Lawrence swimming
By: Jim Green
What a difference two years can make.
Two years ago, the Lawrence High School boys swimming team was beaten by Nottingham for the second straight season. Last year, the Cardinals began to take back the upper hand in the rivalry, topping the Northstars 102-68 in a competitive meet. On Tuesday, the Cardinals put the rivalry to bed, taking nine events on the way to a 126-44 victory over the Northstars. The Lawrence boys are now 7-0.
"It’s amazing when you think that they beat us two years ago, and last year we had a very competitive meet," Lawrence coach Dean Mason said. "We definitely have more depth this year than we’ve had the last couple years."
Josh Rosenbluth won the 200-meter individual medley (2:18.79) and the 100 butterfly (59.67), and Jordan McGrew took the 50 freestyle (25.92) and 100 freestyle (57.71) to lead the way. Other Lawrence wins came from Ben Lookner in the 500 freestyle (5:59.48) and Steve Goldberg in the 100 breaststroke, and Lawrence swept the relays.
"I thought it might be a little tighter," Mason said. "We had a lot of good swims today. Our kids are taking advantage of their swims."
Nottingham’s Vince Bartolone won the second event, the 200 freestyle, in 2:08.34 to pull the Northstars within eight points of the Cardinals. But it would be all Lawrence from there, as the Cardinals won the next six events and took second in five of those six.
The girls team, meanwhile, continued its domination of Nottingham, improving to 5-2 with a 132-38 victory. The Cardinals won all 11 races, with individual wins coming from Kim Greenfield in the 200 freestyle (2:21.06), Jillian Franc in the 200 individual medley (2:42.15), Julia Senerth in the 50 freestyle (31.00), Maddie Emde in the 100 butterfly (1:13.47), Emily Steiner in the 100 freestyle (1:09.60), Lindsay Stern in the 500 freestyle (6:27.77), Julia Wrobel in the 100 backstroke (1:21.38) and Katelyn Fecak in the 100 breaststroke (1:24.30).
Last week, Lawrence had a preview of Nottingham during its dominant performance at Hamilton’s Hornet Relays. The Lawrence boys again provided the highlight, winning all eight events and setting three meet records on the way to racking up 112 team points to easily outdistance second-place Notre Dame (70).
"This year, we decided to go for some meet records," Mason said.
Jordan Hawthorne, Goldberg, Rosenbluth and McGrew teamed to set the record in the 400-meter medley relay (4:21.80), while Chris Thiel joined Hawthorne, McGrew and Rosenbluth on the record-breaking 4×100 individual medley (4:37.12) team, and Eric Hoover, Nick Carey, Thiel and McGrew broke Lawrence’s own record set in 2000 in the 200 freestyle relay with a time of 1:46.03.
Hoover, Lookner, J.P. Kelly and Owen Henn formed the winning crescendo freestyle relay team (8:24.08); Thiel, Ryan Shields, Brendan O’Brien and Neal Martorelli claimed the 4×50 butterfly (2:07.81); Kelly, Henn, Lookner and Rosenbluth combined to take the 4×200 freestyle (8:33.40); Hawthorne, O’Brien, Carey and Josh Rosen won the 4×50 backstroke (2:08.60); and Eric Einstein, Darion Smalls, Ryan Schmid and Goldberg captured the 4×50 breaststroke (2:20.87).
The girls team also swept the meet for 112 points, beating out the Fighting Irish, who had 76. Lawrence’s wins came from Stern, Steiner, Emde and Wrobel in the 400 medley relay (4:57.75); Senerth, Erica Nagy, Fecak and Steiner in the 4×100 individual medley (5:10.30); Rebecca Vinch, Wrobel, Greenfield and Franc in the crescendo freestyle relay (8:59.65); Allison Webber, Nagy, Fecak and Emde in the 4×50 butterfly (2:19.42); Greenfield, Shannon Kemp, Stern and Franc in the 4×200 (9:43.57); Bradleigh Stearns, Nagy, Senerth and Stern in the 4×50 backstroke (2:25.57); Steiner, Nancy Zeng, Fecak and Senerth in the 4×50 breaststroke (2:37.17); Greenfield, Emde, Franc and Wrobel in the 200 freestyle relay (2:02.11).

