WORTON — To use a track metaphor, Kent County High School’s tennis players are on the bell lap.
There are three matches remaining in the regular season, all this week, beginning with today’s match at home at 4 p.m. against North Dorchester.
KCHS’ boys at 5-4 are having their best season in recent memory.
The highlight, to date, is the 4-3 defeat of border rival Queen Anne’s on April 14. Sebastien Cousineau and Teo O’Brien won at No. 1 and No. 2 singles, respectively, and as the Trojans’ top tandem. The Trojans also got a win from their No. 2 duo of Bjorn Birkmire and Robert Hague.
In their most recent match, last Friday at St. Michaels, shorthanded KCHS — several team members were on the school band’s spring trip to Tennessee — suffered a 6-1 loss. The locals’ only win came at No. 1 singles where Cousineau prevailed in a tiebreaker, 9-7, to raise his record to 6-1.
Cousineau, the 2024 team MVP, is one of six returnees on the Kent County roster. The others are O’Brien, Birkmire, Hague, Chris Gonzales and Ben Hinton.
O’Brien and Hague are the only seniors.
That means there is ample time for the Trojans to develop, individually and as a team.
Even with newcomers Owen Hyland, Eamon Lindsay and Jayden Miller, “we’re starting to get in a groove,” head coach Tyray Johnson told The Evening Enterprise.
“Overall, the season has been pretty much solid,” Johnson said.
After today’s home match, the Trojans will wrap up the regular season on the road — tomorrow at Kent Island and Friday, May 2 at North Caroline.
The state-qualifying region tournaments will be held May 9-17. Kent County competes in Class 1A East Region I, along with Perryville, Bohemia Manor, Colonel Richardson and St. Michaels.
