Sports Highlights

By Don Lyons - October 13, 2005

Frosh win

MVRHS cross country coach Joe Schroeder entered a freshmen girls team in the South Coast Cross Country Challenge at Brooklawn Park, New Bedford.

The Islanders won the event beating second place Sandwich, 25-46.

Hilary Dreyer finished first overall with a winning time of 21:22. Sarah Flanders was fourth overall in 23:33 and Kim Carlomagno was seventh at 24:31. Laura Jernegan came in 13th at 25:26 and Elisa Gowell 17th in 27:08.

Diamond

Birdies for Baseball, a golf tournament to benefit the building of a new baseball field at MVRHS, will tee off at 8:30 am, Saturday, Oct. 29 at Mink Meadows. Interested donors and sponsors should call Doug Reece at 508-693-0600. Player's fee, including continental breakfast and lunch, is $85.

Goodell qualifies

Thomas Goodell, 12, of West Tisbury, placed first in the Regional Future Stars Boys Gymnastics Trials, Sunday, at the Yellow Jackets Gymnastics Center in Middleton. Thomas scored 83.5 out of a possible 90 in nine events: floor 9.3, pommels 8.4, rings 9.4, rings strength 9.5, parallel bars 8.9, parallel bars strength 9.9, vault 9.6, high bar 8.8, flexibility 9.7.

A score of 75 was enough to qualify for the national trials at the U.S. Olympic Center in Colorado Springs, Nov. 9-12.

Josh Unger of Longmeadow was second to Thomas with a score of 78, also qualifying for the nationals.

Warriors pacified

Last year Nauset defeated the MVRHS varsity football team in a squeaker, here, 14-13. Friday evening the Islanders more than evened the account with a 33-14 pasting of the Warriors at North Eastham.

Handwriting appeared on the wall early. After receiving the kickoff deep, Nauset was unable to move the ball and was forced to punt. John Amabile blocked the intended punt and Mike Cecilio picked up the loose ball and carried it into the end zone.

Place-kicker extraordinaire E.J. Sylvia made it 7-0.

The game was less than three minutes old and the MV offense had yet to touch the ball.

At the half the Islanders led, 27-0.

The Warriors began the second half with fire in their eyes and scored twice to close the gap to 27-14. But the Vineyard finished the scoring with a 50-yard drive in 10 plays capped by a plunge by Tristan Atwood. It was Atwood's third TD of the day. MV's other score was by Alan Fortes.

12th Sandcastle

Island Gymnsatics Training will host the 12th annual Sandcastles Meet on Saturday and Sunday, Oct 15-16 . Girls in levels 3, 4, 5 and 6 will compete with gymnasts from Massachusetts and Connecticut, Saturday. Boys at levels 5 and 6 will enter the lists Sunday.

Competing will be gymnasts from every MV town aged 5 to 13. Adult tickets are $5. Students and seniors enter for $3. No charge for children 5 and under.

The Whippoorwill

Isaac Taylor's "Aquinnah Clog" beat Art Spengler's "Raven Junior" in head-to-head competition for the Adult Multihull Championship at the 16th annual Whippoorwill Yacht and Rocket Club's one meter regatta at Red Beach, Aquinnah, Sunday. "Aquinnah's Clog's"winning time of 58 seconds also captured the coveted Commodore's Cup for 2005.

In other competitive classes, Cole Parris's SS Shipwreck led (2) Jake Lapierre's "Eel" and (3) David DaSilva's "Tornedo" in the Kids Multihull race.

In the Kids Monohull class, Courtney Oxton"s "Muffin Boat" took the honors with (2) Sal McNamara's "Styrosaw," (3) Mac Smith's "Spider," and (tied for 4th) Gordon LaPierre's "Wasp" and Julie Pringle's "Last Minute" coming after. Also sailed, Sophia Beishline's "Meadow Muffin" and Joe Burgoyne's "USS Flyer."

Robbie Douglas's "C5 Financial" won the adult mono race, edging out Everett Bramhall's "Black Pearl" and Rick Haller"s "Black Dog."

For safety reasons, rocketeers Bill Russell and Steve Schwab decided to attach electric wire spools to two rockets keeping them from rising more than 300 feet. A third rocket called "a flying pyramid of death" was also exploded.

