COLLEGE PARK — Time will tell if Quinten Joiner is a generational athlete.
What we do know now is that he is Kent County High School’s first state champion golfer.
A 15-year-old sophomore, Joiner was head and shoulders above everyone else in Class 1A/2A with a 36-hole total of 143 — seven strokes better that his nearest challenger, Southern senior Winston Thomas.
Three others, including sophomore Evan Smith of North East of Cecil County, tied for third with a two-day total of 151.
The 1A/2A tournament was held Tuesday and Wednesday, Oct. 28 and Oct. 29 at the University of Maryland course in College Park.
Joiner had a seven-stroke lead after firing a 4-under-par 67 in the semifinal round.
Catoctin’s Callen Edmonston and Southern’s Thomas were tied for second, each carding a 3-over 74.
Joiner bogeyed his first hole on day two, and finished with a 5-over 76, but ultimately maintained the seven-stroke advantage.
What’s it feel like to be a state champion?
“It’s incredible,” Joiner told The Evening Enterprise in a telephone interview.
“It’s why you practice,” he added.
He’s only the second golfer from the Bayside Conference — which consists of all the public high schools on the Eastern Shore of Maryland — to win a state title.
Queen Anne’s County High School’s Julie Russum [now Smith] was the first, in 1994.
Last year, her son Nate Smith, a senior at QACHS, was the state runner-up.
Thomas was fifth and Joiner was sixth.
Joiner said winning a state title has been his goal since entering KCHS as a freshman in the fall of 2024.
“I felt like I stayed with my game plan,” Joiner said of this year’s tournament.
“I stayed in the moment,” he said. “I committed with every shot, and hit every shot to the best of my ability.”
Joiner’s better round of golf came on Oct. 28 in what he said were the more challenging conditions.
“The wind was blowing harder on the first day, but I was able to control the ball flight. Kept it low and out of the wind,” he said.
He brought his A game that day, “putting great with a lot of two putts and simple pars.”
How significant was it to have a seven-stroke lead after the semifinal round?
“I guess there was always the possibility I could blow it,” Joiner said matter-of-factly. “But fortunately it was an early start [for the final round], at 9 a.m., so there was not any waiting around.”
It was a shotgun start, with Joiner teeing off on No. 10.
He acknowledged that the first three holes were “not that great” — bogey on No. 10, par on No. 11 and bogey on No. 12.
Joiner birdied the par-5 No. 13, and that “kind of settled me down,” he said.
He closed out the tournament by sinking a 5-foot putt for birdie on the par-5 final hole [No. 9].
When Kent County High School held its all-sports fall assembly on Nov. 12, Joiner, who repeated as the golf team’s MVP, received a standing ovation from the 200-plus athletes, coaches, family members and friends in attendance.
The self-effacing Joiner doesn’t like to be in the spotlight, but he said the recognition from his peers was “truly amazing.”
“I’ve gotten so much support from everybody,” he said. “It’s hard to describe how amazing it is. … It’s incredible.”
