December 22, 2017 at 12:54 p.m.
Hodag swimmers tie Tomahawk
Hodag swimmers tie Tomahawk
What a difference a few weeks makes.
Despite not competing at 100 percent, the Hodags still managed to win six events and swim to an 80-80 tie with the Hatchets Thursday night at the Heck Family Community Pool.
Rhinelander was without Isaiah Piosalan for the meet and David King competed at less than 100 percent, yet the Hodags led 76-70 going into the final event before settling for a draw, the first in a Great Northern Conference dual since Rhinelander and Shawano tied back in 2012.
"They beat us by more than 20 points the first time we swam them so we were happy to close the gap," Rhinelander co-coach Jenny Heck said. "We're more competitive. We're training hard and we were able to put our swimmers in different events in this meet, which was nice. We moved around our lineup and we had success in the areas we tried out."
As a few meets have this season for the Hodags (2-3-1 Great Northern), Thursday's contest came down to the final event, the 400 freestyle relay. Tomahawk standout sophomore Travis Phillips got a roughly one-second head start into the pool for the final leg and easily beat Rhinelander's Russell Benoy 50.53 seconds to 56.08 over the final 100. The Hatchets also took third in the race, the two extra points they needed to earn the draw.
"The 400 free relay, we were hoping to swim faster, but we did everything we could have done," Heck said. "Even if we would have swam faster with David feeling better, it still would have been tough with their four swimmers against our four."
The coaches did not specify the type of injury King had, but he was clearly not 100 percent, as evidenced by a 52.53-second breaststroke split in the 200 individual medley. He finished second to Tomahawk's Jacob Miller by a second and a half with a time of 2:37.72.
"Normally his time's a 2:16. That was a big difference right there," Heck said. "But he was at least able to swim and finish. We were very pleased that he was able to be tough and strong while not feeling 100 percent."
Benoy and Thaddeus Heck led a 1-2 finish for the Hodags in the 200 freestyle. Devon Gaber and Joseph Heck went 1-2 in the 50 freestyle and then reversed the order for a 1-2 in the 100. Thaddeus Heck added a win for Rhinelander in the 100 breaststroke.
Phillips broke a minute for Tomahawk in the butterfly and the backstroke as he cruised to wins in both events. Despite making up 5.5 seconds in the butterfly leg of the medley relay, Phillips and his Tomahawk teammates could not track down the Hodag quartet of Martin Hoger, Thaddeus Heck, King and Gaber in the opening event.
Benoy, Joseph Heck, Thaddeus Heck and Gaber made up the winning foursome in the 200 freestyle relay.
In a meet where every point was critical, some of Rhinelander's first-year swimmers filled holes in the lineup and gained valuable points. Mathew Herman and Jack Kovac finished 3-4 in the 500 freestyle and Kovac competed in breaststroke for the first time, placing fifth and scoring one point.
"The 500 free, we were glad that Mathew and Jack were able to provide five points for us. That's huge," Jenny Heck said. "That's a hard race to swim for new racers and without both of them swimming it, we would have lost the meet.
"If Jack wouldn't have been able to swim that new event he never swam before, we would have lost the meet instead of tying. That's a tough event to do legally for the first time."
Rhinelander returns to action Jan. 4 when it hosts Medford at the Heck Pool. That doesn't mean the Hodags will be taking much time off during the holiday break.
"We're going to be training really hard over Christmas break," Heck said. "This is kind of the high point of our training. We work the hardest over break and then we're able to start stepping back a little bit in January. We're looking forward to getting this training in and seeing what we can do during the second half of this season."
Freelancer Bob Mainhardt contributed to this report.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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