Five Vineyard swimmers will be competing in the Bay State summer games.

Eat Before Swim

A shark bite never felt so good.

This weekend the YMCA is celebrating all things Mako, the local swim team, of course.

On Saturday, Feb. 4, from 5:30 to 8 p.m. the Y turns into an Italian restaurant with a benefit pasta dinner prepared by Tea Lane Caterers; you supply the Billy Joel.

The cost is $15 for individuals and $45 for a family ticket. Tickets are available at the Y in advance and on the night of the event.

Winning Swimmers

Three swimmers from the Martha’s Vineyard YMCA’s Makos Swim Team, 11 and 12-year-old category, recently competed in the Bay State Games, held July 9 and 10 at Harvard University and featuring swimmers from around the state.

Patrick Best took a bronze medal for third place in the 200-meter breaststroke, and Lia Potter was a member of the third-place-winning 200-meter medley relay team. Renee Goodale competed in the 100-meter breaststroke and finished 10th out of a large and competitive field.

With three first place champions — Patrick Best, Tucker Cosgrove and Zach Lamie — and a host of other impressive placings, the YMCA of Martha’s Vineyard Makos Swim Club made its mark with five other teams in the SEMSL Championship swim meet last weekend, competing against Marshfield, Nantucket, Sandwich, Eastham and Plymouth.

Pictures by Peter Simon

everyone in the pool: > On Sunday, Feb. 6 the Makos swim team featuring young Vineyard swimmers took on the Marshfield Swim Club at the YMCA. This inaugural race came not long after the high school team baptized the pool with its first meet.

In both cases the Y pool area was packed with swimmers, parents and friends. Still more peered from the windows above the pool, looking out from the fitness room or the communal area at the entrance.

Super Bowl Swimmers

All set for the history-making sporting event on Sunday? That’s right, Sunday is when the young swimmers who make up the Makos, the swim team at the YMCA of Martha’s Vineyard, take on the Marshfield Swim Club team in their first competition swim meet.

The Makos’ inaugural races are scheduled to take place from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the facility across from the regional high school. Some swimmers from the high school team, who have already competed in their first home meet, will also participate.

It may have been the coldest day on the Vineyard in five years, but the warmest place to be on Monday afternoon was the pool inside the new YMCA of Martha’s Vineyard in Oak Bluffs. The heated aquatics center was an echo chamber of energy as the Vineyard high school swim team took to the blocks for the first home meet in 40 years.

Many considered it a historic moment as the first swimmers hit the pool for the first event — 25-yard freestyle — against the Blue Hills Technical School from Canton.

Swimmers, take your mark.

It’s been 20 years in the making, but Vineyarders will finally be able to hear those words ring out through the aquatic center on Sunday at the YMCA’s inaugural swim meet. The first Island swim team, the Makos, will take to the blocks at noon against the Nantucket Dolphins.