January 21, 2015 at 12:55 p.m.
Hodag swimmers fall to GNC-leading Shawano 101-63
Hodag swimmers fall to GNC-leading Shawano 101-63
The Hodags (2-7 Great Northern) were within shouting distance, trailing Shawano (8-0 Great Northern) 32-29 after four events, but the Hawks pulled away winning seven of the final eight races and eight events overall.
The Hodags' roster, pared to seven swimmers due to attrition, did not have enough to keep up with the conference leaders.
"It's a little rough going in when we only have seven swimmers, compared to their double digits," RHS assistant boys' swim coach Megan Cihla said afterward. "We went into the meet knowing it wasn't going to be a really close meet, but more of a let's focus on our own events and see what we could do to prepare for that conference meet, sectional meet and hopefully state."
In that vein, Cihla said the team performed well.
"Overall, I think we did very well with where we're at," she said. "We're in the middle of ending our hard part of the season so a lot of our guys are pretty tired, but that's where we expected them to be. They gave us the effort they knew they could handle at this point so, overall, I'm happy with how they did."
Senior Jake Zalewski had a hand in all three Rhinelander victories taking the 50-yard freestyle (23.75), the 100 breaststroke (1:08.15) and was part of the winning 200-yard medley relay team with Ethan Brown, Kirby Kuehn and Alex Gaber (1:51.61).
"Jake came off being sick for a week so the fact that he came in and did what he did tonight was excellent," Cihla said. "He had very strong swims. We could not ask for anything better."
The Hodags added a six-pack of runner-up finishes in the meet. Brown took second in the 200 freestyle (2:05.46) and the 100 freestyle (55.55). He was barely touched out in both races, losing by 0.36 seconds in the 200 and 0.05 seconds in the 100. Kirby Kuehn was the runner-up in the 100 butterfly (1:02.71) and Alex Gaber took second in the 500 freestyle (6:16.55).
The Hodags also claimed second place in the 200 free relay with Brown, Zalewski, Kuehn and Gaber (1:39.48) and the 400 free relay with Mike Laska, Kuehn, Tyler Krogh and Matthew O'Melia (4:20.68).
Cihla noted a couple of other individual performances in Tuesday's meet
"Matthew O'Melia's 100 backstroke was excellent," she said. "He dropped about 11 seconds on that. Every time he swims he gets up and improves. Kirby Kuehn his 50 freestyle (split in the 200 free relay), is where we want it to be right now. He's very crucial for those relays for sectionals. He really stepped up tonight."
Rhinelander will host Tomahawk Thursday at the Heck Pool.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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