August 23, 2019 at 11:34 a.m.
Making a splash
Hodag swimmers off to strong start in opening meets
Making a splash
Sophomore Malia Francis won the Colby/Abbotsford pentathlon in her high school debut Wednesday, while returning state qualifier Makenna Winnicki finished tops in her age group and third overall. The two were also on a trio of relays that finished in the top two Thursday as the team placed third in the Merrill Fun in the Sun Relay at the Bierman Aquatic Center.
"They have been working really hard," said assistant coach Marna Winnicki who oversaw the team for the two meets with head coach Jenny Heck away due to a family obligation. "It's been a fast eight days. They've all put in the work. Obviously it showed today. They had some great time drops. I'm really happy."
Not only were the meets a chance for the Hodags to get a baseline on their own times at the start of their season, it was the first chance to size up some of their competition. The Hodags were one of four GNC teams in the field Wednesday at Colby/Abbotsford. Rhinelander placed ahead of five-time defending GNC champion Tomahawk Thursday in Merrill in a field that included four teams that the Hodags will see in early November at WIAA sectionals.
"It's a help to be able to see what they've got, where they're are," Winnicki said. "Everybody's doing that with each other. I think we're going to do well. Thinks are looking up."
Francis, Winnicki set records at Colby Pent
Francis and Makenna Winnicki both rewrote the event record board and finished first in their respective classes on Wednesday's season-opening Colby/Abbotsford Pentathlon.
Francis set four class records, and an overall meet record, in the event while Winnicki took down one class record as all the swimmers competed in a 50-yard race in each stroke as well as a 100 individual medley.
Most notably Francis broke the overall event record in the 50-yard backstroke (27.51) set by her older sister Kiah (28.02) three years ago.
"Malia's a backstroker and it showed," Marna Winnicki said. "She did a great job. There's still a couple of little things we need to tweak on her. Malia's been working really hard. She went for it and she did a good job."
Malia Francis could not touch any of her sister's other overall records in the event, but she took down a class record in the pentathlon (2:54.65), which was the third-fastest combined time ever in the event - behind Kiah Francis' performances in 2016 (2:51.01) and 2015 (2:53.55). Malia Francis also set class records in the butterfly (26.84) and IM (1:01.49).
Winnicki, meanwhile, took down the junior class record in the backstroke (29.18), a mark previously set by Tomahawk's Megan Marcks in 2017 (29.36).
"Makenna's been working really hard on her backstroke with Malia. They were both able to break their 50 records in their age group," Marna Winnicki said.
Makenna Winnicki was the top junior in four of the five events, as well as the overall pentathlon (3:05.34). She was second overall in both the butterfly (28.02) and backstroke, and third overall in the IM (1:05.68).
Sophomore Noelle St. Pierre was the third Hodag in the top 10 overall on Wednesday. She was the third-fastest sophomore, and seventh-fastest overall (3:14.20) in the pentathlon, placed in the top 10 overall in every event except backstroke and was the second-fastest sophomore, behind Francis, in both the breaststroke (37.49) and the IM (1:09.10).
Senior Marisa McGuire also turned in a solid performance. The highlight of her day with a third-place finish in class, and ninth overall in the breaststroke (36.45). She was the fourth-fastest senior, and 13th overall, in the pentathlon (3:23.08).
Sierra Woodford was in the top five among sophomores in four of the five events as she placed fifth in class, and 19th overall, in the pentathlon (3:34.35).
The Hodags had a number of freshmen in the mix as well. Among freshmen, Abigale Johnson was third in both butterfly and freestyle, fourth in the IM and fifth in the pentathlon.
Genna Fugle was fourth in freestyle and fifth in backstroke, Maddie Mathwig was fifth in butterfly and Phoebe Moran was fifth in breaststroke.
"I'm really happy," Marna Winnicki said. "There's not one thing I'm unhappy with. People dug deep and put in a lot of great finishes, come from behind finishes. That I was extremely happy with."
Hodags take third in Merrill Relays
The strong start for the Hodags continued Thursday with top four-finishes in five of the nine events in Merrill.
The most notable finish of the night came in the 300-yard backstroke relay as the team of sophomore Maria Heck, Woodford, Winnicki and Francis took the event in a time of 3:05.99.
Winnicki posted a 1:01.14 split in her 100-yard leg while Francis closed out the event with a 56.53-second split - more than three second faster than Kiah Francis' official school record in the 100 backstroke (59.81).
McGuire and St. Pierre joined Winnicki and Francis to win the 600 individual medley relay (6:51.53) and place second in the 300 breaststroke relay (3:43.75).
"I was pretty happy with our backstroke relay," Marna Winnicki said. "I got Maria and Sierra in there and they did a really great job. The breaststroke relay, we threw in a couple of kids that either don't do breaststroke or haven't done it in quite a while and McGuire did really well. She's coming along as a breaststroker."
"We were figuring that those relays would do well. There was some good competition and I think, for this part of the season, the kids are doing really well with their times. Some of them are pretty much right where they were at the end of last season."
Winnicki, St. Pierre, McGuire and Johnson took third in the 400 medley relay (4:35.49). Fugle, Johnson, Woodford and Heck took fourth in the 500 crescendo freestyle relay (5:39.65). Johnson, Freshman Gussie Gruett, Fugle and Heck were sixth in the 200 freestyle relay.
Perhaps the biggest change is that the Merrill meet is the only outdoor meet the Hodags will swim all season and it came on a day where the high temperature struggled to reach 70 degrees.
"It's completely different than what we did yesterday," Marna Winnicki said. "It's cold. Some of these events are a little bit longer in between, so they're sitting and getting a little stiff, but I think everyone worked hard."
Division 1 schools Stevens Point and D.C. Everest finished ahead of Rhinelander in Thursday's nine-team event.
The Hodags will be back in the pool this coming Wednesday at the Marshfield Invitational.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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