The MVRHS swim team traveled to Sandwich on Saturday for the Bay Colony Conference Championships. Both the boys and girls had an outstanding meet, and set multiple best times. The girls had their best-ever finish, placing sixth with a school-record 99 points, and the boys finished seventh, with 76 points. Individually, Gabby Carr finished with two second places, the highest ever by a Vineyarder at a conference championship meet. All nine conference teams participated, with Nantucket winning both the boys and girls titles. The Vineyard boys and girls both finished fifth in the final dual-meet standings, with records of 4-4.
The top 12 places scored at this meet, with the boys swimming in the morning and the girls in the afternoon. The boys 200 medley relay team of seventh grader Andrue Carr (backstroke), eighth grader Jack Crawford (breaststroke), Nicholas Lytle (butterfly), and Everett Dorr (freestyle) started the meet by placing 11th, matching their best-ever finish in this event. In the 200 freestyle relay, Greg Clark, Ruairi Mullin, eighth grader Christian Flanders, and Oliver Dorr placed eighth. Two boys 400 free relays scored, with eighth grader Nathan Cuthbert, Mullin, Flanders, and Oliver Dorr placing fifth, and Clark, Lytle, Carr, and Enrique Contreras coming in 12th.
In the boys individual events, Oliver Dorr took fourth in the 200 free, followed by Mullin (fifth), who added a fourth in the 100 free behind three Nantucket swimmers. Three Vineyarders earned personal best times, with Crawford 11th (100 breast), Flanders 12th (50 free), and seventh grader Simon Hammarlund 12th (100 back).
For the girls, Gabby Carr set school records with both of her second-place finishes. Her 2:02.74 in the 200 qualified her for the state meet in that event. In the 500, she beat her own school record by over three seconds to finish in 5:30.51. Abigail Hammarlund swam her best-ever 100 breast and finished 11th, Yayla DeChiara was seventh (100 back) and 10th (50 free), Jasselle Wildanger was 11th (100 free), and seventh grader Olympia Hall took 12th (200 free).
The girls relay teams also excelled in Sandwich.The medley relay team of eighth grader Annabelle Brothers, captain Abigail Hammarlund, Lola Northrop, and Eleanor Hyland finished 10th, the first time the girls had ever placed in the event. Two teams placed in the 200 free relay, with DeChiara, Brothers, Hyland, and Carr placing fifth, matching their best-ever finish, and Northrop, Abigail Hammarlund, Hall, and Wildanger coming in ninth. The girls closed out the meet with two teams placing in the 400 free relay. Carr, Wildanger, Brothers, and DeChiara swam fourth, the best ever for the Vineyarders, with Eleanor Hyland, Delilah Hammarlund, Indigo Giambattista, and Abigail Hammarlund taking 12th.
The Vineyarders close out their dual meet season with Senior Day at home on Feb. 6 against nonconference opponent Coyle and Cassidy. The season continues for five Vineyard girls (Annabelle Brothers, Gabby Carr, Yayla DeChiara, Eleanor Hyland, and Jasselle Wildanger), who are headed to the Sectionals at MIT on Saturday.