June 11, 2012

USA Water Polo Hall of Fame announcement

STANFORD, Calif. - Two-time Olympic medalist and former Stanford All-American Ellen Estes Lee '02 was elected to the USA Water Polo Hall of Fame as part of the Class of 2012.

Estes Lee is joined by Bill Brown and Margo Miranda in the Class of 2012. The trio will be formally inducted at a benefit dinner in Los Angeles on July 7.

At Stanford, Estes Lee was a four-time All-American over a career that spanned six years. Following the 1998 season, in which she scored 93 goals, Estes Lee redshirted the 1999 and 2000 seasons to train with the U.S. National Team, then returned to The Farm for her final two season from 2001-02.

She scored 214 career goals for the Cardinal, highlighted by the 93 in 1998. Estes Lee was co-captain of Stanford's 2001 and 2002 teams, playing a key role in the Cardinal winning its first NCAA championship in 2002. She scored twice in the Cardinal's 8-4 title-game victory over UCLA.

With the U.S. Senior National Team from 1999-2004, Estes Lee played in a pair of Olympics earning silver and bronze medals at the 2000 Sydney Games and the 2004 Athens Games, respectively.

In 2003 she was a member of two gold medal-winning U.S. squads, helping the Americans to the FINA World Championship and Pan-American Games titles.

Estes Lee also played for the U.S. at a pair of FINA World Cups, finishing sixth in 1999 and capturing the silver medal in 2002. She also earned Pan-Am Games silver with the U.S. in 1999.

Following the end of her national team career, Estes Lee put her mechanical engineering degree to use for Boeing before attending Harvard Business School. While at Harvard, she stayed involved in water polo by serving as an assistant coach for the Crimson men's and women's teams before graduation in 2009.

Inductees were chosen through a process that included open nominations by their peers, evaluation of their candidacy by the USA Water Polo Hall of Fame Committee, and final ratification of the committee's recommendations by the USA Water Polo Board of Directors. The Committee is co-chaired by Brent Bohlender and Chris Dorst, and includes Jody Campbell, Dion Gray, Maggie Kelly, Charles Schroeder and Scott Schulte. USA Water Polo inducted its first Hall of Fame class in 1976.