Three Seaforth student-athletes signed to play their respective sports at the collegiate level Friday.
Payne Swenson from Seaforth’s boys’ lacrosse team signed to Greensboro College, Hannah Ajayi from the girls’ basketball team signed to Eastern Nazarene College in Quincy, Massachusetts and Sam Tucker from the girls’ soccer team signed to Newberry College in Newberry, South Carolina.
Swenson will stay in the state of North Carolina after playing lacrosse with Seaforth since the program’s inaugural season in 2022. As of Sunday, Swenson, an attack, has accumulated 88 goals and averaged 1.7 goals per game in his career at Seaforth. This season, Swenson has scored the third-most goals on the team (30 goals), and he has scored four goals in two games this season — once against Eastern Alamance on March 20 and again against Southern Alamance on April 16.
Ajayi will head north after three seasons with the Hawks. In those three years, she averaged 8.2 points and 4.1 rebounds per game, playing the role of a versatile wing that can defend and shoot. This past winter, Ajayi joined sophomore Katie Leonard in leading the team with a three-point field goal percentage of 39%, and Ajayi was second on the team in field goal percentage, shooting at a 47% clip. Her best game in the 2023-24 season came against Jordan-Matthews on Jan. 12 in which she scored 17 points while shooting 89% from the floor. Against Northwood in the most recent 2A state playoffs, Ajayi made all five of her shot attempts for 12 points.
Tucker, a fullback, has played in 35 games for Seaforth as of Sunday, recording a total of 89 steals in that time. She produced 67 steals in 2023. Tucker recorded a season-high five steals in a 1-1 tie with East Chapel Hill on April 10, and she has tallied at least five steals in six career games with Seaforth.