By Justin Feil, The Packet Group
Jillian Petrone returned to the Mercer County Championship finals last year in a relay for the Lawrence High School girls swim team.
The Lawrence junior’s goal this season is to return in her relays as well as an individual event.
”Definitely the main goal is to make it back for the finals on Saturday,” Petrone said. “It’s the top 12 swimmers. That’s the main goal.”
The Cardinals host the county championships, which begin today with the girls’ preliminaries. The boys’ preliminaries are Friday with the finals for both slated for Saturday, also at Lawrence.
”We’ll do better in the counties than we did in the regular season,” said Lawrence coach Mike Underwood. “People that beat us earlier, we’ll have a better outcome because we’ve come so far this year.
”We have lots and lots of fantastic athletes at Lawrence. We’re at the end of the season. They’re in swimming shape. They’ve brushed off their soccer and field hockey and fall sports.”
Petrone is a three-sport athlete for the Cardinals. She plays field hockey in the fall, swims in the winter and plays lacrosse in the spring. Whatever season she’s in is her favorite, and right now her main focus is in the pool.
”I like it because practices are challenging and meets are tough,” Petrone said. “As a team, we work hard so we can do well in counties and every dual meet.”
The county meet gives high-school season only swimmers like Petrone an opportunity to show how far they’ve come since opening the season.
”Especially the first couple meets, we’re not at our peak so it’s hard,” she said. “It gives us a chance to change where we might have lost or it might have been really close.”
Said Underwood: “It’s kind of like a transition period. It’s neat. The last regular season meet was last Tuesday. We had over a week to practice and get some final ideas going into the county meet and we’ve been tapering a bit. It’s kind of a transition period. Right after that, hopefully our team qualifies for states. We’ll focus on the county meet, then go right into states.”
Petrone has seen improvement at each of her first county meets. She is expecting even bigger things this year as she competes in the 50 freestyle, 100 butterfly, and 200 and 400 freestyle relays today.
”I think it’s because of the excitement of the meet,” she said. “Everyone is excited to swim. There’s so much more competition than every other dual meet.”
Last year, she returned as part of the Cardinals medley relay to win the consolation final. Underwood thinks that Petrone will do even better this year.
”I think she absolutely will,” he said. “From last year to this year, I think she’ll definitely be coming back for butterfly. A goal of hers is to be top 6. I know she wants to be in the top 12 and come back. She’s such a hard worker, top six is not an unreasonable thing to happen for her.”
Doing so would help her stay on track in improving each season. Experience, too, should make her a stronger candidate for finals.
”It definitely makes it easier,” Petrone said. ‘You know what to expect from the race days and you’re not as nervous going into it as that first year.
”My times are much better from freshman to sophomore year. And even from last year to this year, my times are better. I’m hoping to drop more time.”
In addition to her individual events, Petrone takes on some new relay events at counties. She will swim both of the sprint relays this season.
”I feel pretty confident about them,” Petrone said. “I wasn’t on either of those last year. I haven’t been swimming the 200 relay this year, so I don’t know where we stand with other teams. The 400 relay, we’ve been working hard and doing well in that.”
Petrone figures to have plenty of support from her teammates. Lawrence is looking to surprise some teams at the MCC.
”I think we’ll do well in our sprint freestyle,” Underwood said. “I think Caroline Kelly will have a good meet along with Jillian Petrone. Jillian is going to do well in her 100 butterfly. Caitlin Lavery, a freshman, is in the IM and breaststroke. Also, Katie Hector, she always rises to any occasion thrown at her. She’s doing the 200 freestyle and 100 freestyle. Those four will have a good tournament. The other girls have been working hard. Anything I ask them do, they’re willing to do it.”
All Underwood is asking now is their best effort in the biggest meet of the season to date. Jillian Petrone hopes her best is enough to land her back in the finals — in more than one event this year.
