The Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School boys swim team remained undefeated on the season, after taking down rivals Nantucket on Saturday during their last home meet.
It was their closest matchup to date, and they pulled it out with a final score of 85-81 by netting vital second- and third-place finishes throughout the match, and winning the final race of the day.
The most important race of the entire meet came down to the very last one — a 400-yard relay.
The Vineyard was down by two, and needed a first-place finish in order to win the meet when Coach Jen Passafiume assembled a group of the Island’s fastest swimmers to face off against Nantucket’s best. At the sound of the buzzer, the Vineyard surged into the lead almost immediately, and maintained a steady pace, claiming both first and third, and securing the overall victory. The 400-yard relay team, consisting of Ronan Mullin, Grady Stalgren, Moses Thomson, and Kaua De Assis not only drove the nail into the Whaler coffin for the boys on Saturday, but also qualified for states in the 200-yard freestyle relay in a meet on Thursday against Barnstable.
Mullin also qualified for states in the 100-yard butterfly on Thursday, and De Assis in the 100-yard freestyle.
On the girls side, though too small of a roster to beat the Whalers, they continually hunted down personal bests and improved steadily.
Head Coach Passafiume, alongside Assistant Coach Jonathan Chatinover, anticipating a close match, made last-minute lineup changes to squeeze out every second- and third-place finishing point they could.
As anticipated against the Whalers on Saturday, the Vineyard boys took second, third, or both in almost every race category. In the three categories where the boys didn’t get second or third, they secured first-place finishes instead: the 400-yard relay by Mullin, Thomson, Anthony Pruciano, and De Assis; the 200-yard freestyle, also by De Assis, and the 100-yard butterfly by Mullin.
“We split some of our relays so both A and B teams would have fast swimmers. They all really pushed themselves, and ended up swimming some of the best times all season,” said Coach Passafiume. “This was the meet we were the most nervous about, but they all did exactly what they needed to do to get the win.”
For the girls, new records were set by Zoe Treiman who dropped more than 7 seconds on her 200-yard freestyle time, Violet Meyers in the 200-yard intermedley, Maybeline Brown in the 50-yard freestyle, Leah Thomson and Zoe Higgins in the 100-yard freestyle, Trietman and Ondine Hitchen in the 100-yard backstroke, and Thomson, Stella Cowen, and Meyers in the 100-yard breaststroke.
The Martha’s Vineyard swim teams’ last regular-season meet is against Nauset High School away on Thursday; then, on Feb. 8, they roll their way into the Cape and Islands League Championship at Sandwich High School.