The Martha’s Vineyard high school wrestling team was crowned Cape and Islands league champions after taking down Barnstable and Nauset last week.
The win over Barnstable was the program’s first since varsity reestablishment last year after decades of inactivity. The meet between the three schools had plenty of dramatics as it came down to one final heavyweight match. The Vineyard’s Xander Laiacona secured a 4-3 decision over Maxwell Fernandez of Barnstable for his first varsity win.
Leading up to the final bout, Odin Robinson went 3-0 with a pin in each of his matches and Jordan Souza also pinned his opponent to put the Vineyarders in position to take home the title. Additionally, Isaac Lefebvre and Xeandre Miller each won their matches with a pin after initially being down in points.
Meanwhile, at the Cape and Islands League indoor track championship, several Vineyard athletes placed on the podium in their respective events.
Madison Mello took home top honors, tossing the shot put 34’05.25 for first place, over three feet more than the runner-up. Silver medalists included Luis Costa, finishing the 600 meter in 1:28.5, Enzo Reis in the 55 meter hurdles at 8.41 and the boys 4x200 relay team consisting of Lucas Martins, George McDow, Costa and Reis who finished in 1:41.46.
Other honorees were Broden Vincent, who placed third in the one mile at 5:12.94, and Arjuna Begle who finished fifth in the 1000 meter at 3:33.19.
The swim team kept it rolling at the south sectional championships Sunday at MIT in Cambridge. The meet began with the 200 yard medley relay squad of Grady Stalgren, Michael Calheta, Kaua De Assis and Ronan Mullin needing to drop three seconds from their time to qualify for the state championship, and they did just that. Stalgren had a 28.28 backstroke, Calheta a 32.95 breaststroke, Mullin a 25.08 fly split and De Assis a 22.82 free split to finish in 1:49.13 and set a new school record.
Then, Mullin set a new individual school record in the 100 fly by a hundredth of a second at 55.37. Not long after, he was back in the pool to start off the 200 free relay team needing to drop just over a second and a half to qualify for the state championship. He finished his leg in 24.38, then Moses Thompson in 25.09, Anthony Pruciano in 24.99 and De Assis brought them home in 23.08 for a total of 1:37.54 and hitting the qualifying mark.
“Overall, it was an amazing day for this team of boys. They have been working really hard, and it paid off,” Coach Jen Passafiume said.
The boys scored 21 points and placed 26th out of 41 teams, the highest the Vineyarders have ever placed at Sectionals. Up next is the state championships this weekend at Boston University.
Last week, the boys basketball team began a stretch of five consecutive road games before a final clash at home with Greater Lowell Tech to close out the season. They beat Cape Cod Academy 66-61 and Cristo Rey Boston 42-31 for their seventh and eighth wins of the season. They need to secure at least two more wins to punch their ticket to the playoff tournament.
The girls squad is also entering the final stretch of their season and notched their sixth and seventh wins against Cape Cod Academy 54-41 and Monomoy 50-38. In the clash with Cape Cod Academy, Agata Rodrigues powered the Vineyarders to victory with 27 points, ten rebounds, five steals and three blocks.
There’s still a chance for the girls to make the playoffs, and the win against Monomoy gives them good momentum going forward. Up next, Nantucket comes to the Vineyard for a 1 p.m. tipoff Sunday. Then, on Monday, the girls go to Nantucket to play the Whalers again before they finish the regular season in Hyannis on Wednesday against Saint John Paul II.
The girls hockey team recently strung together three wins in a row where they outscored their opponents 17-4 with two shutouts. Most recently, against Barnstable, they won 6-0 with goals from Elle Mone, Abby Geary, Ava Mikos, Colby D’Arcy and two from Mackenna Metell.
In their 6-4 win over Dennis Yarmouth, Mikos and Mone each lit the lamp twice. Geary and Hannah Wannsiewicz also got in on the scoring action. And finally, in another shutout win over Nauset, Metell, D’Arcy, Geary, Mikos and Mone all put the puck in the net for the Vineyard.
With the league title within striking distance, the girls have four games left to claim the crown. Their next home game comes Saturday against Marshfield at 3 p.m.
After beating Nantucket 4-1 last week, the boys hockey team has dropped a couple of close ones recently as they fight to find their footing. Against the Whalers, however, Adrian Alberghini netted two goals as Hunter Johnson and Griffin Callahan added the insurance.
This weekend at home, the Vineyarders will play Dover Sherbourne on Saturday at 7 p.m. then follow it up against either Lynnfield or Essex Tech on Sunday. The puck drop time for that game is yet to be determined.
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