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King leads Canfield swimmers at state meet
Emily King continues a family tradition by competing at the state championships.
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STATE QUALIFIERS: Members of the Canfield High swim team, from left, Johnna Dunkel, Kathryn Mason, Emily King and Hilary Allen, will compete in the state championships starting Friday in Canton.
CANFIELD — At C.T. Branin Natatorium in Canton, there’s a glass window beneath the upper deck seating that runs alongside the pool where fans can watch the meet from the hallway.
It was there that an 8-year-old girl named Emily King used to hold up a sign that said “Go Nate” for her older brother to read just before his events.
Ten years later, the youngest child of the King family swimming dynasty will no longer spend state tournament weekend on the outside looking in.
After coming up just short last winter, King advanced to Canton in four events — two individual, two relays — for this year’s meet
She’ll swim the 100-yard butterfly, 100 freestyle and the 200 and 400 freestyle relays.
“It was amazing to qualify in four events,” she said. “I was really just hoping for one of our relays to make it. Then I found out I was going in two individual events.
“It was a great feeling.”
Before this season, King had always competed in the 50 free and 100 free. Then, at the conference meet in January, Canfield coach Andrea Linnelli persuaded her to swim the 100 butterfly to help the Cardinals earn some extra points for the team standings.
“She popped off a great time and I said, ‘Emily, this is great,’ ” said Linnelli. “So when the tournament began, we really wanted her to try the 100 fly and she finally decided to swim that and the 100 free.
“Boy are we glad she did.”
King’s family put her in the pool when she was a baby, she was swimming competitively by age 4 and she joined Penguin Swimming, a USA Swimming team that practices at YSU’s Beeghly Center. By that time, her older brother Nate was a senior at Warren Harding on his way to a scholarship at Ohio State.
“I’ve always loved swimming,” said King, the daughter of Robert and Lori King.
Linnelli, actually coached her at the Logan Swim Club’s 8-and under program in Warren. Linnelli’s family moved to Canfield soon afterward, then the King family moved to Canfield when Emily was in eighth grade.
“She’s a good kid, she’s an easy person to coach and she’s a hard worker,” Linnelli said of King. “She’s a team captain for the girls and she’s done a great job with that. She’s the one who kept her relays focused.”
Nathan and Tyler were both standout swimmers for Harding, while Ryan (who is one year older than Emily) was a four-year state qualifier at Canfield. All three of the brothers went to Ohio State, where Ryan is now a freshman swimmer. Emily, who hasn’t decided between OSU and Xavier, plans to major in nursing after she graduates.
“I’m sure her three older brothers have given her a lot of good advice,” said Linnelli. “It’s nice to have that support.”
Canfield’s boys will also have two relays competing at this weekend’s Division I meet, with Garrett and Gavin Trebilcock, Ryan O’Malley and Steven Dalvin competing in the 200 and 400 free relays. Garrett, the defending Div. II state champ in the 200 IM, will also swim that event and the 100 free.
“We lost a lot of good senior boys from last year’s team, which had quite a few make it to state,” said Linnelli. “It was like a dream team for me. So this year, Garrett stepped in as team captain and really motivated everyone, saying, ‘We can do this again.’ And the boys on the relays really stepped up.
“It’s been a nice season. Really easy to coach.”
scalzo@vindy.com