The 12-year-old Covered Bridge swimmer kicked off the meet with a record-breaking time in the girls 12-and-under 100-meter individual medley.
All the pieces were in place for 12-year-old Covered Bridge swimmer Samantha Yerkes to do something special at the 2018 Cherry Bowl.
Yerkes was slated to be the first swimmer from host Covered Bridge to dive into the pool at Cherry Bowl for the meet’s first event, the girls 12-and-under 100-meter individual medley. Yerkes entered Cherry Bowl with the fastest time in the individual medley for her age group in all of South Jersey. She was not only the heavy favorite to win the race, but she also had the chance to break a Cherry Bowl record in the event, previously set by another Covered Bridge swimmer, Saylor Cook, back in 2011.
Despite the lofty expectations, Yerkes managed to top them all, blowing away the competition with a season-best time of 1:09.84. Yerkes shattered Cook’s previous record of 1:13.40, won the race by nearly 12 seconds ahead of second place and was more than four seconds faster than Benjamin Turley of Covered Bridge, the winner of the 12-and-under 100-meter individual medley for the boys.
“It’s fun, because I also broke my pool record,” Yerkes said. “It’s an honor to break my pool record at Cherry Bowl while my pool is hosting Cherry Bowl.”
Yerkes has swum at Covered Bridge since the age of 4 and has become a key part of the Crocs swim team over the past few seasons, qualifying for the Tri-County Swimming Pool Association Championships in multiple events. Yerkes credits much of her success to being a part of Jersey Wahoos, a club team based in Mt. Laurel.
“At Wahoos, they train us in all of the strokes,” she said. “I love swimming the IM because it gives me a chance to swim every stroke as fast as I want to.”
In the individual medley, swimmers have to complete one leg of each of the four swimming strokes — butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke and freestyle. While Yerkes believes she is strong in all four events, she has a unique talent allowing her to succeed in the backstroke.
“It’s the stroke I most train with,” she said. “I can do this thing where I can put my lip up to my nose. It acts as a nose plug for me. With doing turns and underwater, it makes everything easier.”
Yerkes was well aware of her chance to make history at her home pool heading into the meet. Just a year prior at the 2017 Cherry Bowl at Kingston Estates Swim Club, Yerkes came in second place in the same event, finishing about 1.5 seconds behind the meet record.
“Ever since I learned that we were going to host Cherry Bowl, I wanted to do IM,” she said. “Last year, I did IM and I was actually pretty close to the record that time. All year long, I’ve been really hyped for this moment.”
Yerkes’ times were well ahead of the Cherry Bowl record all summer in the Tri-County Swimming Pool Association meets. A couple weeks prior to Cherry Bowl in a meet against Willowdale Swim Club, Yerkes swam a 1:11.03 in the individual medley, the best time in the TCSPA by nearly two seconds. Yerkes’ record-setting Cherry Bowl time was only the second time a 12U swimmer, male or female, broke 1:10 in the individual medley in all of South Jersey this season.
Yerkes said she couldn’t have been successful in swimming without the support of her teammates at both Jersey Wahoos and Covered Bridge, saying their cheering and encouragement have pushed her to improve in the sport.
“When you join a team, it’s like joining a family and that family pushes you to your limits, which helps you getting faster and faster,” Yerkes said.
