ANNAPOLIS — Kent County High School junior Tucker Ervin has added to his recent medal haul, following up a pair of second-place silver medal finishes in the Bayside Conference swim meet the week before to a gold medal first at the state-qualifying Class 1A-2A-3A East Region meet Feb. 14 at the Arundel Swim Center.
As the gold medalist in the 100-yard freestyle, Ervin automatically punched his ticket to the 1A-2A-3A state championships Saturday, Feb. 21 at the University of Maryland.
He also is an automatic qualifier as the third-place finisher in the 100 breaststroke.
Also headed to College Park as automatic qualifiers are senior Mary Jane Joiner, who was second in the 100 butterfly and third in the 200 free; senior Lynden Saunders, who was second in the 100 fly; and Ervin, Saunders, senior Andy Messick and junior Nate Sutton in the 200 medley and free relays.
Plus, Saunders qualified by time in the 500 free, as did the girls 400 free relay of Joiner and underclassmen Lyric Frase, Emi Karlik and Brenna Thorpe.
According to the KCHS coaches, Ervin, Joiner and Saunders would have qualified on their times even if they had not placed high enough as automatic qualifiers.
“It was a great meet for our swimmers. Almost everyone had one or two personal-best times,” coaches Grayson Wise and Jane Joiner said.
Ervin dropped more than a full second off his seed time to win the 100 free in a PR of 51.85 seconds.
He attributed his championship swim to hard work in the pool and on dry land, while acknowledging that he is “bigger and stronger” as a 17-year-old than he was as a freshman and sophomore.
Ervin’s winning time was nearly a full second faster than runner-up Jacob Demarest of team champion Stephen Decatur.
All three of Kent’s relays posted their best times of the season, while seven swimmers in individual events had their best-ever times. Karlik showed the biggest improvement, dropping nearly 4 seconds off her seed time in the 100 breaststroke from 1 minute, 33.44 seconds to 1:29.16. The girls 400 free relay took more than 7 seconds off its seed time, from 4:51.34 to 4:43.92.
The top three place-finishers in every event in each of the four regions automatically advance to states Feb. 21.
Also, individuals and relays who in their region meet final have the top 12 times statewide — excluding automatic qualifiers — also advance to fill out the field of 24 competitors for each event.
Printed below are complete results for the Trojans. Personal-best times are noted in bold. Also noted are top 10 place-finishes.
In the team scoring, Kent County’s boys placed fourth. Stephen Decatur led the way with 363 points. Chesapeake (257) was second and Southern (200) was third. Then came KCHS (177) and Baltimore City College (137) to round out the top five.
On the girls side, Stephen Decatur edged Easton, 392-348, for the team championship. Chesapeake (250), City College (216) and Northeast (154) placed third, fourth and fifth, respectively. KCHS’ small team of four girls totaled 100 points to finish just behind Southern with 103 points.
The 1A-2A-3A East Region includes Eastern Shore rivals Cambridge, Easton, Kent, Pocomoke and Stephen Decatur; Chesapeake, Northeast and Southern of Anne Arundel County; and City College, Carver Vo-Tech, Forest Park, Frederick Douglass, Patterson, Dunbar and Southwestern of Baltimore City.
GIRLS
200 freestyle: Mary Jane Joiner, 2:12.29, third.
50 free: Emi Karlik, 31.59, 10th; and Lyric Frase, 32.80.
100 butterfly: Joiner, 1:08.12, second.
100 free: Brenna Thorpe, 1:15.00; and Frase, 1:15.71.
100 backstroke: Thorpe, 1:31.81, ninth.
100 breaststroke: Karlik, 1:29.16, ninth.
400 free relay of Joiner, Thorpe, Karlik and Frase, 4:43.92, fifth.
BOYS
200 medley relay of Tucker Ervin, Andy Messick, Lynden Saunders and Nate Sutton, 1:58.50, third.
200 freestyle: Messick, 2:18.13, fourth.
50 free: Sutton, 29.52; and Colin Fry, 29.85.
100 butterfly: Saunders, 1:03.60, second.
100 free: Ervin, 51.85, first; and Sutton, 1:06.92.
500 free: Saunders, 6:00.44, fourth.
200 free relay of Ervin, Messick, Sutton and Saunders, 1:45.52, fourth.
100 backstroke: Alex Kukhianidze, 1:39.44, ninth.
100 breaststroke: Ervin, 1:06.68, third; and Messick, 1:18.25, sixth.