"This year it was all about noise," Steve Schwab told The Times.

Showers and threat of more of the same kept numbers down, but did not deter those attending from having a good time. WYRC model boat race T-shirts are available at Bramhall & Dunn for $15. Posters cost $5.

More photos of the regatta appear in today's Calendar, on pages 15 and 20.

Jamie at Hartford

Jamie Leon of Vineyard Haven was one of the some 5,800 runners of the 12th United Technologies Greater Hartford Marathon, Saturday, October 8.

Jamie finished 234th in 3:44:38. Kenya's Moses Kemboi won the race in a record setting 2:16:34.

Hockey holdup

Seekonk's field hockey team held the Vineyard girls scoreless, Friday, and claimed a 1-0 win. The purple and white record is 6-4.

Two at Tufts

Marylee Schroeder and Diane Nolan were among the 4527 to run the annual Tufts 10K in Boston, Monday. Diane placed 681st overall and 154th in her 40-49 age group in 51:21. Marylee ran the course in 44:26 and was 157th overall. She was 33rd in the 40-49 age group. The cooling mist made for comfortable running.

A new record

Allison Flanders smashed the school and course records last Thursday while leading the MV girls cross-country team through the state forest to a sweep of Bristol Plymouth.

Allison completed the 5K run in 20:02. The previous school record was Gwen Mayhew's best: 20:25.

The course record had been set in 2003 by Meg Barrett of Bishop Sheehan at 20:22.

Allison's achievement was the more remarkable as she ran alone and unchallenged.

After Allison, the next 11 runners to reach the finish line also wore purple: (2) Hilary Dreyer, (3) Sagitta Woodman, (4) Sarah Jean Flanders, (5) Nicole Perry, (6) Kim Carlomagno, (7) Morgan Ibarrondo, (8) Alida Dean, (9) Liz Reid, (10) Lauren Franklin, (11) Laura Jernegan, and (12) Randi Sylvia.

The MV boys were equally dominant. Of the first 13 runners to reach the finish line, a dozen were Vineyarders; (1) Edison Parzanese, (2) Jackson Parker. (3) Lucas Emin, (4) Evan Kendall, (5) Mason Fischer, (7) Connor Rasmussen, (8) Logan Russell, (9) Robbie Osmers, (10) Whit Hyde, (11) Matt Seklecki, (12) Ben Williams, and (13) Thomas Knowles.

Chace moves up

After two wins in the level 6 Championship Tennis tourney at Manchester, Chace Urban, 12, lost to the top-seeded Richard Robbie of Braintree, 2-6, 6-4, 2-6. The wins were good for 300 points and moved the Vineyarder up to 16th in the New England ratings of the USTA.

MV Brazilians win

A Vineyard Brazilian soccer team defeated a team of Quincy Brazilians, at Plymouth's Forest Park, Sunday, 3-0. Scoring for MV were Buiu (2) and Erly.

Sailing

The MVRHS sailing team joined teams from 17 other New England schools at the annual Fall Fun Fest regatta on the Charles River in Boston over the Columbus Day weekend.

Elise Swartwood, Tristan Lodge, and Chris Edward skippered with Chesley Wiseman, Emily Reich, and Amanda Brown crewing. The Islanders placed a very respectable fifth overall behind (1) North Kingston, R.I., (2) East Lyme, Conn. (3) Hingham and (4) Northern Vermont.

North Kingston and East Lyme are automatically invited to the Great Oaks regatta to be held at Austin, Texas — in lieu of New Orleans — Nov. 12-13. One more berth is available to the team with the best fall resume. Sailing Coach Doug Heil is optimistic about the Vineyard's chances of winning that spot.

Other Cape and Island teams at Boston were Nauset (9th), Chatham (13th), Sandwich (17th), and Nantucket (18th).

This weekend the MV team will be at New London, competing in the ISSA National Open Invitational at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy.

Sign up!

Baseball and softball players may sign up for the 2006 season at the Boys & Girls Club, Saturday or Sunday, Oct. 15-16.

Girls 8 to 16 years old who want to play in the upper or lower MV Babe Ruth Softball Leagues next spring should sing up, as should boys and girls, 5 to 12, who plan on playing baseball in the tee ball, farm league, minor or major Little Leagues.