September 6, 2020 at 8:15 a.m.
Back to business
Hodags go 1-2 in every event, rout Tomahawk 135-22 in GNC swim opener
Back to business
Rhinelander finished first and second in all 11 events and dominated a depleted Tomahawk squad in a 135-22 victory at Hatchet Pool in the season opener for both teams.
In a schedule paired down due to the COVID-19 pandemic, only conference duals will be used to determine this year's conference champion. Rhinelander showed Thursday that it has a combination of speed and depth that will be difficult for any other school in the conference to match.
"We have the depth. We have some of the fastest swimmers around, in our conference and our sectional," Rhinelander coach Jenny Heck said. "I think we're going to push to do that all year, as long as we can swim. That's our goal, be 1-2, try to stop some of these fast girls throughout the contest."
The Hodags returned all four of their state qualifiers from last year's squad and they showed no signs of slowing down. Malia Francis, defending WIAA Division 2 state champion in the 100-yard butterfly and 100 backstroke, won all four of her races on Thursday as did Makenna Winnicki, who reached the podium twice at last year's state meet.
Noelle St. Pierre had a hand in three wins while Lisa Kennedy had a pair of wins.
Rhinelander also got a strong debut from freshman Abi Winnicki, who was part of Rhinelander wins in three of the first four races and ended up going 4-for-4 in her events.
The younger Winnicki teamed with her older sister, Malia Francis and St. Pierre to take the opening 200 medley relay in a time of 1:54.85. She added a win in the 200 freestyle (2:00.50), the 50 freestyle (25.73) and was part of the team's winning 200 freestyle relay team with St. Pierre, Kennedy and Malia Francis (1:44.67).
"She had a great meet. She was excited and couldn't wait to get out here today," Heck said. "She had big goals for herself and was excited to swim. I think her enthusiasm is contagious to the others as well - other freshmen, other returning swimmers."
Malia Francis added individual wins 100 freestyle (55.78) and the 100 backstroke (58.97), Makenna Winnicki added wins in the 200 individual medley (2:25.70) and the 500 freestyle (5:47.26) and Kennedy took the win in the 100 butterfly (1:06.82).
Makenna Winnicki completed her four-win program in the 400 freestyle relay swimming with Maria Heck, Sierra Woodford and freshman Karis Francis, Malia's younger sister.
"I saw a lot of great things, a lot of great times from our swimmers," coach Heck said. "We were looking for certain things at this meet. We need to get some base times for these girls, so we went, right off the bat, with them going after some of their best events. We were looking a splits on relays, looking at how we can put together the fastest relays and the fastest lineup overall.
"I thought Noelle's 100 breaststroke was really good. I was really pleased with that. Our 50 free times were really good on all the relays. Sprint-wise, in the shorter events we were doing well. We have some work to do in the longer events."
Maria Heck scored runner-up finishes for Rhinelander in the 200 and 500 freestyle, Karis Francis was second in the 200 IM and the 100 butterfly, Genna Fugle was runner-up in the 50 freestyle, St. Pierre finished second in the 100 freestyle, Kennedy was second in the 100 backstroke and freshman Sam Sundby was second in the 100 breaststroke. Kennedy, Sundby, Karis Francis and Maria Heck were the runners-up in the 200 medley relay; Abigale Johnson, Margaret Lambert, Gussie Gruett and Genna Fugle were second in the 400 freestyle relay and Fugle, Woodford, Lambert and Johnson took second in the 200 freestyle relay. Johnson made a late surge in the anchor leg of that race to edge Tomahawk's A relay to the wall by 0.15 seconds.
"Our B relays are going to be really good, and the thought that we can have A, B, C and D relays is amazing," coach Heck said. "We can have the C and D relays race each other to get some good times. Those B swimmers are going to be pushing for the A relay spots too. No one's relay spot is secure at this point."
Thursday's meet felt a lot like a normal competition with two major exceptions. For starters, all participants wore masks unless they were preparing to enter, or were in the water. Secondly, no spectators were admitted into the Tomahawk High School pool. The only people in attendance were the teams, referees, meet workers and a small number of media members.
"It was so quiet. It was strange. It was difficult," Jenny Heck said of the lack of atmosphere without spectators. "It was really difficult to kind of get everyone queued up because it was so low-key. Hopefully, we'll be excited to swim in our home pool next week."
Each Great Northern Conference school determines if, or how many, spectators will be allowed to enter for their home sporting events. RHS activities director Brian Paulson said late Friday that there will be no general admission for Thursday's home meet against Colby/Abbotsford, or any meets this season at the Heck Family Community Pool. Only one family member per swimmer will be permitted to attend in person, either as a meet worker or a spectator.
That will put the onus on the team to bring the energy in its home pool.
"They need to step it up cheering and being loud and taking it into our own hands," she said. "We can only control what we have and that's to be a team and be loud. We're blessed to have 23 swimmers on our team, so we can make it loud. We need to be better and louder on the sidelines."
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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