December 16, 2021 at 10:31 a.m.
Hodag swimmers down Antigo in final dual of 2021
Hodag swimmers down Antigo in final dual of 2021
Jack Antonuk was a winner in all four of his events and Rhinelander had 11 different swimmers contribute to victory in a 138-22 victory over Antigo in Great Northern Conference action at the Heck Family Community Pool.
The team scored maximum points in 10 of the 11 events, earning clean sweeps in everything except the 50-yard freestyle. Antigo's Karl Busse placed second in that event to prevent the Hodags from obtaining a perfect dual meet score of 140 points.
Still, the Hodags had plenty of success and some close races - even if those close finishes were mostly among teammates.
"That was a very successful night. I saw some great times overall," coach Jenny Heck said. "Once again, we're going through all the events trying to get the kids to swim each event throughout the season. We had a lot more opportunities to see what the kids could do in maybe some of their off events, or ones they don't always swim. That was good."
"We're working a lot on the technical side of it right now," Heck added. "Even if our times aren't where we want them, we want them swimming how we want them to swim. We saw a lot of that tonight. We're very optimistic."
Rhinelander used the meet against an undermanned Antigo squad - back this year after forgoing the 2020-21 season due the low numbers - as a chance to mix its relays to provide intrasquad racing opportunities.
The mixes proved competitive. The team of Daniel Gillingham, Antonuk, Jacob Schoppe and Ashton Cole took the 200 medley relay with a time of 1 minute, 49.78 seconds, finishing 0.84 seconds ahead of teammates Carter Gaber, Samson Shinners, Eli Lundt and Charlie Heck. All three of the Hodags' entries in the 200 freestyle relay finished within 4.50 seconds of each other, with the team of Zacha King, Charlie Heck, Mathias Fugle and Schoppe earning the win (1:38.28). Antonuk raced down Fugle in the final leg of the 400 freestyle relay to earn a 0.45-second win for his squad, which included Dolan O'Malley, Shawn Denis and King (3:46.72).
"We decided to have our relays race and (assistant coach) Brent (Olson) did a great job having every single relay race each other," coach Heck said. "It provided some great competition within our team. The kids really took to the challenge and we talked about how it takes each one of the them to do their part in a relay."
Antonuk pulled off a tough double in the individual races. He took the 100 butterfly (56.71) and then, following a rest of less than five minutes, jumped back in to take the 500 freestyle (5:21.30).
"Jack Antonuk had a strong meet," coach Heck said. "He won the 100 fly with a great time and then, two events later, swam the 500 with a really solid time. I think he felt good tonight and is kind of getting in his groove."
There were a few close races in the individual events. Dolan O'Malley took the 100 backstroke (1:02.19) by 1.75 seconds over King. Charlie Heck (52.56) led a 1-2-3 finish in the 100 freestyle. Carter Gaber and Brock Arrowood both finished with in 1.14 seconds of the winning time.
The closest finish of the night came in the 200 individual medley where Fugle, a freshman, held off Charlie Heck by 0.64 seconds for the win (2:23.89).
"(Fugle) did a great job as a freshman coming in. He doesn't have a lot of experience, but he really was able to finish that," coach Heck said. "Their splits were really close. Charlie came back a little faster in the free, but not fast enough. Mathias held strong and did a great job. It was a good race by all three of those guys in the 2IM."
Arrowood (1:58.01) led a 1-2-3 finish in the 200 freestyle with Dolan O'Malley and Denis. Dolan O'Malley (1:02.16) edged King by 1.75 seconds for the win in the 100 backstroke. Shinners led a 1-2-3 in the breaststroke (1:09.99) with Schoppe and Cole.
"Dolan did great and Zacha had a solid meet too," coach Heck said. "Their times will put them in good positions on the (conference) leaderboard. Jacob Schoppe also had a really solid meet. His splits were really good, which we like seeing."
Gaber took third in the IM. King and Shinners finished behind Antonuk in the butterfly. Gillingham and Marcus O'Malley completed the top three in the 500. Schoppe was third in the 50 and Lundt finished third in the backstroke.
The Hodags will not have another dual meet until Jan. 4 when they host Lakeland in GNC action. In the interim, the team will do some of its most intense training of the season over the holiday break. The lone interruption in the training schedule will be Dec. 29, the make-up date of the Hodag Relays which were postponed due to last weekend's snowstorm.
"I'd like to have an extra day during that Christmas break to really go after some tough workouts, but it's also nice to have a little break and get some racing in too," coach Heck said. "And it's just a fun meet. Overall, it will be good for the kids. They'll have a good time and we'll get plenty of split training in around it."
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
WEATHER SPONSORED BY
E-Editions
Latest News
E-Editions
Events
August
To Submit an Event Sign in first
Today's Events
No calendar events have been scheduled for today.
Comments:
You must login to comment.