Track and Field
Junior Maggie Riseborough cemented her legacy as one of the best field athletes in Massachusetts, as she turned in a sixth-place finish in the shot put at the annual Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletics Association All-State meet last Saturday with a throw of 36’7.75”.
The performance qualified her for the New England Championship Meet, to be held tomorrow in Saco, Me. Riseborough is the first Vineyard athlete to compete at the New Englands in 14 years, and is the first to compete in a throwing event in head coach Joe Schroeder’s 23-year tenure with the team.
She also competed in the discus at All-States, placing 12th with a throw of 103’6”.
Going into the All-State meet, Riseborough was ranked 14th in the state in the shot put and 10th in the discus. But, as coach Schroeder reminded her before the meet, she was inches away from advancing in the rankings in shot, and several feet in the discus, making the eight-place jump a bit less surprising but no less impressive.
Unlike the MIAA divisional meets, which place athletes according to school size (Riseborough won both the shot put and the discus at the Division 4 meet two weeks ago), the All-State meet makes no such distinction—meaning there are only five girls in the entire state who have bested Maggie Riseborough all season.
Additionally, Riseborough “has some room to grow,” coach Schroeder said; her personal best throw was last year’s toss of 37’1”.
The Vineyard also sent its 4x400 metre boys’ relay team to All-States; the quartet of seniors Je’Vaughn Crooks, Rafael Maciel and Peter Keaney and sophomore Jeremy Alley-Tarter ran their season best time, finishing 20th of 28 in 3:34.14. Alley-Tarter competed in the 800 metre run as well.
Boys’ Tennis
On the strength of two postseason victories, the undefeated Vineyarders advance to the Division 3 South Section Finals for the second year in a row, and will play against the winner of Dover-Sherborn/Westport tomorrow, Saturday, at Old Rochester, a neutral site.
Rain forced the Vineyarders to play their first two postseason matches on the indoor courts of the Vineyard Tennis Center (girls’ coach Connie McHugh is the Center’s director), but the isolation of the glassed-in courts had little effect. The team swept Hanover on in the quarterfinals and faced down perpetual rival Cape Cod Academy to win 3-2 on Wednesday in the semis.
The Cape Cod Academy score is a familiar one; in each of the two teams’ meetings over the past two seasons, the match has played to that numerical outcome. But unlike the previous season, the Vineyard ended on the winning side each time.
After an hour of play, the score stood at 2-1, with the Vineyard winning both doubles matches but losing first singles. Junior Patrick McCarthy took a 6-3 loss in the first set, and battled match point after match point against Will White before falling 7-5 in the second.
With the match tied 2-2, Justice Yennie and opponent Oliver Rogers remained the only players on the courts, dueling it out for the third singles win. Rogers’ power serves were answered by Yennie’s thoughtful game pacing and ball placement; Yennie took the win 6-3, 6-1. The victory was his 40th consecutive win.
On Monday, the team played eight-game pro sets in light of time limitations at the tennis center courts. The Vineyarders were “equal to the task,” head coach Ned Fennessy reported, and took the five-match sweep.
Girls Tennis
The girls advanced to the semi-finals of the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletics Association South Section Division 3 tournament for the second year in a row after early-round sweeps of Seekonk and Fairhaven. They competed against Cohasset Thursday for a chance at the finals. At press time the match was tied at 2-2 and suspended until today (Friday).
On Tuesday, the number-three seeded Vineyarders hosted sixth-seeded Fairhaven. Freshman Samantha Potter picked up the first win of the day, defeating Kara Charette 6-0, 6-0, while the second doubles team of juniors Julia Cooper and Annabelle Hackney brought in a 6-1, 6-2 win. At first doubles, senior Alyssa Adler and junior Dylan Brockmeyer secured the team’s win, overpowering opponents Missy Berry and Farrah Gillette 6-0, 6-1 with the formidable combination of Brockmeyer’s hard-hitting returns and Adler’s error-forcing serves.
Junior Annie Burton defeated Katie Leidhold 6-3, 6-1 at second singles.
Senior Wendy Wen took her match to three sets, rallying from a 4-6 first-set loss to go 6-1 in the second. Wen then outlasted opponent Michelle Westgat in the third set tiebreaker to clinch the sweep. Last Friday, the team took on 14th-seeded Seekonk, bringing home the win in the fastest-played match of the season (just under an hour). Brockmeyer and Adler went 6-0, 6-0; Cooper and Hackney turned in an identical score.
