The Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School (MVRHS) varsity swim team set two new school records and earned its highest placement yet at the state championships this past weekend.
On Sunday, the Vineyarders scored 52 points to place 12th out of 70 total teams at the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association (MIAA) Division 2 State Championships held at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Zesiger Sports and Fitness Center in Cambridge.
Forty-one other teams earned points at the state meet, where Wayland High School won the team title with 291 points, followed by Weston High School with 263.5, and Mystic Valley Charter School at 262.
“The Vineyard boys were locked in and ready to rock and roll,” said MVRHS Head Coach Jen Passafiume in an email to The Times. “The whole team worked really hard this whole season and had the race times and postseason qualifications to prove it. This was the first time the Vineyard had ever qualified for all three relays for the state championships.”
Sunday was the culmination of an exceptional season, with several school records being broken over the last few months. Aside from achieving the highest placement in the team’s history at the Division 2 state tournament, the Vineyarders also set two more new school records.
In the 200-yard medley relay, the quartet of Vineyard swimmers posted a new school record of 1:47.20 and placed ninth in the tournament: Grady Stalgren (backstroke, 27.94 second split), Michael Calheta (breaststroke, 31.23 second split and personal best), Ronan Mullin (butterfly, 24.51 second split), and Claus Smith (freestyle, 23.52 second split and person best).
Mullin also broke a longstanding school record in the 200-yard individual medley with a time of 2:06.31, surpassing Evan Sauter’s previous record of 2:06.79. Mullin placed 12th at the state meet and earned the Vineyarders five points.
Mullin competed in the 100-yard butterfly as well and finished 10th with a time of 55.68 seconds, just missing his previous record set at sectionals earlier this month.
In the 200-yard freestyle relay, Calheta (25.10 second split), Moses Thomson (24.34 second split), Smith (23.54 second split), and Mullin (23.57 second split), swam a time of 1:36.55, placing 10th for 14 points.
In the final event, the 400-yard freestyle relay, all four swimmers set personal bests. The relay team, made up of Stalgren (52.16 second split), William Simmons (58.88 second split), Thomson (54.55 second split), and Smith (54.65 second split), finished 13th for another eight points.
The strong state performance by the Vineyarders built on the momentum established a week earlier at the sectional championships on Feb. 8 held at Boston University’s FitRec, where the Vineyarders also broke two school records despite travel challenges from ferry cancellations.
At sectionals, Mullin set a new school record in the 100-yard butterfly with a time of 54.81 seconds to place seventh overall. The 400-yard freestyle relay made up of Stalgren (53.27 second split), Thomson (55.82 second split), Smith (52.46 second split), and Mullin (51.23 second split) placed 12th.
Other notable sectional performances included a personal best in the 50-yard freestyle by Smith, who placed second with 23.80 seconds, as well as a strong time by the 200-yard freestyle relay, coming in at 1:36.57 earning 14th place, and the 200-yard medley relay, who were timed at 1:01.11 for a 22nd place finish.
“This team came together to pull off some incredible results this season, and I could not be more impressed and prouder of everyone,” said Passafiume in an email to The Times. “The team spent the night in Boston and celebrated with a fantastic dinner in Cambridge and headed back to the Island on Monday feeling like champions!”
Passafiume called this season “the most exciting swim season the team has had yet” and added that there will be 13 seniors graduating this spring. Some of the seniors, like Mullin, Stalgren, Smith, Nora Motahari, and Leah DeBettencourt, have been swimming with Passafiume since they were kids, while others joined in high school, and some are finishing their first and last high school swim season.
“All the graduating swimmers will be very missed next year. Some are already committed to a college, while others are still making decisions and plans for next year. No matter what they do, we are so excited to follow these kids as they leave the Island and enter the world beyond Martha’s Vineyard,” said Passafiume.
“Huge thank you to assistant coaches, parents, and all the other community members who supported this team this season! It takes a village — but we sure have a great one on the Vineyard!” she added.