SWIMMING
By: Tim Falls
There is a five-second rule in effect at the Lawrence High School pool.
After wins (which the Cardinals have had quite a few) or even losses (none yet) coach Chris Turnbull only lets his swimmers reflect on the outcome for a little while before getting them ready for the next meet.
The Lawrence boys and girls swim teams defeated Wall last Friday, swam for several first-place finishes in the annual Knights Relays and combined to defeat the developing Robbinsville program in a coed meet on Tuesday.
The Lawrence boys are unbeaten at 6-0 including the coed victory, while the girls stand 4-0-1.
"It’s easy to look back and be happy with what we’ve accomplished," said Turnbull, "but we have a lot of work to do."
While the win over Wall was a good out of conference experience for Lawrence, the Knights Relays showed the Cardinals what to expect from their rivals in the Colonial Valley Conference.
"It was a sobering experience," said Turnbull, noting that his girls team matched up well against West Windsor-Plainsboro North. "Our girls and their girls were going back and forth all day."
Lawrence will face the Knights in the new year, after a meet with Steinert today and participating in the Hornet Relays next Thursday. The Cardinals have won that event for the past several years.
With meets against WW-P North and South, Notre Dame and Princeton still ahead, Turnbull wants his team looking forward.
"We’ve been talking a lot about the five-second rule," said Turnbull, not referring to the widely accepted guideline concerning food dropped on the floor. The coach has tried to stress to his swimmers the importance of putting the results, good or bad, behind them and focus on their next event. "They have five seconds to reflect, but after that they have to go back to work."
The new coach has said several times he’s proud of the hard work put forth by his team and the Cardinals’ efforts are obviously paying off.
The Lawrence boys defeated Wall, 110-60, with Jordan McGrew taking the 200-meter and 500-meter freestyles, Chris Thiel winning the 200 individual medley and 100 butterfly, Ryan Shields claiming the 50 and 100 freestyles, and Ryan Schmid placing first in the 100 breaststroke as the Cardinals won all three relays.
Likewise, the Lawrence girls defeated Wall, 91-79, with winning swims by Jillian Franc (200 free), Colleen Kelly (200 IM, 100 free), Rebecca Vinch (100 fly), Lindsay Stern (500 free), Stephanie Greenfield (100 backstroke) and Katie Hector (100 breast).
"It was a good meet against a team we didn’t know much about," said Turnbull. "Their girls were a good team. We were up, 32-30, at the break and it was a good opportunity for our girls to face a difficult situation."
At the Knights Relays, which is not a scored event, Vinch and Kelly led the Lawrence girls by swimming on three first-place relays. The Cardinals won three events and placed in the top three in seven races.
Schmid, Nick Carey, Rob Mills and McGrew raced on three winning relays as the Lawrence boys won six of the 10 events and always finished in the top three of each race.
The Cardinals defeated Robbinsville, 110-60, in a coed meet, with Lindsay Stern winning the 200 free, Erica Nagy taking the 200 IM, Joe Hanko winning the 50 free, Nelson Melendez leading the 100 free, Shields winning the 500 free, Chris Kemp taking the 100 back and Pat Thiel winning the 100 breast.
"We are where we wanted to be," said Turnbull, "but we have a lot of big meets coming up."
Whatever the outcome of those meets, five seconds later Lawrence should be focusing on the next one.

