Vets perform, newbies raise eyebrows

Look beyond the score in the Vineyarders’ season-opening loss to the Bishop Feehan Shamrocks on Wednesday to understand the potential of Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School (MVRHS) track this spring.

Feehan boys won 73-63 over the Vineyarders, and the Shamrock girls prevailed 96-40; both scores are the closest MVRHS has come to beating Feehan, which hasn’t lost a dual meet in more than 15 years.

Feehan is the gold standard in regional track, and the Vineyarders are now a program on the cusp of regional excellence for several reasons:

• Numbers: Coach Joe Schroeder has 52 athletes this spring, more than double the number three years ago. The team fielded a first-ever girls 4×400 relay team on Wednesday. It is cool to run track at MVRHS. Feehan has proved that at their school. Nearly 20 percent (198) of its 1,080 students compete on the cinders.
• Transition: Schools are blessed from time to time with great athletes, and MVRHS has had its share with seniors Mackenzie Condon, Nate Packer, JoJo Bonneau, J.J. Alves, Owen Porterfield, Rich Barlett, et al. The question is how to sustain it. Winter indoor and early spring results indicate that will happen with the Biggs sisters Annabelle and Ashley, Borka Tolay, Maria Clara Lacerda, and their undergrad colleagues’ showing against the best.
• Coaching: MVRHS coaches are good at the Xs and Os, and create an enthusiastic, positive athlete-centric culture. A current vet on the team told us, spontaneously, at the sectional finals last winter, “If Joe Schroeder had half the resources some teams have, he would be the coach of the year every year.” Belief in coaching is a powerful advantage in any sport.
• Legacy: For the past two years, the Vineyarders have had extraordinary success in indoor, outdoor, and cross-country, winning at the regional, state, and national level.
  Like the rest of us, kids remember things like that.
• Depth: Nine boys and eight girls won or placed on Wednesday.

The Vineyarders won the field events on Wednesday, and was close in track events. Nate Packer won the shot put (42 feet,1.75 inches) and the discus (103.1 feet), Barlett won the javelin and placed second in the shot put. Owen Porterfield won the high jump and placed second in the 800 meters. JoJo Bonneau won the 400 hurdles, and was second in the triple jump and 110 hurdles. J.J. Alves took second in the 400 hurdles and third in the triple jump. Tripp Hopkins took third in the long jump and in the 100 meters. Micah Vought was second in the javelin, Owen Atkins was third in the 800 meters, Dash Christy was second in the 200 meters.

Mackenzie Condon placed third in her first shot put, won the long jump (16 feet, 6 inches), 400 high hurdles (68.7) and the 100 high hurdles; Annabelle Biggs won the 200 meters, and placed second in the long jump. Yayla DeChiara placed third in long jump after a Tyla Packish second-place jump, for a Vineyarder sweep of the event and had seconds in the javelin and 800 meters. Catherine Cherry scored in three events: second in the javelin (56 feet, 5 inches) and third in both the 800 meter and two-mile. Add in Maria Clara Lacerda’s debut hurdles finish and the good work of the girls running their first-ever 4×100 relay event, and Schroeder and associates were a happy bunch.

“Maria Clara Lacerda, Tyla Packish, Maria Frangos, and Ashley Biggs were outstanding,” Coach Shroeder said. “They had a decent time (56.5), were in sync running together for the first time, made clean [baton] handoffs. Relay is a fun event, and a performance like that builds enthusiasm,” he said.

Based on the Feehan meet, Schroeder and his coaching team have a better idea of their 52 charges. “The distance runners are all experienced and know their roles, but we can mix and match the dash and field events to put kids in the right events for them,” he said.