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‘Senior Six’ help power LHS girls’ swim team BY RICH FISHER
Lawrence resident Shiranie Perera and her husband, Priyantha, at Songbird Capital in Princeton, which is hosting an exhibition of her paintings. (Staff photo by Rebekah Schroeder.)
Lawrence artist’s paintings shine at area exhibition BY REBEKAH SCHROEDER
The sensation of waking up to see rays of light streaming in from the outside can start your day with an equal glow of positivity. But when the wintry weather does not want to cooperate, or if you happen to pass a wall before a window, rise and shine to a painting with a sunny disposition that brings warmth to those colder, earlier hours of the morning.
Self-taught artist Shiranie Perera creates acrylic paintings with intense, emotive hues in the form of sunsets or abstract patterns. Her piece “Hiru Sevaya,” Sinhala for “sun rise,” melts from oranges and yellows into a sea of red, the rippling waves reflecting color in the sky. “I don’t use too many dull colors. I want people to be uplifted by looking at a painting. That’s my idea—if you want to get up in the morning
and you see a nice piece, you feel good about it,” Perera said, reinforcing that feeling with similar compositions in her own bedroom. Perera, who is originally from Sri Lanka, spent roughly 25 years living in Princeton before recently moving to Lawrenceville, where she now has her own studio and gallery at 21 Craven Lane. “Shirankala” is the permanent home for all of Perera’s 100-plus paintsee PERERA, Page 2
From guppies come sailfish. At least that’s what Lawrence High girls swim coach Hillary Hargraves-Dix is hoping. Oh, and for those who are not marine biologists, the sailfish is the world’s fastest. In 2019-20 the Cardinals had a strong nucleus of freshmen and their coach couldn’t help but dream of big things if they remained together for all four years of high school. They have done just that, and Hargraves-Dix is hoping to reap the dividends and build on last season’s 8-4 record that included a win in the NJSIAA Group B quarterfinal. The Cardinals return every swimmer from last year and, combined with incoming freshmen, have a 24-girl roster—the largest in Hargraves-Dix’s five seasons at the helm. Leading the way are seniors Emerson Dalton, Riley Burns, Alexandra Cherry, Richa Sharma, Megan Simpson and Kate Sullivan. “I’m so excited that this is their senior year,” Hargraves-Dix said. “We’re the biggest we’ve ever been, and they’re our leaders given the situation last year, when they had to lead because we didn’t have any seniors.” She added: “Individually they’ve all grown so much. Freshman year they would never swim the breast, now they’re swimming the breast all the time. Riley was never a distance
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swimmer, now she loves the 400 free. It’s been cool to see them grow from freshmen to seniors. Now they have their own niche, and I’m looking forward to seeing what they do in their final season.” As are the swimmers themselves. Simpson feels her senior class has been a productive work in progress and have grown together. “We’re really close,” she said. “I remember freshman year it was new for us, but going into that year we were kind of saying it was a building year, an adjustment for our team. We built off that throughout our career and this year we’re really strong.” The results could be seen early this season, as Lawrence carried a 3-0 mark into its Dec. 16 meet with Hamilton; and had first place finishes in 27 of the 33 events that were held. Their closest win was by 22 points over West Windsor-Plainsboro High School North on opening day. Leading the way is Dalton, who returns as the two-time recipient of Swimmer of the Meet at the Mercer County Championships. Dalton is the first female swimmer going to a Division 1 school under HargravesDix, as she is committed to the University of North Carolina-Wilmington. Last year she swam a school and meet record of 4:23.49 in winning the 400 freestyle. The meet time broke an 11-year-old mark. She also won the MCT 200 freesee sWiM, Page 5
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