September 26, 2018 at 12:59 p.m.
Hodag swimmers sweep Antigo in 122-47 rout
Hodag swimmers sweep Antigo in 122-47 rout
The Hodags won all 11 events, sweeping the top two positions in six of them, as they cruised to a 122-47 win over the Red Robins at the Heck Family Community Pool.
The Hodags (4-0 Great Northern) would have had reason to be a little sluggish on Tuesday. The team conducted its annual 10,000-yard practice the night before. It will be the toughest workout of the year as the team gradually begins to taper through the month of October in front of the Great Northern Conference and WIAA sectional meets.
"I didn't want to get that bug in their ear they might be tired because they really did well in their distance events," coach Jenny Heck said, noting Monday's practice lasted approximately five hours. "I think their sprinting wasn't quite as fast as normal but you could tell, with that hard work, they are going to be stronger in the end."
The Hodags had seven different winners in the eight individual races. In all, eight different swimmers had a hand in at least one victory.
Makenna Winnicki was the team's only four-event winner on the night. She won both the 100-yard butterfly (1 minute, 4.28 seconds) and the 100 backstroke (1:03.77), and was on Rhinelander's winning 200 medley and 400 freestyle relay teams.
Rhinelander cleaned up in several events, highlighted by a 1-2-3 finish by Marisa McGuire (27.98), Maria Heck and Allie Fugle in the 50-yard freestyle. The three were separated by less than six-tenths of a second in the race.
The Hodags collected five other 1-2 finishes on the night. Lisa Kennedy edged teammate Grace Heck in the closest race of the night. Kennedy (2:31.97) beat Heck to the wall by 0.24 seconds to win the 200 individual medley.
Grace Heck (1:01.37) and McGuire finished 1-2 in the 100 freestyle, Maria Heck (5:53.55) and Kennedy took the top two spots in the 500 freestyle; and Maddie Quinn finished second to Winnicki in the 100 backstroke. Rhinelander also went 1-2 in the 200 medley relay with the team of Kennedy, Noelle St. Pierre, Winnicki and Grace Heck (2:02.09), beating out Quinn, Fugle, Riley Miller and McGuire.
St. Pierre (2:11.83) added a win for Rhinelander in the 200 freestyle, Fugle (1:22.84) took the 100 breaststroke, the team of Grace Heck, Jaylen Janssen, Maria Heck and St. Pierre won the 200 freestyle relay (1:54.88) and the Hodags completed the clean sweep of the events with a win by McGuire, Kennedy, Maria Heck and Winnicki in the 400 freestyle relay (4:05.00).
"I was pleased with some of our times - the 200 free, 200 IM times were pretty good for the girls," Jenny Heck said. "I was pleased with those times. Lisa and Grace, it was a good race in the IM. Makenna had a nice swim in the fly and the back. It was great to have Allie Fugle win the breaststroke. That was great for her and a good time as well."
The Hodags went into the meet knowing they had the upper hand on a small Antigo squad. Coach Heck said that gave the team an opportunity to put swimmers in different events and create a little intra-squad competition within the meet.
"A lot of them had really good times in events they've never swam before and now we have more options going forward," she noted.
Rhinelander has nine days off prior to facing GNC newcomer Mosinee Oct. 4 at the Heck Pool. That's plenty of time to get in a few more strong workouts before gradually beginning to taper the training.
"Now we're hoping to continue training, work on sprinting and go after the last six weeks of swim," Heck said.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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