November 4, 2021 at 8:37 a.m.
RHS swim gears up for big day at sectionals
Hodags projected to win 9 events, team title in Menomonie
RHS swim gears up for big day at sectionals
The Hodags are looking for another armada of state qualifiers, and a third straight sectional title, Saturday in a 13-team Division 2 event in Menomonie. Based on psych sheets released Tuesday by the WIAA, Rhinelander is in excellent position to achieve both goals.
The Hodags are favored by at least 54 points over Rice Lake to win Saturday's sectional meet. Rhinelander has the top seed in nine of the 11 events, with an automatic berth to the next Friday's state meet in Waukesha on the line for the sectional champion in each event. Additionally, the Hodags are in position for three at-large state qualifiers, which go to the 12 fastest swimmers statewide who did not win their sectional.
"It looks like what we anticipated," coach Jenny Heck said after diving into the psych sheets, which list who is entered, and their seed time, in each event. "This is the chance where we let the seniors think of what they swim the best, what they want to go after. We have the opportunity to be able to go after that. I think they're all in events they want to go after and can drop time. That's our goal, get the kids advanced - as many as we can and hope to continue the season on another week."
The big story coming out of the release of the psych sheets is that Hodag senior Malia Francis will not defend her two-time state championship in the 100-yard butterfly, opting to swim the 200 individual medley instead. Francis is also entered in the 100 backstroke, where she has won back-to-back state titles and has a seed time (54.49 seconds) that is faster than the current Division 2 state record.
Moving Francis into the IM creates a little more flexibly for both her and the Hodags, depending on which relays she swims at sectionals and state. Last year, she had a grueling state program that saw her compete in four of the final seven events. Swimming the IM allows her to have at least one event prior to intermission.
"Last year was tough and she had a lot of sacrifice for the team and that was really great, but it wasn't easy to do for her," Heck said. "This will give her a little more rest. I think that definitely should be choice and she was happy to go after that IM this year instead of the fly and have a little more rest in between her events."
Even so, Francis is the top seed overall in the state in the IM at a 2:08.98. That's roughly a second faster than Madison Edgewood's Anna teDuits.
Malia Francis' older sister, Kiah, was the state champion in the IM in 2016 with the third-fastest time in D2 state history at 2:03.30.
Here are some other storylines going into Saturday's race.
Top seeds
Malia Francis, Abi Winnicki and Karis Francis all are seeded No. 1 in the sectional in two different individual events for Rhinelander.
Like she did last year, Abi Winnicki is swimming both the 200 and 100 freestyle in postseason play. She's a heavy favorite to win the sectional in both events, with a 5.37-second cushion in the 200 and a 1.00-second advantage in the 100. Winnicki's seeded seventh overall in the state in the 200 and fifth in the 100 after placing on the podium in both events at state last year.
Karis Francis is swimming a different program than a year ago, when she qualified individually in the 200 IM and the 100 butterfly. She's still going after the butterfly, where her seed time of 59.84 seconds is seventh-fastest overall and tops in the sectional by 1.16 seconds. She is also entered in the 100 breaststroke, where she is seeded fourth overall in the state (1:08.34). It could be a tight race in that event as both Merrill's Amber Winter and Rice Lake's Hannah Miller are seeded within 0.51 seconds of Karis Francis.
Fast relays
The Hodags are the defending state champions in both the 200 and 400 freestyle relays, and find themselves in state contention once again.
Rhinelander has the No. 1 overall seed time in both events. Their time of 1:38.43 is 0.30 seconds ahead of Madison Edgewood for the top spot overall. Lakeland, seeded second in the sectional (1:40.22), has the third-fastest time statewide.
It's a similar story in the 400, where Rhinelander's 3:38.85 is 1.17 seconds ahead of Greendale for tops overall. Lakeland is second in the sectional and third overall at 3:43.10.
Rhinelander is favored to win by nearly two seconds over Merrill in the 200 medley relay (1:50.12) with a time that is third-fastest statewide.
"I just told the girls they just need to do everything we've been practicing and make sure all those little things are great," coach Heck said. "We don't want any jumps or anything on the relays, just make sure they're all safe, make sure they're good and we can qualify on."
On the bubble
Rhinelander is also looking to get a few more swimmers to state, who are not favored to win their events at sectionals.
Senior Noelle St. Pierre is seeded third in the sectional in the 50 freestyle (25.05) and fourth in the 100 breaststroke (1:10.76). The good news for St. Pierre is her seed times are both inside the top 16 overall, and both faster that the 2019 state qualifying standards - which serve as a more accurate indicator of where this year's state cuts may fall due to the number of teams that opted out of last year's traditional fall girls' swimming season due to COVID-19.
Junior Genna Fugle, who swam a key leadoff leg in last year's state championship-winning 400 freestyle relay, is seeded sixth in the second, and 14th overall in the 100 freestyle (55.75). She's on the outside looking in, in the 50 freestyle where she's 30th overall at 26.68, but could go much faster than that. She did not swim the 50 two weeks ago at the GNC meet, but turned in a 24.84-second 50-yard split in the 200 freestyle relay, which would put her second in the sectional and fifth overall.
"Genna's on the edge, Noelle's on the edge," Heck said. "This year it's going to be different because we have all the teams (back). It's going to be harder to qualify than it was last year without some of the teams at the state meet. These girls who qualified last year, they're going to have to swim faster just to even make it."
Freshman Ellyse Younker also is on bubble watch in both of her individual events. She's currently 19th overall in the 100 butterfly (1:01.73), 0.50 seconds behind the last qualifier. Younker is 26th in the 200 IM, but has a 5.33-second gap to make up on the 16th seed in the state.
Extra week
There was an extra week of practice between the GNC meet and sectionals this year, something Heck hopes will play in to the Hodags' hands on Saturday.
"As a coach, I really enjoyed it," she said. "It gave us time to jump back in and hit the training. We needed another week and with all the sickness and everything going around too, it just gave us time to regroup, work hard and hopefully have time to back off a couple of days before sectionals."
New venue
Menomonie High School hosts this year's sectional and the Hodags will go into the event mostly site unseen.
"I have never been to the Menomonie pool. I don't know if any of these girls have, although I'm not very concerned," Heck said. "I think that they know what needs to be done. They're used to swimming in different pools and they'll attack it like they usually do."
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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