At last year’s sectional meet, Lexi Wallman was relegated to the role of cheerleader, supporting her Center Grove teammates from poolside.
She’ll be back in the water this week, competing in what might be her final race.
Wallman, who missed her entire junior swim season after crushing her left elbow in a four-wheeling accident in July of 2016, has worked her way back into the Trojans’ lineup this winter and will swim the 100-yard butterfly at the Franklin Sectional.
She’s not expecting to win — “top eight would be great,” she said — but the fact that Wallman was even able to make it back to this point at all has been inspirational.
“Looking at the scars on her elbow, it’s amazing she’s even in the water,” Center Grove coach Jim Todd said.
Wallman’s road to recovery was a long one. She recalls finally returning to practices last year and being adamant about swimming in her old lane instead of moving to a slower one.
“For a couple of months I would get lapped, and that was the hard part,” Wallman said, “but I think toward our hell week, toward the December part, it was kind of like, ‘This is probably where I would have been my junior year,’ and that was good for me.”
Her times have stayed fairly consistent through the season — Wallman placed 14th at the Johnson County meet with a time of 1:11.15, and her best times are about a second lower than that. She’s confident that she can make a significant drop this postseason and maybe even get into Saturday’s final.
Wallman always felt like she was part of the team when she was sidelined, but that feeling is much more real now that she’s been able to complete an extremely challenging comeback and make a contribution in the water.
No matter how she finishes this week, Wallman has already won.
“We’re just looking for her to have the best time for her this season; I think that would make her happy,” Todd said. “If she could do that, all of this training and pain and everything, hopefully for a few minutes it’ll go away.”
