October 19, 2020 at 8:38 a.m.
RHS swimmers wrap up GNC title with win over Mosinee
RHS swimmers wrap up GNC title with win over Mosinee
The Hodags wrapped up their second straight GNC title in dominating fashion on Thursday night, finishing one point shy of a perfect score in a 139-31 victory over Mosinee at the Heck Family Community Pool.
Once again, Rhinelander won all 11 races to finish a perfect 7-0 in dual meet competition. More impressively, the Hodags won every single race they swam in the conference duals this season, becoming the first team to officially accomplish the feat dating back to 2011 when the conference began posting detailed results for each dual meet on its website. Tomahawk came the closest, scoring 75 wins in 2018, and would have been a perfect 77 for 77 had it not swam exhibition swimmers only in a couple of events in a season-opening win over Mosinee.
"That's just crazy. We have such fast swimmers and such depth. I'm really proud of the girls, a great team effort by them every conference meet," Rhinelander coach Jenny Heck said. "This is great. This is a goal. This is the first step to continue on. We have an awesome team and we celebrate when we can and today's a good day to celebrate."
Rhinelander's top competition came from itself on Thursday night. The Hodags broke their own pool record in the 200-yard medley relay and coach Heck set the lineup in a way that there were close races among teammates for the win in several events.
Junior Malia Francis edged freshman teammate Abi Winnicki in a trio of races on Thursday - first nipping her by 0.06 seconds (25.30) to win the 50 freestyle. Then Francis held off a late surge by Winnicki to take the 500 freestyle (5:21.71) by 0.35 seconds. The two were paired against each other again on separate 200 freestyle relay teams. Though Winnicki had a slightly faster split in the anchor leg, Francis' team with Sierra Woodford, Lisa Kennedy and Noelle St. Pierre won the event (1:46.70) by 0.9 seconds.
The closest finish of the night came in the 100 backstroke as St. Pierre (1:10.25) led a 1-2-3 in the event with freshman Margaret Lambert and Woodford. The three were separated at the wall by a mere 0.29 seconds.
"I couldn't even tell who won. I had to look at the scoreboard because it was so close," coach Heck said. "It was just great to see a lot of these girls racing each other. We had a lot of close times and were pushing each other. They can see each other even though they're a couple lanes apart and they want to beat each other. We race them in practice. We line them up to race in practice and that's what they're here to do - to race and make themselves better."
Malia Francis, St. Pierre, Makenna Winnicki and Abi Winnicki started the night with a new pool record in the medley relay with a time of 1:53.29 - eclipsing the time the team set five weeks earlier by 0.32 seconds. Thursday night's lineup had Malia Francis swimming backstroke and St. Pierre swimming butterfly compared to the Sept. 10 lineup that had Kennedy swimming backstroke and Malia Francis on breaststroke.
"We have a lot of different ways we can put that event together. We're trying it. We're going to continue moving it around to see what's the fastest," coach Heck noted.
Makenna Winnicki led 1-2-3 finishes for the Hodags in the 200 freestyle and the 100 breaststroke. She beat St. Pierre and Kennedy in the 200 free (2:07.72) and was ahead of Sam Sundby and Maria Heck in the breaststroke (1:17.72). Freshman Karis Francis took the 200 individual medley (2:26.61) ahead of Woodford and Genna Fugle, and the 100 butterfly (1:05.09) ahead of Maria Heck and Abigale Johnson, who added a third-place finish in the 50 freestyle. Kennedy (59.33) led a 1-2-3 finish in the 100 freestyle with Claire Caselton and Abigail Ames.
Woodford, Sundby, Karis Francis and Johnson were the runner-up squad in the 200 medley relay. Maria Heck, Fugle, Makenna Winnicki and Abi Winnicki made up the second-place quartet in the 200 freestyle relay. Fugle, Karis Francis, Kennedy and Maria Heck won the 400 freestyle relay (4:01.16) ahead of Johnson, Gussie Gruett, Ames and Lambert.
"Our goal for tonight was season-best times," coach Heck said. "They're not as tired as they were last week and next week is going to be the final meet for about half our team, so they have to be ready to swim their best next week.
"Claire Caselton really had a nice meet. Some of the freshmen were really dropping some time. I was hoping some of those newer swimmers were going to go after some personal bests and they had a ton of personal best times. That really makes me happy. I think they're getting a little more confident and realizing that the season is coming to an end. It's go time."
The Hodags have the team portion of the conference secured and will be looking to add a host of all-conference awards Thursday when it hosts Lakeland in the virtual GNC meet. Ladysmith will host Medford, Colby/Abbotsford will host Antigo and Tomahawk will host Mosinee in the other duals. The results from the four duals will be combined to determine who is first, second and third-fastest in each event for all-conference recognition.
Before that, Rhinelander will take on Black River Falls tonight in a non-conference dual at the Heck Pool.
"I think we have our ideas in our head already," coach Heck said when asked how the team will approach the week. "We're going to use Tuesday to try to get the kids into events that maybe they haven't swam for a while or they just want a time in and then Thursday, we have our ideas of how we want to go after it. So we'll go with that unless something really surprising happens on Tuesday."
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
Comments:
You must login to comment.