McKee broke his collarbone during the offseason while surfing and had to undergo surgery to have two metal plates implanted, coach Dennis Pursley said.
“Anton is currently out of the water,” he said. “He’s rehabbing and progressing well, but it’ll be a while before he gets back in the pool.”
McKee placed 4th in NCAA breaststroke last season and 14th in the 100 breaststroke. McKee was one of two freshmen to score in the NCAA 200 breaststroke finals. McKee’s SEC Championship race also set the conference record for the 200 breaststroke, an achievement made all the more extraordinary by his relative inexperience. When he was recruited, McKee was an Olympian in the 1500 freestyle and hadn’t trained in the breaststroke.
“I started swimming breaststroke the year before I came here, but I didn’t really train it,” McKee said. “I knew I had some potential, but with those times, I didn’t expect anything until senior year, [when] I exceeded all of my goals.”
Pursley said he expects McKee to be able to compete for the SEC Championship when he finishes his rehabilitation.
“He has a little bump in the road, but hopefully by the end of the season he’ll be back on top,” he said.
Pursley said the meet will be a deciding factor in the team’s long-term season plan.
“Everything we do every day, our focus is on the championship meets at the end of the season,” he said. “It’s the first opportunity to see our freshmen in competition. It’s kind of a multipurpose competition. It’s a good starting point to let us see where we are and help better prepare us for the meets to follow.”
Pursley said he has high hopes for this year’s 10 incoming freshmen and has seen improvement in them already.
“The freshmen have gelled very well with the program,” he said. “They all are responding in a way that we would like to see them respond, and it takes time for them to adapt and adjust a new training program.”
He said he expects the team to continue to improve and be even more successful this year. The team registered its highest finishes in a decade at the SEC and NCAA championships.
“There’s no question that last year was kind of the break out year for us,” Pursley said. “We want to prove that last year wasn’t a fluke, that this is just the beginning of sustained progress. We want to carry the momentum forward. I think there’s more energy, more excitement, more enthusiasm coming off a successful championship season.”
