Swimming Through Life

Athletics Hall of Fame
Blaise Wittenauer-Lee, '17
Women's Swimming
College of Arts and Sciences 

Many accomplished athletes usually first discover what would become their signature sport during their formative years. It could be the soccer player that took to the pitch with aplomb during a youth summer camp or the baseball player whose origin story began on a field playing t-ball.

Such was the case of swimmer Blaise Wittenauer-Lee, who took to the water naturally and before the age of 6 was swimming competitively. It was a fate that seemed preordained considering she grew up in what she describes as a “big swimming family” and as the youngest of five, she witnessed her siblings take the sport seriously.

That love of swimming continued through middle and high school and into college, earning Wittenauer-Lee an athletics scholarship to Seattle University. During her four years on the swim team, she racked up a slew of record-breaking swims, feats that also seemed to be predestined. 

“In high school I started to set some pretty lofty goals for myself,” says Wittenauer-Lee, a 2017 graduate in social work who today is a Medical and Psychiatric Social Worker at the University of Washington.

For her talent and dedication to the sport, Wittenauer-Lee is one of the newest inductees into the Athletics Hall of Fame, a reverent nod to her groundbreaking career as a Redhawk.

“Swimming is always something that made me happy and it’s the longest relationship I ever had,” she says, with a laugh. And for the past three years she has been a swim coach at Lakeside High School, making it a priority in her life. “Everything has to be scheduled around this. It fills my cup.”

Originally from Portland, Wittenauer-Lee went to a Jesuit high school and was looking for a college that aligned with her values, where she could also swim and not be too far from home. She found in Seattle University these must-haves and more.

“Primarily I wanted to swim and get a good education. And through the recruiting process I got to know the coaches and I liked that the swim team was co-ed as well,” says Wittenauer-Lee, who also met her future husband, Ben Nussbaum, ’18, who was a teammate. 

Her success in the sport was evident in the SU pool and beyond. Like in 2016 when, as a junior, she had a once-in-a-lifetime experience when she qualified for the Olympic trials. That, too, seemed to be something that Wittenauer-Lee manifested as she recalls one day tacking a Post-It note on her bedroom door with a declarative statement to make it to the Olympic trials—in 2016. 

At SU she was five-time Western Athletic Conference (WAC) champion and holds five individual school records, including in the 200 freestyle, 100 breaststroke, 200 breaststroke, 200 IM and 400 IM along with two relay records. All told, she ranks in SU’s Top 8 in 13 of 20 possible events.

Wittenauer-Lee also earned an Academic All-WAC award, received an honorable mention as a College Swimming and Diving Coaches Association of America Scholar All-American, was named WAC Female Swimmer of the Year, Seattle University Female Athlete of the Year and was a nominee for NCAA Woman of the Year.

And she became the first SU women’s swimmer to qualify for the NCAA Division I Championships and set a conference record for the 200 breaststroke at the WAC Championships.

“The experience at SU was really all I could have asked for as a swimmer at the college level. … I knew I had four years to really give it my all, to really enjoy swimming and reach my goals,” says Wittenauer-Lee, who considers the conference meets her most memorable and “where the magic happens.”

With an athletic career full of high points, the standout for Wittenauer-Lee was when she set the record—not only a school record but also a conference record—in the 200 breaststroke, qualifying for the NCAA Championship meet. And she did it surrounded by teammates and her family, making the experience all the more sweet. 

“I remember this race. I was so happy, confident, feeling really good. Everyone was screaming so I knew I had done something crazy. I wanted (my time to be) 2:09 and seeing that number was insane,” she recalls. “My boyfriend at the time, now my husband, was up on the (swimming) block and he was crying. I had worked so hard, all these people who worked so hard, on the team. It was definitely a high note for us all.”

When she wasn’t smashing it in the pool Wittenauer-Lee was working hard in the classroom, deciding to major in social work after she took her first introduction course coupled with an interest in a profession where she could work with people. Following graduation from SU she earned a master’s from the University of Washington in 2020 and immediately went to work at Evergreen Hospital before joining the UW Medical Center in 2023.

“For a while I was thinking I’d go into medicine, to be a doctor or a nurse. I really liked the idea to be able to help people in a medical setting and be there for them on their worst day.”

And what does it mean for Wittenauer-Lee to be the newest inductee into the SU Athletics Hall of Fame?

“It means the world to me. I feel like Seattle University changed my life,” she says, “and it’s really cool to know that I left an impact on the university and on the swim program. It gave me so much joy, happiness, confidence. And I met my husband there and made lifelong friends.”