October 11, 2019 at 12:53 p.m.
Hodag swimmers nearly perfect in 138-30 rout of Mosinee
Hodag swimmers nearly perfect in 138-30 rout of Mosinee
Rhinelander swept the top two spots in every race and cruised to a 138-30 win over Mosinee at the Heck Family Community Pool.
The maximum a team can score in a dual meet is 140 points. Rhinelander narrowly missed the feat. Mosinee scored third-place finishes in the 100-yard backstroke and 100 breaststroke to prevent a complete whitewash.
A perfect score was the last thing on coach Jenny Heck's mind as she used the meet to shuffle her lineup again.
"Mosinee's a new team and I thought they did well for a new team," she said. "We knew this was a chance to race ourselves and go for some records and have some fun going for some best times. We were able to do that."
One record fell Thursday night as sophomore Malia Francis took down another mark set by her older sister, Kiah. This one came in the 100 butterfly as Francis won with a time of 57.73 seconds, eclipsing both the Heck Pool and school mark set by Kiah Francis (58.42) back in 2015.
"Maila did great. That's exactly what she wanted do," Heck said. "She went right after it from the start and, once again, it was really fun to watch."
Rhinelander also geared up to take a run at the 25-year old pool record in the 400 freestyle relay. The squad of Lisa Kennedy, Makenna Winnicki, Francis and Noelle St. Pierre won the race, but their time of 3:49.03 was 2.24 seconds off record pace.
"We haven't put together those four girls in the 400 free relay," Heck said. "We were hoping for a little faster time, but it's better than what we've put together so far this season."
Rhinelander had 10 different swimmers record wins in the dual. That included the closest race of the night, as Rhinelander's B entry in the 200 freestyle relay of Emily Tinsman, Genna Fugle, Phoebe Moran and Jaylen Janssen edged out the A entry of Allysa Scheuermann, Winnicki, St. Pierre and Marisa McGuire by 0.42 seconds.
"We were hoping some of those girls who normally don't get first or second would be able to be a part of it, and they were," Heck said. "That was really exciting and I was happy to see some of the seniors get those firsts or seconds."
Francis added a win for Rhinelander in the 500 freestyle (5:21.72), St. Pierre won the 200 individual medley (2:27.89) and the 100 freestyle (58.76), Kennedy took the 200 freestyle (2:12.19), Winnicki won the 50 freestyle (26.31), Sierra Woodford won the 100 backstroke (1:10.52) and McGuire claimed the 100 breaststroke (1:17.88). Francis, McGuire, Kennedy and Janssen made up the winning team for Rhinelander in the 200 medley relay (2:00.86).
Maria Heck scored runner-up finishes for Rhinelander in the 50 and 100 freestyle. Hannah Rumney added a runner-up finish in the 100 breaststroke. Rhinelander also got individual second-place swims from McGuire (200 freestyle), Woodford (200 IM), Kennedy (100 butterfly), Winnicki (500 freestyle) and Fugle (100 backstroke).
Maria Heck, Woodford, Abigail Johnson and Fugle finished second in the 200 medley relay. Heck, Woodford, Johnson and Gussie Gruett made up the second-place quartet in the 400 freestyle relay.
The win moved Rhinelander to 6-0 in the GNC and assures the Hodags will be at least tied for first in the conference standings heading into the conference meet Nov. 1 in Stevens Point. Lakeland (5-1) moved into sole possession of second place in the GNC with a 98-72 win over Medford on Thursday.
The Hodags close the dual meet portion of the season this Thursday at home against five-time defending GNC champion Tomahawk, which appears to be out of the conference race this year at 3-3 in the standings.
"That's a big meet for us. It's our last dual and conference meet and we're going to go after it like we have every meet," coach Heck said. "We haven't taken anyone lightly. I've pushed the girls to say, 'I want four fast races every meet,' so they get used to swimming as hard the fourth event as they did in the first event. That's what we're going to do again next week."
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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