Lawrence swimming
By: Jim Green
The Lawrence High School swimming teams simply are looking to maintain the status quo until their big showdown Jan. 27 with West Windsor-Plainsboro South.
As it does most years, that meet likely will decide the winner of the Colonial Valley Conference Colonial Division on both the boys and girls sides.
"I’m trying not to look ahead to early," Lawrence coach Dean Mason said. "January 27 is a big date for is. We’ll be ready when the time comes."
In the meantime, the Cardinals have plenty of other CVC opponents to dispatch of. On Tuesday, they traveled to Steinert and took care of business, with the boys team winning 125-45 and the girls team cruising 108-62.
"Things are going really well for us," Mason said. "Our kids are really motivated. They’re working hard. We’re kind of going through the stretch run of January."
The Cardinal boys again exerted their dominance over an opponent, taking 10 of 11 events from Steinert. Individual wins came form Tomasz Modzlenski in the 200-yard freestyle, Jordan McGrew in the 200 individual medley, Ben Lookner in the 50 freestyle, Brendan O’Brien in the 100 butterfly, Josh Rosenbluth in the 100 freestyle, Jordan Hawthorne in the 500 freestyle and Eric Hoover in the 100 backstroke. Lawrence also swept the relays.
The girls squad captured eight first places, with individual victories coming from Julia Senerth in the 200 freestyle, Emily Steiner in the 200 individual medley, Julia Wrobel in the 50 freestyle, Maddie Emde in the 100 butterfly, Bradleigh Stearns in the 100 backstroke and Nancy Zeng in the 100 breaststroke.
"When we swim against a team like Steinert, we give them one individual event and two relays," Mason said. "It lets some other people swim and get some experience."
The Lawrence boys are 9-0 overall and 7-0 in the CVC, while the girls are 7-2 overall and 6-1 in the CVC.
"I’m really happy with both of our teams," Mason said. "They’re both really focused."
The Cardinals will host Hopewell Valley at 3:45 p.m. Thursday and North Brunswick at 3:45 p.m. Tuesday before visiting West Windsor-Plainsboro North on Jan. 20.
"Hopewell will be something of a challenge for our girls, and North Brunswick is usually pretty good," Mason said.
But if the Cardinals can’t help but look ahead to Jan. 27, it would be difficult to blame them.
"When the 27th comes along, I’m going to see a tremendous effort from our boys, and I’m hoping the girls can make that same effort," Mason said. "Our goal is to get a piece or all of that Colonial Division crown. That’s something that’s not easy to do with West Windsor in your division. It gets a little frustrating coming so close but getting beaten by them every year. Hopefully, this year, it’ll be different."

