The Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School cross country team is wrapping up a successful season this weekend as the team competes in the division 2C state championship on Saturday, Nov. 8 at Northfield Mountain Recreation Center.

The team is fresh off a league championship win on Oct. 25, their first league title since 2021. According to coach Joe Schroeder, the late success of last season propelled the team forward before they even ran their first meet.

“We still have a very young team, mostly sophomores and juniors, but some of the juniors and some of the seniors actually have only been doing cross country either one or two years,” he said. “We started seeing some of this success last year at the league championships and at the division championships at the end of the year, so we wanted to make a step forward and build on that.”

Five runners crossed the finish line before any other team had three finishers, which helped lift the team to the league title, with a final score of 37. Sandwich, which placed second, had 66 points.

Because every course is different, Coach Schroeder tries to be strategic to ensure the highest result possible. That includes having kids finish close together as often as they can, since the lowest overall score wins the meet.

“As we saw in the Cape and Islands [league] meet, that was great to see the kids really work hard and execute a plan that we’ve laid out literally for months,” he added.

Coach Schroeder is familiar with the state championship course and is preparing his runners for a hard race.

“The first mile is literally uphill, so that’s going to be a challenge for all the teams coming in, no matter how much you train,” he said.

Standouts throughout the season include senior Luis Costa who is ranked 12th in the division, and freshman Ben Fuller, who set the school freshman 5K record in September. He is ranked second in freshmen across the entire division and 25th among all grades.

“Luis is only in the second year of cross [country], but he’s been a great mentor for our younger kids,” Coach Schroeder said.

He also shouted out seniors Jonah Mafcher and Sophia Alves for setting an example for the younger runners.

“They’ve set the tone for us, just their courage and persistence has really helped our team,” he said.

State championships are Saturday, Nov. 8 at Northfield Mountain Recreation Center.