October 6, 2017 at 1:34 p.m.
Hatchets sink Hodags in battle of GNC unbeatens
Tomahawk takes all 11 events in 101-69 victory
Hatchets sink Hodags in battle of GNC unbeatens
That success, however, was not enough to topple the Great Northern Conference's reigning champions Thursday night.
Tomahawk won all 11 events and defeated the Hodags 101-69 in a conference dual at the Heck Family Community Pool.
Tomahawk completed a perfect GNC dual season at 6-0 while the Hodags drop to 4-1 in the conference. Those results will have no bearing on the final conference standings, however, which will be settled during the GNC meet Oct. 27 in Ladysmith.
The Hodags scored seven runner-up finishes and a number of third-place finishes Thursday night, but didn't have enough to hang with a Hatchet roster loaded with state-caliber swimmers.
"Tomahawk's a great team," co-interim coach Jenny Heck said. "I thought our kids did great. We had 69 points. I was hoping we'd get to 70, but 69 is great against a team like Tomahawk. I thought the times were really good. We had a really hard week of training last week with having a bye week. The kids worked really hard. They came in and swam sharp."
The Hatchets rallied over the final 100 yards to win the 200-yard medley relay by 0.84 seconds over the Hodag team of Lisa Kennedy, Jenna Hawley, Makenna Winnicki and Grace Heck. That ended up being the closest Rhinelander would get to a victory the entire night.
Tomahawk's Kylee Theiler outdueled Winnicki in a battle of freshmen to win both the 200 and 500 freestyle. Carly Seidl came up with a personal-best time of 27.07 seconds for Rhinelander in the 50 freestyle, but it was still 1.27 seconds behind Tomahawk's Rachel Dallman. Kennedy went 1:06.00 in the 100 breaststroke, but finished a little more than two seconds behind Tomahawk's Megan Marcks. In total six different Hatchets won individual events on the night.
"This was definitely our most difficult meet of the year," Jenny Heck said. "They were ready for it and gave it their all. This just sets us up for later in the season."
Marisa McGuire, Winnicki, Hawley and Heck finished second for Rhinelander in the 200 freestyle realy (1:47.46). Kennedy, Taylor Macak, Maddie Quinn and McGuire were the runners up for the Hodags in the 400 freestyle relay. Quinn added third-place finishes for the Hodags in the 200 individual medley and the 100 backstroke. McGuire was third in the 200 freestyle and the 100 freestyle. Grace Heck finished third in the 100 freestyle, Taylor Macak was third in the 100 butterfly and Marissa Martin finished third in the 100 breaststroke.
"I was really pleased with some of the sprinters," Jenny Heck noted. "It was great to see some of our seniors really do well. Kids really went out there and attacked their races."
Rhinelander closes the conference dual season next Thursday at Colby/Abbotsford, but the team already has an eye toward conference and sectionals and knows it will have to contend with the Hatchets again for all-conference positions and berths in the WIAA state meet.
"It gives us some times to shoot for, for our lineups in the future," Heck said.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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