December 18, 2019 at 2:28 p.m.
Hodag swimmers sweep Shawano, move to 3-0 in GNC
Hodag swimmers sweep Shawano, move to 3-0 in GNC
The Hodags dominated Tuesday night, taking first and second in every event as they defeated Shawano 134-35 in a GNC dual at the Heck Family Community Pool.
Rhinelander (3-0 Great Northern) had 10 different swimmers win at least one event and seven swimmers win multiple events. Much of the night the team's closest competition was itself.
"It was a great opportunity to race each other in our relays tonight, which enabled us to get some fast splits from guys," Rhinelander coach Jenny Heck said. "We use every meet as an opportunity to improve and I saw a lot of good things tonight."
Rhinelander had a number of close races against itself, none closer than the opening race of the night. The team's A entry in the 200-yard medley relay of Joseph Heck, Jack Antonuk, Gavin Ostermann and Charlie Heck (1 minute, 51.83 seconds) edged the B entry of Daniel Gillingham, Thaddeus Heck, David King and Carter Gaber to the wall by 0.01 seconds.
All the relay races were relatively close. Devon Gaber, Jacob Schoppe, Marcus O'Malley and Thaddeus Heck (1:44.31) beat Eli Lundt, Antonuk, Joseph Heck and Carter Gaber by 2.22 seconds in the 200 freestyle relay. Gillingham, Ostermann, David King and Charlie Heck took the 400 freestyle relay (3:44.65) by roughly 4.5 seconds over Devon Gaber, Antonuk, O'Malley and Schoppe.
Rhinelander had a number of freshmen and first-year swimmers contribute to the win total on Tuesday, led by Gillingham who took the 200 individual medley (2:21.04) and the 100 freestyle (54.00) to go along with a win in the 400 freestyle relay. Charlie Heck and Ostermann, a sophomore in his first year of swimming, each were a part of two relay wins while Antonuk and O'Malley were each part of one relay win.
"Our freshmen are able to point in various events, not just the freestyle," coach Heck said. "It's great that they're able to come in and swim every event and point. We have a lot of versatility and that once again showed tonight."
Devon Gaber, a senior, added wins in the 200 freestyle (2:03.77) and the 100 butterfly (1:02.97), Joseph Heck took both the 50 (23.78) and 500 freestyle (5:47.07), David King won the 100 backstroke (1:02.07) and Thaddeus Heck took the 100 breaststroke (1:05.70).
"Some of the guys were once again able to swim some things they don't normally swim," Jenny Heck noted. "I thought Devon Gaber had a great 100 fly. I was impressed with Thaddeus Heck, he had a great 100 breast time. We had different guys in the 500 today, that was good."
Rhinelander got individual runner-up finishes from Antonuk (200 freestyle), Thaddeus Heck (200 IM), David King (50 freestyle), Schoppe (100 butterfly), Charlie Heck (100 freestyle), O'Malley (500 freestyle), Lundt (100 backstroke) and Ashton Cole (100 breaststroke).
The Hodags return to action tonight against rival Lakeland in Minocqua.
"That's going to be a tough meet," coach Heck said. "They have some fast guys - some of the fastest in the GNC. They're going to put together some fast relays and they also have some of the top guys in the events as well. We're going to have a lot of close races."
Lakeland suffered its first conference loss of the season with an 85-83 loss at Tomahawk on Tuesday.
Freelancer Bob Mainhardt contributed to this report. Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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