January 26, 2018 at 1:51 p.m.
Lakeland tops Hodag swimmers 101-67 in GNC finale
Lakeland tops Hodag swimmers 101-67 in GNC finale
The Hodags did touch the wall first in a couple of events, and narrowly lost a few others, as they fell to the T-Birds 101-67 Thursday at the Heck Family Community Pool.
Rhinelander started the night by edging Lakeland by 0.20 seconds in the 200-yard medley relay, and picked up a win with Russell Benoy later on in the competition. The Hodags were also within a second of the win in three other events, which was partly by design Rhinelander's coaching staff.
Knowing Lakeland easily had the upper hand in the dual, the Hodags stacked their lineup to go head-to-head with some of Lakeland's best.
"We placed these guys in events where they would have good (competitive) races," co-coach Jenny Heck explained. "We knew that Lakeland was stronger than us, has more depth, so we wanted to get good races."
Benoy was edged to the wall by 0.03 seconds by former state podium finisher, Jack Garcia of Lakeland, in the 50 freestyle. David King turned in a season-best time of 58.04 seconds in the 100 butterfly, but was defeated by both Alex Tucker and Garcia as the top three hit the wall 0.29 seconds apart.
Lakeland's Tyler Teichmiller beat Rhinelander's Thaddeus Heck by 0.79 seconds in a battle of the two fastest breaststrokers in the GNC, according to this season's conference honor roll.
Rhinelander nipped Lakeland in the opening event of the night, the 200 medley relay. The quartet of Benoy, Thaddeus Heck, King and Joseph Heck beat Liam Hogan, Teichmiller, Tucker and Brandon Boh to the wall with a time of 1:49.47. Benoy and King went 1-2 in the 100 backstroke later in the program.
"We're very pleased about the 200 medley relay, the win. We didn't win any events against them last time, so any win was a good win. We were happy with that," Jenny Heck said.
Thursday was parents and senior night for the RHS swim team as the Hodags honored their two seniors - Mathew Herman and Jack Kovac - in their final home swim. This year's senior class is a bit unusual, considering both Herman and Kovac are in their first year of competitive swimming, but coach Heck said both have been vital members of the team this season.
"Those seniors have been joys to coach this year and it's too bad their seniors," she said. "We wish they were freshmen. They've provided us a lot of points this year and have worked hard."
Kovac had one of the highlights of the night for Rhinelander, breaking the eight-minute barrier in the 500-yard freestyle for the first time.
The Hodags finished with the fifth-best record in the GNC, going 3-6-1 in conference dual meets. Those records get thrown out the window next Friday when the six conference teams converge on the LUHS pool in Minocqua for the conference meet. New this year, the conference meet results will be the sole determining factor in the final conference standings.
Freelancer Bob Mainhardt contributed to this report.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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