Cardinals swim for a pair of wins

SWIMMING

By Tim Falls, Sports Editor
   The Lawrence High School swim teams rebounded from a tough opening loss with convincing wins over Lenape and Hamilton West.
   While Lawrence lost to the West Windsor-Plainsboro North boys and girls teams in the opening meet of the Colonial Valley Conference, the Cardinals came back quickly with strong swims against Lenape in a non-league meet.
   The Lawrence boys defeated Lenape, 117-53, while the Lawrence girls won, 107-63.
   ”Jordan McGrew and Ryan Shields were double winners,” said Lawrence coach Mike Underwood. “Brendan O’Brien and Pat Thiel also had very good swims.”
   Caroline Kelly and Katie Hector each swam for two individual first-place finishes against Lenape for the Lawrence girls.
   Both Cardinal swim teams won, 110-60 over Hamilton on Tuesday.
   ”Both of these wins helped our confidence quite a bit,” said Underwood. “We’re starting to swim where we should be.”
   Against Hamilton, Underwood said McGrew and Shields had strong swims for the Lawrence boys, while Rebecca Vinch represented the Lawrence girls rather well.
   ”Erica Nagy swam really well,” said Underwood. “She won the 500 and her times in her other events were good as well.”
   The Lawrence boys, the defending Mercer County Champions, suffered a close loss to WW-P North last Tuesday.
   ”It kind of shocked us,’ said Underwood. “It shocked us positively. It motivated us. We realized how we need to work.”
   Lawrence swims longtime rival Nottingham today (Thursday). The meets have gone the Cardinals’ way the past few seasons, but the two boys’ teams have history of close competition and the Northstars have been improving.
   ”It’s going to be competitive,” said Underwood. “Nottingham has gotten stronger over the past couple years. We’re going to go out and do our best, continue to swim hard and get personal bests.”
   One key to Lawrence’s success in close meets this season, will be the points the younger swimmers provide.
   ”Our younger swimmers have been contributing more and more the past couple meets,” said Underwood. “It makes you a more lethal team when you have a lot of swimmers contributing rather than relying on one or two superstars.”
   While the opening loss may have shocked Lawrence into working harder, Underwood also credited his assistant coaches, Stacey Garcia, Shannon Lauffert and Chris Turnbull for getting more from the swimmers.
   ”I’ve very proud of how the kids hard work at practice,” said Underwood. “I greatly appreciate the help I’m getting from Stacey Shannon and Chris. I could not do what I’m doing without them.”