The Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School (MVRHS) boys and girls indoor track teams cruised to a win over Sandwich High School Tuesday night in a Cape & Islands League dual meet at Wheaton College in Norton.
The Vineyarder boys won 74-21, and the girls won 74½-21½, featuring Annabelle Biggs’ new MVRHS school record of 7.88 seconds in the 55-meter dash. Biggs finished third in the 55 dash, and also won the long jump handily.The teams are 3-1 on the season.
“They were working with low numbers of kids. We had a couple kids with injuries, and a few were away, but I thought we ran really well on Tuesday,” Coach Joe Schroeder said, noting that Madia Bellebuono, a field event specialist, was impressive in her first-ever running events.
Dash Christy and Jo Jo Bonneau ran 1-2 in the 50-meter hurdles; Clara Boyd and Kayla Dow ran 1-2 in the JV 300-meter dash prelims; Adrienne Christy won the girls mile by a hair; Borja Tolay and Keiran Karabees ran 3-4 in the boys mile; and Daniel DaSilva placed second in the 600-meter run.
Coaches are prepping for this weekend’s state relay event at the Reggie Lewis Center in Roxbury, Schroeder noted. “We tried out different kids in different events on Tuesday, and I asked Peter Burke [top-ranked distance runner] to run the relays on Tuesday to save him for the state relays,” Schroeder said.
The Vineyarders are developing a high-performing field event group. Paige Pogue and Charlotte Packer have been scoring consistently well in the shot put: Pogue had a second, and Packer a fourth this week. In boys field events, newcomer Braden Sayles is getting the hang of the shot put, placing fourth overall on Tuesday.
The relay teams, relatively new at MVRHS since rebounding from low numbers which limited their competition until recently, are coming along nicely. The boys 4×400 won overall on Tuesday, and finished fourth in the 4×200. The girls finished third overall in the 4×200 and the 4×400.
Track is all about timing, obviously, and peaking at the right time is essential. Schroeder is good at preparing his kids for peak performance, and you can see the younger kids moving up the event standings week by week.
So he’ll get his first look at big-stage competition on Saturday at the Massachusetts State Track Coaches Association relays at the Reggie Lewis Center. In this meet, sanctioned by the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association., teams compete within their division, D5 for the Vineyarders, against other statewide teams in their division.
