February 1, 2021 at 9:58 a.m.
RHS swimming sends 11 entries to state, wins third straight D2 sectional title
RHS swimming sends 11 entries to state, wins third straight D2 sectional title
Rhinelander won five events and qualified 11 entries for the WIAA D2 state meet Saturday as they claimed the sectional championship at the Heck Family Community Pool.
The Hodags were simply dominant as they swam to their third straight sectional crown. Projected to score 395 points and beat Menomonie by 50 points, once diving scores were factored into the equation, Rhinelander scored 403 points to knock off the Mustangs by 90 points for the title.
"It's awesome. It's just incredible to be part of a group of guys that's so consistent and consistently works hard every year to reach of our goals," said senior captain Joseph Heck, who qualified for state in four events on Saturday.
The Hodags won all three relay races on Saturday, setting three new Heck Pool records along the way. Sophomore Jack Antonuk won individual sectional titles in the 200-yard individual medley and the 100 breaststroke and the Hodags received six other at-large berths to this Friday's WIAA D2 meet in Waukesha with times among the 16 fastest state-wide.
Joseph Heck qualified in both the 50 and 100 freestyle, Daniel Gillingham made it in the 200 freestyle and the 100 butterfly, Charlie Heck qualified in the 50 freestyle and Carter Gaber advanced in the 100 backstroke.
"That was just amazing," Hodag coach Jenny Heck said. "What more could you ask for? We have a really fast team. It was hard to figure who was going to swim where. We couldn't give everybody an event, but these guys were definitely deserving because they worked hard all season and had fast times to earn a spot."
The Hodags took down a trio of pool records set by the 2019 team that placed third overall in the D2 state meet.
The quartet of Gaber, Antonuk, Ostermann and Charlie Heck opened the day with a blistering time of 1 minute, 41.81 seconds in the 200 medley relay, beating the old pool mark by 0.66 seconds. In the 200 freestyle relay Gillingham, Antonuk, Charlie Heck and Joseph Heck went 1:29.39 to shatter the old record by 1.34 seconds. Both Heck brothers swam sub-22 seconds splits in the event. The Hodags capped it off with Gillingham, Marcus O'Malley, Charlie Heck and Joseph Heck in the 400 freestyle relay. Their time of 3:20.57 beat the old pool record by 0.83 seconds.
"It's what we were going for, but every guy stepped it up and showed they could do it," Joseph Heck said. "We had guys that dropped time that we were banking on. We were confident, went out and did it. I was part of the old records and it's great to see the guys grow and that everyone speeds up and improve their times."
Jenny Heck said the Hodag coaches spent most of the week since winning the GNC title deliberating on just how they wanted to set up their relays to get the fastest results possible.
"Marcus has really trained well and we could tell he had a drop in him, could come in and do the job. We were really pleased that was the right decision," she said. "The pool records were just icing on the cake."
Antonuk won a pair of head-to-head battles with Tomahawk's Zach Hanse in his individual races. Antonuk lead wall-to-wall in the 200 IM, opening the gap significantly over the final 100 yards as the hit the wall in 2:03.79 to beat Hanse by 5.67 seconds. Antonuk, who was out-touched by Hanse for the GNC breaststroke title, held on this time around. Antonuk's time of 1:02.04 got him to the wall first by 0.52 seconds.
Antonuk credited the success to the coaches getting the team ready to perform at their best on sectional day.
"They definitely helped us. The (tapered) us at the right time," he said. "We did everything correctly and we executed, and that's the most important part. There's no point in doing anything if you don't execute it correctly."
Though both Gillingham and Joseph Heck were outdueled for the wins in their individual events, their times were more than fast enough to make the top 16. Gillingham lost out to four-year state qualifier Joe Kroeger of Rice Lake in the 200 free and the butterfly, but Gillingham dropped nearly two seconds (1:50.45) from his seed time in the 200 and nearly a second (55.59) off his butterfly to make it into the field.
"Daniel probably had the hardest meet tonight as far as we knew those guys were faster than their seed times coming in," coach Heck said. "Daniel knew he'd have to have best times to even maintain his position or be right there. He did the job, dropped time in both events. I was really proud of him because it's difficult to maintain the mental toughness knowing some guys are faster and just haven't shown it yet this year. He did that."
Joseph Heck had to battle four-time state podium finisher and GNC 50 and 100 freestyle champ Liam Hogan of Lakeland in both sprint races. Though Hogan got to the wall first, Heck went 22.23 in the 50 and 48.98 in the 100 to comfortably qualify for state in both races. Later, Heck posted split times that were just a fraction of a second slower than a chasing Hogan in both the 200 and 400 freestyle relays.
"He's a great swimmer and he was chasing those pool records in the 50 and the 100," Joseph Heck said. "I had the fight in me and I knew I'd be able to stay ahead in the relays and (have) good races in the individual events. It's fun to swim against him. I've swam against him my whole life. We're great friends. It's always fun."
Charlie Heck went 22.56 to finish third in the 50 and make it into the state field with 0.35 seconds to spare. Gaber (57.20) finished second to Lakeland's Avery Tucker in the backstroke, but finished 0.16 seconds faster than the state cutline.
It was a strong day for Rhinelander, as the Hodags placed at least one swimmer in the top three in every event. Zacha King was third for the Hodags in the 500 freestyle and Jacob Schoppe added a third-place swim in the 100 breaststroke.
Other top-five finishes for the Hodags included Schoppe in the 200 IM (fourth), Ostermann in the butterfly (fourth), King in the backstroke (fourth), O'Malley in the 100 freestyle (fifth), Ashton Cole in the 500 (fifth) and Eli Lundt in the backstroke (fifth). It all added up to a 403-313 win over Menomonie. Rice Lake was third with 286 points, followed by Lakeland (277), Tomahawk (266), Medford (174) and Wausau East (166).
"We have the depth. Every guy was in the top six today in at least one event," coach Heck said. "I just knew that we had our individual goals with each race and we were accomplishing them, so I figured the points would go along with."
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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