestyle; the 50 (33.8) and 100-yard (1:15.3) backstroke; the 50
(30.6)
and 100-yard (1:12.2) butterfly, and the 100 (1:20) and 200-yard (2:39)
individual medley.
FIVE-FOOT-THREE, LEE DAVIS IS A MEMBER
OF THE PATTON POOLTEAM |