February 13, 2017 at 3:28 p.m.
Francis, Hodags qualify for state swim meet in 4 events
Francis, Hodags qualify for state swim meet in 4 events
There's the direct path to state that comes with winning an event at sectionals - which sophomore Nolan Francis did twice Saturday. Then there's long way to Madison, hoping a time is good enough to be among the fastest 12 non-sectional champions statewide. The Hodags went this route as well, qualifying two relay teams, including one that fell right on the state cutline.
All told five Hodag teammates will be joining Francis, who set a school record in the 200-yard individual medley and also won the 100 butterfly Saturday. Thaddeus Heck, David King and Russell Benoy are going along with Francis in the 200 medley relay, while Benoy, Martin Hoger, Devon Gaber and Francis made it in the 200 freestyle relay.
It wasn't a bad day's work for a team of only nine swimmers that had its training interrupted for three weeks in the middle of the season due to a pertussis outbreak.
"We knew what we were doing, despite adversity," coach Lindsay Byrka said. "I'm glad the guys were on board and they trusted us. That's a big thing to put their whole season in the hands of coaches who have never done this before but, luckily, we had a lot of volunteer help this year and I asked for every opinion I could possibly get. I just evaluated everything and made the best call at the end of the day."
Francis earned Rhinelander's first state berth of the day with a lifetime-best performance of 1:59.89 in the IM, nearly seven seconds faster than his seed time entering the event. He led wire to wire, opening up a huge gap during the breaststroke leg of the race.
"It was just an amazing experience," Francis said. "I had the guys pushing me for the first half of the race and I just took it from there. I just trusted my training would come through. That breaststroke was really a crucial part of the race - going a 35, as opposed to a 36 in my previous best time, which was a 2:01. It was the breaststroke, mainly, and the fly that carried me through that race. I've never been more happy with a race before and, overall, it was just fun."
Added Byrka: "All year we've been really kind of thinking about what we could do with Nolan because he's just dangerous in all strokes. So the IM has to be on your radar. He had a really phenomenal swim at the beginning of the season in one of his club meets, so right there, we knew that was our ace in the hole."
Francis, who qualified for state in the 100 freestyle and all three relays as a freshman, added the 100 butterfly title to his credit (54.27) later in the meet, holding off Lakeland's Jacob Hamerla by 0.64 seconds.
"It was a little bit of a sloppy swim, but I was able to get through it and win it," Francis said. "We'll assess what I did wrong, work on it and hopefully next week I won't make those mistakes and go even faster."
The Hodags dropped three seconds and one position from where they were seeded in the 200 medley relay to finish second in the races (1:45.28) to feel comfortable, but not assured of a state bid. The real nail-biting took place in the 200 freestyle relay as the Hodags' finished fifth (1:45.01) in a crazy race in which the top five teams were separated by only 0.51 seconds. The Hodags left UWSP thinking they would not qualify for the event only two find out some two hours later that their time was the 16th-fastest overall and made the state field by 0.09 seconds.
"When the news came that not enough of those teams dropped enough time, I think it was just kind of relief," Byrka said. "This is our do-over chance, and that's what they wanted. They want to opportunity to get their best time."
There was some question as to how the Hodags would perform Saturday given that virtually all of the training they put in prior to Dec. 16 was lost when the School District of Rhinelander and the Oneida County Health Department nixed all high school practices and contests through Jan. 2 due to an unusually high number of whooping cough cases. But the Hodags came through, beating their seed time with 18 of their 20 total entries.
"You come to a meet like this and that's what you want, you want 100 percent best times," Byrka said. "We had a couple of hiccups around the middle and then we closed off again really good. With a team this young, with the kind of season we had where we essentially had to start over from scratch on Jan. 3, I'm really excited about the way that they did."
Despite the success, the Hodags missed out on qualifying for state in a few individual events Saturday. Benoy finished fourth in the 50 freestyle (23.33), but missed state in the event by 0.26 seconds. He finished third in the 100 (51.60) but missed in that event by roughly a second. Thaddeus Heck finished third with a lifetime-best in the 100 breaststroke (1:07.57), but was still about 1.7 seconds over the cutline.
"The thirds are very respectable swims," Byrka said. "I'm more proud of the best times than the places on that because, if you don't win, you've just got to get as low as you possibly can."
King added a seventh-place finish in the butterfly and an eighth-place swim in the backstroke. Heck finished eighth in the IM.
The Hodags were the third-best Great Northern Conference school in the field behind sectional champion Lakeland and third-place Shawano. Antigo finished sixth, Tomahawk was eighth and Medford finished 11th.
"Not one time this year have we been looking at team points," Byrka said of the good team result at sectionals. "It's not been on our radar. Especially a meet like this where you're looking to try to get best times, try to qualify for state. That was impressive and I think the guys, despite having that broken season, they really tapered down and did well."
Now the attention shifts to this Friday's state meet in Madison, where a couple of different agendas will be in play. Individually, Francis will have his sights on making the podium with top-six finishes in the IM and the butterfly. He will enter the meet seeded fourth in the IM and sixth in the fly. As for the relays, complete with five swimmers who will be taking part in their first WIAA state meet, it will be all about having fun and learning for the future.
"For our young team and our hopes of just barely making it, that was the feat right there, just getting to the state meet," Byrka said. "I think this week is going to be really fun in practice. None of these guys have any WIAA state experience. Thaddeus has gone to the USA (Swimming) state meet but, for everyone else, this is going to be their biggest meet.
"We graduate nobody and the following year, we only have Conor (Natrop). We lose one in the next two years. You've got to be scared if you're another team looking at the Hodags right now."
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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