November 8, 2017 at 1:32 p.m.
Grace and the freshmen
New core leads RHS swimmers back to state meet
Grace and the freshmen
"If I leave too early, we'll get DQed," Winnicki said after Heck razzed her for a slow relay exchange.
"You leave that slow, we'll finish last anyway," Heck retorted.
The two make up half of the Hodag contingent heading to Madison this Friday for the WIAA Division 2 state girls' swim meet. They are joined by two other freshmen - Lisa Kennedy and Marissa Martin - as the starters on the team's state-qualifying 200-yard medley relay. Winnicki will also compete individually in the 500-yard freestyle.
This is far from the same team that's gone to Madison the last two years. Kiah Francis, who won the state title in the 200 individual medley and 100 breaststroke last year after finishing runner-up in both events back in 2015, dominated the headlines those years.
This time around, the spotlight will be shared by a junior who has quickly turned into the team's grizzled veteran and a group of freshman who helped push the team to its most successful season in a decade.
"It was definitely different than other years," said Heck, who's been on the team's state-qualifying 200 medley relay three years running. "It was a great group nonetheless. Every year is going to be a different year because you have new people coming on and swimming."
In most cases it takes freshmen some time to earn their stripes over months and years, but this crop of ninth-graders made an immediate impact for the Hodags and were accepted into the fold from the onset.
"Something cool about this team maybe different than other sports teams is that everyone is one big family," Heck said. "It's not divided by grades. It's really great to have the freshmen here and I treat them like another one my classmates."
"It's really nice having all these freshmen that I've swam with in club since I was 9 years old," Kennedy said. "It's just not as scary moving up to the high school level. They're all in the same place as me and we're at the same level, time-wise, so we can all support each other."
Rhinelander needed someone to step up after Francis' graduation. She posted the fastest breaststroke leg in the medley relay at state last year despite the team's 14th-place finish. It turns out Rhinelander had four rise to the occasion. Kennedy took over the backstroke leg. Martin emerged late in the season as the team's answer in the breaststroke leg. Winnicki took over the butterfly leg, allowing Heck to focus on the anchor freestyle leg.
"For the medley, it's a whole team effort for this one. It's all of them working together and working hard," said Marna Winnicki, Makenna's mom and one of the co-interim head coaches on the team.
She was pressed into coaching duty mid-season when the district and head coach Lindsay Byrka parted ways after failing to agree to terms on a contract. Jenny Heck, Grace's mom and a former accomplished college swimmer in her own right, soon joined the fold.
From the get-go the two tried to empower the squad, encouraging the swimmers to control their own destiny despite the unusual circumstances unfolding around them.
The team seemed to embrace that mantra, finishing second at last month's Great Northern Conference meet - the Hodags' best finish in conference play since 2007 when they were the Wisconsin Valley Conference runners up. Rhinelander followed that with a fifth-place finish at last week's Division 2 sectional meet in Stevens Point, up two spots from a year ago.
While Grace Heck brings the experience to the state-qualifying quartet, the freshmen bring a load of talent. Kennedy was third in the backstroke at conference, Martin was the conference runner-up in the breaststroke and Winnicki finished second in the 200 and 500 freestyle at conference - performances she replicated at last Saturday's sectional.
"They've already shown our team that they mean business and that they're really fast and really good. I see our team keep getting better and better over the next few years," Grace Heck said of her younger teammates.
While Winnicki, Kennedy and Martin have previously experienced state-level competition at the club level, they said they are looking to Heck for advice in front of their first swim on the high school level at the UW-Madison Natatorium.
"It's great having somebody who's swam at state the past two years because Grace knows the competition and has more experience than pretty much anyone on the team," Kennedy said. "We can always look to her for advice."
"All the girls look up to her," Marna Winnicki added. "They may get overexcited and she's a calming factor to them, but holds them together and holds them accountable at the same time. She's what the team needs."
Martin said she has particularly leaned on Heck this year, especially following a long hiatus from competitive swimming. She finally got the itch to get back in the water a couple of weeks into the season.
"I just missed being around everyone and being able to swim and make it to big meets," she said. "It was hard in the beginning, but it's gotten easier as it's gone on."
Martin's time in the breaststroke, her speciality, has steadily improved throughout the season, so much so that she earned the starting spot on the medley relay just a week before sectionals. Martin delivered last Saturday with a season-best 31-second split in the breaststroke leg of the medley, helping the Hodags to a third-place finish in the sectional and one of the 12 at large bids in the event for the state meet.
"She's continued to drop time," Jenny Heck said. "We anticipated she would. We hoped she would and she continues to do that and that's exactly what we needed to get this team to state."
The Hodags are not simply satisfied by qualifying for the state meet. The quartet, along with relay alternates Jenna Hawley and Marisa McGuire, has some clear goals for when it gets there.
"I would like to see all best times from everyone," Grace Heck said, as the team looks to improve upon its 12th-place qualifying time of 1 minute, 55.08 seconds. "If one person goes a best time, that might not change a relay. When you can put it all together, that really means something. That means more to me than a place."
In the 500, Winnicki said she has loftier aspirations than a strong finish. She has her sights set on the oldest record remaining on the RHS board - Karen Burton's 5:10.27 mark set back in 1979. Winnicki swam a lifetime-best 5:22.45 last Saturday.
"That would be cool," she said, admitting it would be a longshot to drop 12 additional seconds and break Burton's record Friday night. "I just have to see what I can pull off all shaved, tapered and suited up."
Even if Winnicki doesn't reach that goal Friday night. She will still have three more years to go after Burton's mark.
"That's what great about Makenna," Jenny Heck said. "She sets goals and she goes after them. It keeps her working hard. Those goals are what separate those that are good from those that are great. She's done a great job of that since I've known Makenna."
Regardless of what happens Friday night, Martin put the team's expectations into perspective.
"Having fun is the biggest part," she said.
That's advice she and the rest of the freshmen have been getting all week from Grace Heck.
"Just take it all in," she has told her teammates. "It's a fun experience and don't let your nerves get the best of you."
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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