Boothbay Region High School boys singles tennis players, Brady Duncan, Nick Gorey and Sam Schwehm, traveled to Augusta on May 14 to try to qualify for the annual Round of 48 state singles tournament.

All three Seahawks fared well in their first matches of the day. Duncan won his first eight game pro set against Ean Rouillard of Cony, 8-3. Gorey won 8-3 against Marc Belley of Camden Hills and Schwehm won 8-5 against Tharadol Kamuta of Waterville.

Gorey and Schwehm easily survived the second round of eight game pro sets as well, but Duncan lost 4-8 to D. Halzworth of Erskine Academy. Schwehm won 8-6 against Brunswick High School's Jimmy Kenyon and Gorey won 8-0 against Medomak Valley's Conor Dahlberg.

After the two initial rounds, Schwehm and Gorey played in two out of three set qualifier matches. Winning these matches would have advanced them to the Round of 48 state singles tournament, but the boys fell just short against tough competition.

Schwehm lost 3-6, 4-6 to Zhong McClure of Erskine Academy and Gorey battled Cameron Butler of Oceanside 6-3, 5-7, 2-6.

Coach Mark Gorey reported, “This was a great day for us. The singles tournament is striking in that our class C players compete against class B and class A players. This tournament does lead to a true State champion irrespective of class.

“Although his strings broke in the first set, necessitating borrowing a racquet he's unfamiliar with, Sam took seven games off of the skilled 8th seed McClure.

“Nick won the first set of his qualifier against Oceanside's Butler, and almost won the second. I think in the third set, Nick was simply running out of energy after winning the first two preliminary matches. His opponent Butler, as the 5th seed, had not played at all before playing Nick.”