When plans for a spring athletics season were being discussed, one of the primary goals was to coordinate a Hill vs. Lawrenceville rivalry week. Typically, Hill and Lawrenceville face each other at various times in different sports throughout the spring season. However, with the traditional fall rivalry week being cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, each school coordinated a spring schedule that would see Hill and Lawrenceville meet in most sports on Wednesday, May 12 or Saturday, May 15.
Victories by Hill’s golf teams highlighted the week’s events. For the boys’ team, Hill retained the Crooked Stick for the eighth consecutive year, the longest stretch Hill has consecutively won the coveted trophy in the rivalry’s history. Dating to World War II, the Crooked Stick is an annual 18-hole, home-and-away competition in which each school hosts one, nine-hole match. At the conclusion of the second match, each school’s aggregate scores are added to determine a winner. Typically, there is at least one month between matches. This year, however, both matches occurred in a four-day span. Hill hosted the opening leg on Wednesday, May 12 and posted a four-shot victory, 211-215. Knowing it would take a strong round to defeat Lawrenceville on their home course when the teams competed in the second leg on May 15, Hill’s players rose to the occasion. Although Hill dropped the away leg of the match by one stroke, it was enough to win the aggregate score by three shots, 401-404.
Between the boys’ matches, Hill’s girls traveled to Lawrenceville on Friday, May 14 for the only head-to-head match of the season between the teams. Led by career-best rounds from co-captain Gia Seravalli ’21 and from McKay Allain ’23, Hill recorded a narrow, two-shot victory over the hosts, 160-162. Seravalli fired a 37 and Allain carded a 40, while Lulu Nakagawa ’23 continued her stellar season with a 39 and co-captain Elle Lagor ’21 rounded out Hill’s scoring with a 44.
The varsity and JV baseball, varsity softball, varsity and JV boys’ and girls’ lacrosse, and varsity, JV, and thirds boys’ tennis teams all played Lawrenceville on either Wednesday, May 12 or Saturday, May 15. Although Hill came up short in each contest, players, coaches, and spectators alike cherished the chance to participate in a spirited day of rivalry games.
The track and field and swimming teams competed against Lawrenceville earlier in the spring; due to the cancelled winter swimming season, many prep swimming programs, including Hill, opted to hold a spring training season. During the spring, Hill scheduled three virtual swim meets and one virtual diving competition.
On April 8, the track and field teams traveled to New Jersey to face Lawrenceville in the first Hill vs. Lawrenceville contest in any sport since February 2020. In the second event of the meet, the 4x100-meter relay, Hill’s quartet set a new school record, an omen of the day to come for the girls’ team. For the first time since 2001, Hill emerged victorious on the girls’ side, defeating Lawrenceville 74-66. The Hill boys competed well but fell 64-81.
Throughout the spring, head swimming coach Jay Spencer ’84 coordinated three virtual meets, the second of which came against Lawrenceville on May 6. Hill’s boys’ defeated Lawrenceville 99-78, the team’s fourth consecutive win against Lawrenceville, and the girls’ won 96-47, clinching a Hill sweep of the Big Red for the third time in four seasons.