December 13, 2017 at 2:14 p.m.
Ten by ten
Hodags' 10-man crew wins 10 events, beats Shawano 86-77
Ten by ten
The Hodags won 10 events and defeated Shawano 86-77 at the Heck Family Community Pool in a GNC dual.
Rhinelander nearly made it a perfect 11 for 11, but was touched out for the win in the final event of the night, the 400-yard freestyle relay, by 0.46 seconds. Regardless, the meet went about as well as it could have for the Hodag swimmers.
"The kids did fantastic. I know I say that a lot, but they really did what they needed to do in their events. Exactly what we asked of them, they delivered," Hodag co-coach Jenny Heck said.
Rhinelander had five different winners in the eight individual races and won a pair of relays as it led wire to wire. The Hodags took control with a 1-2 finish by Martin Hoger and Thaddeus Heck in the second event of the night, the 200 freestyle, and led by eight or more points the rest of the way.
Hoger added a win for Rhinelander in the 100 backstroke while Thaddeus and Joseph Heck recorded another 1-2 finish in the 100 breaststroke. Joseph Heck edged Shawano's Peter Fuller for the win in the 500 freestyle by 0.69 seconds.
"The first for Joseph in the 500 was big for us as he dropped about nine seconds in that," Jenny Heck noted.
Rhinelander won close races to the wall in five consecutive events to pull off the victory. It started with junior Russell Benoy beating out Jeffery Green by 0.08 seconds to win the 50 freestyle. Sophomore David King used a strong 31.35-second split over the final 50 yards to pass James Krueger in the 100 butterfly and beat him by 0.24 seconds. Benoy edged Green again in the 100 freestyle, this time by 0.31 seconds followed by Joseph Heck's close win in the 500.
In a virtual dead heat entering the final leg of the 200 freestyle relay, Benoy outdueled Krueger over the final 50 to give Rhinelander a 0.97-second win in the event.
The Heck cousins, King and Gaber won the 200 medley relay for Rhinelander while Hoger, Gaber, Thaddeus Heck and Benoy made up the winning foursome in the 200 freestyle relay.
While Rhinelander's strong core of six swimmers all found the winners circle, the team's first-year swimmers - including recent addition Isaiah Piosalan - may have given Rhinelander just enough depth to spread out its entries and score the win. While not fielding a full lineup, the Hodags were closer to that objective Tuesday.
"Immensely," co-coach Marna Winnicki said when asked how the addition of a 10th swimmer has helped the team. "We were able to put in a total of five relays tonight. It makes a difference. It gives the other guys a little extra time between events."
Added Heck, "It's nice when those new guys are realizing they're contributing points, not only in the relays, but individual races, too."
Rhinelander travels to Lakeland Thursday to swim a T-Bird team that has a 21-match GNC winning streak. The Hodags were the last team to knock off Lakeland, back in December 2015.
"They're a fast team and they have depth," Heck said. "We're going to have some good races, some great competition. I know the kids want to get out there and swim some of the competition they'll be swimming against later on in the season. We'll try to make that happen."
Clarification
On Monday, Rhinelander High School activities director Brian Paulson brought to our attention a change in the scoring format for the Great Northern Conference boys' swim season. In a move approved by the GNC over the offseason, conference dual meets no longer count toward the final conference standings. Instead the format will mirror the girls' swim season with the conference championship determined solely by the results of the Great Northern Conference meet Feb. 2 at Lakeland. Prior to this season, teams earned one point per Great Northern Conference dual meet victory and up to 12 points at the GNC meet, based on their finish in the event.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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