February 11, 2019 at 1:52 p.m.
Sectional sensations
Hodag swimmers win sectional title, send 10 entries to state
Sectional sensations
The Hodags built upon an already dominating season with yet another dominant performance Saturday, winning seven of 11 events and cruising to a WIAA Division 2 sectional title at UW-Stevens Point.
In addition to the seven sectional wins, the Hodags earned three additional at-large berths to the WIAA state meet, giving Rhinelander its largest contingent of swimmers in Madison in roughly two decades.
"A sectional win is just awesome," coach Jenny Heck said. "I can't remember the last time there was a sectional win for the guys. It's a great celebration and I'm really proud of them. They're all really proud and they should be. They all came together as a team this year. I know I've said it before, it wasn't just a few, it was all 10 guys."
"Holding this has a different value," senior Nolan Francis said as he admired the sectional championship plaque. "It's been a long time since Rhinelander has won a sectional championship. I think I heard Russell say it's been at least 20 years. Just being a part of this is super huge."
Russell Benoy and Francis were four-time sectional champs. They both won both of their individual events, and were part of school record-setting relays in the 200-yard medley and the 200 freestyle. Thaddeus Heck added a sectional title in the 100 breaststroke.
Devon Gaber, who was on the 200 free relay, earned at-large berths in both the 50 and 100 freestyle while David King, a member of the 200 medley relay, made the field of 16 for state in the 100 butterfly.
Joseph Heck was the other swimmer to qualify for state, on the freestyle relay with Gaber, Francis and Benoy.
Any question as to if Rhinelander would respond well to the time-shaving taper in their
training was answered right away as the team of Francis, Thaddeus Heck, King and Benoy lopped 3.65 seconds from their seed time in the medley relay, winning with a state-best time of 1 minute, 38.42 seconds.
That set the tone for the rest of the day as, with only one exception, the Hodags far exceeded their seed time in every event.
"I think that got everyone excited because they knew they could swim fast," Jenny Heck said. "They knew they were ready. It just went and snowballed from there. It was a perfect start."
Rhinelander kept the ball rolling in the 50 freestyle as Benoy avenged a close loss to Lakeland's Liam Hogan in the 50 freestyle at last week's GNC meet. Benoy got to the wall in 21.87 seconds, edging the Lakeland sophomore by 0.08 seconds. Benoy kept it going in the 100, leading a 1-2 finish in the event with Gaber. Benoy finished at 49.56 seconds. Gaber was at 50.10. Both were fast enough to make it to state. Gaber also qualified in the 50 free, where his fifth-place finish at 22.88 seconds was better than the state cutline by a mere 0.02 seconds.
"I slapped the water, was really happy, and then gave it a quick thought, but it was really great," Benoy said, asked of his reaction after winning the 50. "To swim the 100 with Devon, who swam amazing, we 1-2'ed that."
"Russell had a great day. He came in confident," Jenny Heck said. "He knew what he needed to do and he just swam great. Devon as well. He had a great meet, great times all around in all four of his events."
Francis was the only Rhinelander entry to go slower than the seed time, but there's some uncertainty in that result. Francis crushed the field in the 100 butterfly but a touchpad malfunction show Francis as the runner-up in the event. His hand-timed result of 52.31 seconds was roughly a half-second slower than his seed time, but was still fast enough for the No. 1 overall seed in the state entering next Friday's state meet.
"Fly, I made some mistakes. We're going to fix them for next week and hopefully crush that time a little more," Francis said.
Francis atoned in the backstroke. His winning time of 51.37 seconds set the school record and beat his previous best by 1.64 seconds. It's the second-fastest time in the state entering the state meet.
"We knew Nolan could do that and he went out and did what he needed to do. I think he's in great position for next week," Jenny Heck said.
The Hodags are also seeded first in the state after dropping a whopping 1.4 seconds in the 200 freestyle relay. They dominated the event with a winning time of 1:28.35.
"That relay was fast. We knew they could go faster and that was our goal to get that time, or close to that time, to get a good position for state next weekend," coach Heck said. "They did and I just couldn't be happier."
Thaddeus Heck was the final sectional champion for the Hodags as he won a four-way race in the breaststroke with a time of 1:02.10. He edged the sectional's top seed, Kevin Leach of Menomonie and Lakeland's Tyler Teichmiller by just more than eight tenths of a second. Joseph Heck, last year's sectional champ, finished fourth for Rhinelander.
"I think I beat my best time by about two seconds," Thaddeus Heck said. "We've been working a lot on my breast this year, a ton of hard work. It's the hardest year we've ever worked so far. Just to see it pay off at the end there, really made me happy."
The Hodags entered the day, knowing their were in contention to qualify for state in a number of events, and on the bubble in several others. King made it in the butterfly with a time of 54.98 seconds, which was 1.55 seconds better than the cutline.
Rhinelander had some near misses as well. Joseph Heck missed a chance to return to state in the breaststroke by 0.71 seconds. Heck also missed qualifying by 0.18 seconds in the 50 freestyle. King and Martin Hoger both finished under a minute in the backstroke, but fell more than a second over the cutline. Rhinelander missed in the 400 freestyle relay with the team of Gaber, Hoger, Thaddeus Heck and Joseph Heck by 0.84 seconds.
Still, Rhinelander had a staggering 16 top-five finishes in the meet and scored 377 points to beat Lakeland by 114 for the sectional title. Rhinelander and Lakeland combined to win all 11 events in the 10-team sectional.
Now the Hodags have their sights set on bigger goals this coming Friday at the WIAA state meet in Madison.
"I have full faith that the whole team's going to drop even more time next week and I can't wait to see the state results, how all the other sectionals did," Francis said. "Right now, we're in state contention. We're going for state. We all had season-best times and the exciting thing is next week we're going to be able to get those times down even farther, I think."
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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