Wen had a 6-0, 6-2 win at third singles, while Burton went 6-1, 6-0 at second singles. Potter remained on the courts the longest during her first singles match, but defeated opponent (and fellow freshman) Hope Starr-Mararian, 6-0, 6-2.
The team is now 18-2 on the season.
Softball
The girls’ final game of the season, last Friday’s first-round tournament game against Medfield, was one of missed opportunities, head coach Donald Herman said.
Making its second postseason appearance in as many years, the Vineyarders fell 4-1, stranding seven runners in scoring position. Junior Emily Cimeno knocked in the team’s lone run, scoring sophomore Shelby Lavin, who went 3-for-3. Junior Kendall Robinson was 2-for-3 with a walk.
Still, as coach Herman told his team after the game, “I don’t think anybody thought at the beginning of the season that we were going to qualify.” With just one senior (Sarah Williston) returning to the squad, the 2012 season seemed like it would end up as a rebuilding year.
But the Vineyarders won five of their last six games, finishing with a 10-11 record. And with so many players returning next season, “we’re much farther along already than we were [at this time] last year,” coach Herman said.
“At some point in time, we have to find a way to break through the EAC,” he added. The team is 1-31 in league play since they joined the conference three years ago.
Robinson led the team in hitting this year, finishing with a .507 average, six doubles and six triples. Cimeno batted .450 on the season, while Lavin was .386.
Williston led the team in RBIs (22) and doubles (7) while contributing two triples and two home runs. Sophomore Miranda Tokarz had 5 doubles and a .367 average.
Junior pitcher Hailee McCarthy finished with an 8-9 record on the mound and a .373 batting average. McCarthy had three triples and two home runs on the season.
Baseball
The baseball team fell in a heartbreaker of a game Sunday, pushing their first-round tournament bout with Dover-Sherborn to 13 innings before falling 2-1.
The Vineyarders scored their first and only run in the first inning after a Ramon Espino ground-rule double brought senior Noah Stobie home. Junior Jack Roberts remained stranded on third due to the ground-rule double; Espino’s hit sent the ball rolling underneath the snow fence bordering the outfield. Dover-Sherborn scored one run in the fourth inning on an RBI single.
Senior pitcher Will Stewart started for the Vineyarders, pitching the first eight innings and allowing one run while striking out eight and walking three. Senior Ryan Fisher came in to pitch the final four innings.
The game remained tied 1-1 until the bottom of the 13th inning, more than two and a half hours after the players had taken the field. With the bases loaded, Dover-Sherborn scored after their player’s hit bounced off Fisher’s shoe.
“It was a really emotional game for the kids,” head coach Gary Simmons said. “Once you get to the bottom of the seventh, it’s nail-biting. The team went in six times facing elimination.”
“It’s one of those things where the tournament game was an indication of how we played all year,” coach Simmons said. “We had really good defense and we pitched really well, but we had a hard time getting runners in.”
The playoff experience was a huge step forward for the baseball program, he added, giving the younger players on the team “something to strive for next year.”
The Vineyarders finished their season with a 12-9 record.
Sailing
The Vineyard girls traveled to Nantucket last Friday to compete in the women’s division of the Cape and Island League fleet racing championships. With seasoned crew Katie Johnson absent due to SAT testing, the Vineyard contingent was an all-freshman group, with Anna Flaherty, Maddy Moore and Zana Van Rooyen all taking to the water. The team placed sixth overall, although not all members of the Cape and Islands League were able to attend in the races.
Championship events were postponed a day due to inclement weather, with the Cape and Islands League fleet and team racing championships taking place Sunday. The Vineyarders made a strong showing during the fleet racing portion of the day, with senior Jesse Thomas skippering in the A Division with crew Katie Johnson, and freshman Raz Sayre tackling the B Division with junior Doug Andrade. Sayre and Andrade placed first in their division, combining with the placement of the A boat to give the Vineyarders second place overall, behind sailing powerhouse Barnstable.
Wind speeds picked up to 25 knots in the afternoon, causing the team races to be canceled entirely.
“The kids wanted one more shot at Barnstable,” head coach Andrew Burr said. “We felt like we could beat them in team racing.”
Coach Burr described the 2012 season as a “phenomenal success,” particularly with regard to the depth at the freshman level.
Three seniors completed their final season with the team: Thomas, Riley Donegan and Jake Sudarsky.
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