With another successful meet under the Island’s high school swim team’s belt, they have another accomplishment to add to the résumé: a new school record.
At the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School (MVRHS) varsity swim meet against Sandwich High School last Wednesday, senior and captain Ronan Mullin broke the Vineyard High School’s longest-standing record, which was for the 500-yard freestyle, with a time of 5:17.54. Mullin’s race time beat Patrick Best’s time of 5:34.73, which was set in 2014, by more than 17 seconds.
Mullin’s record-breaking performance stemmed from a fall practice. Jen Passafiume, the Vineyard’s head swim coach, said she had suggested Mullin try the 500-yard freestyle during swim practice in the fall. Mullin swam the practice race that day, and to Passafiume’s surprise, came within seconds of the school record.
“He did it off the wall in the middle of practice, and swam like a 5:40-something, which wasn’t that far off the school record, so I said, ‘Let’s pick one meet this season and run it hard, and see where you are,’ so we picked this one, and he hit it perfectly,” said Passafiume. “I was pretty sure he would hit the sectional time. I was very hopeful that he could hit the state’s time. I was very happily surprised at 5:17, because that is faster than I thought he was gonna go.”
For Mullin, that moment in practice with Passafiume was when he realized competing in the event at the sectional and states level was possible, but taking down the record set by Best was still a surprise.
“It felt amazing,” said Mullin in a message to The Times. “Once I got that time before the season, I really started to go for it.
“I didn’t have my pacing down yet. I went almost my fastest pace for the whole race,” added Mullin. “I was insanely surprised when I saw that time on the board. I thought I was barely going to be near the record.”
The Martha’s Vineyard YMCA’s swimming pools were filled with competition last Wednesday, when the Island’s varsity swim team split wins against Sandwich High School. The Vineyard boys defeated Sandwich 100–62, and the girls lost to a strong Sandwich program 104–64.
Despite the boys’ win, a somber undercurrent washed over the Vineyard swim meet. For 13 Vineyard seniors, this was also their last home meet as MVRHS swimmers. For seniors Nora Motahari, Mullin, and Grady Stalgren, their connection with the program runs deep, as they are also YMCA lifeguards and swim instructors, and have been competing at the YMCA since they were in elementary school. Seniors Claus Smith, Philip Pruciano, William Simmons, and Nicholas Merriam have been with the program for a few seasons. Tatiani Marcelino, Chris Marcal, Joao Nunes, Syius Rivera Rigali, and Caleb Miller swam with the team for the first time this season.
“The team this year is electric with the amount of people that we have on it … it’s really awesome to see the sport of swimming on the Island really kind of turn around and get a lot more popular than it has been in the past. And I really hope that we can keep this rolling,” said Passafiume.
“I am especially impressed with how quickly these swimmers have picked up a very difficult sport and are showing such growth and improvement in such a short period of time,” added Passafiume of her first-time seniors in an email to The Times. “This is the largest senior class I have had on the swim team, and they all will be very missed next season.”
At the meet on Wednesday against Sandwich, the Vineyard boys dominated and earned some sectional and state qualifiers, and the girls saw some massive improvements to race times.
For the boys, in the 50-yard freestyle, Mullin took first and qualified for sectionals with a time of 23.71 seconds, while Moses Thomson was only a couple of seconds off with a third-place finish at 25.50 seconds. In the boys’ 200-yard medley relay, Stalgren, Michael Calheta, Mullin, and Smith swam a new personal best and sectional-qualifying time for first place at 1:50.54, and in the 200-yard inter-medley, Stalgren, who had not swum the race since last season, also dropped almost 15 seconds, cruising to first at 2:16.23, one second away from qualifying for sectionals. The boys’ 400-yard relay, made up of Mullin, Smith, Stalgren, and Thomson, were only two seconds away from qualifying for South Sectionals.
“Our boys continue to be on fire,” said Passafiume after the swim meet. “I was probably the most nervous about this season in making sure that we won, and they did everything that they needed to do today.”
With one league match left, the Cape and Islands League Championship on Jan. 31, the Vineyarders are undefeated in league play and hoping to qualify as many swimmers as possible for South Sectional championships and the Division 2 state meet.
Passafiume said the Vineyarders were hoping to qualify their 200-yard freestyle relay and the 400-yard freestyle relay for sectionals and states too.
At the meet against Nauset on Friday, the boys’ 400-yard relay and 200-yard relay both qualified for Division II states, earlier than expected.
“It’s always been at the championships that we’ve qualified our 200 free relay, so we’re hoping to hit that all the way to states,” said Passafiume. “We’ll be pushing some strength and some endurance, and really trying to hit [those times].”
The team traveled to its last dual meet at Nauset on Friday, Jan. 16. Then the team has two weeks to train for the Cape and Island League Championship meet on Jan. 31.
“I guess the blessing and the curse of having two weeks from Friday before the next meet, which is championships, is we have two solid weeks to train, but then we also don’t have any other meets to get a chance to try to do something,” said Passafiume.
The Vineyard boys — Stalgren, Calheta, Mullin, Thomson, and Smith, with alternates — have qualified for sectionals in the 200-yard medley relay. Mullin also qualified for the 200-yard inter-medley, 50-yard freestyle, 500-yard freestyle, and 100-yard butterfly; Stalgren qualified for the 100-yard butterfly and the 100-yard backstroke.
For state qualifiers, Mullin is the only one who qualified, and he will compete in the 200-yard inter-medley, the 100-yard butterfly, and the 500-yard freestyle.
“We had tons of new personal best times, and I think even if we don’t qualify any girls for postseason this year, I think we have a number of girls who will qualify next year. So they’re building it up this year to hit it hard next year,” said Passafiume of the girls’ team after the meet on Wednesday.