February 21, 2022 at 8:16 a.m.
Delivering in waukesha
Hodags swim strong in third-place finish at WIAA D2 state meet
Delivering in waukesha
Rhinelander emphatically broke that trend Friday night.
The Hodags scored six podium finishes, including a runner-up showing in the 200-yard freestyle relay, as they placed third overall in the WIAA D2 state meet in Waukesha.
It matched Rhinelander's third-place finish in 2019 as the team's best showing at state since a string of runner-up finishes between 1965 and 1968. This one was done a bit differently.
Three years ago, the Hodags had two individual state titles and two runner-up finishes. Friday night, as it has all season, Rhinelander relied on its depth. The Hodags used a meet-high 17 entries to steadily rack up points to finish behind only state powers Madison Edgewood and Cedarburg.
"A third place is so great to me, it feels like a win just because we did it with everybody," Rhinelander coach Jenny Heck said. "It took every person, every point and we had so many people qualify. To have a swimmer or two in every event was just amazing. It shows a total group effort. It's not just one kid, two kids. It's a whole team of really fast, hard-working guys."
A different mindset certainly helped. The past two years, virtually all of Rhinelander's swimmers were fully rested for sectionals, needing to swim their fastest to ensure their spots at state. While that tactic got the Hodags' to state, it had cost the team on the big stage with the rest reaching its point of diminishing return.
With a team that dominated all season long, many of Rhinelander's top swimmers didn't fully rest until Friday night, and the move paid off handsomely.
Rhinelander was projected to have four podium finishes and take fourth in the team standings. They did better on both measures and scored 21 more points than they were projected to, based on qualifying times from sectionals.
"We came into this meet, a lot of us weren't fully tapered yet and we had that expectation to drop time, which is something that we've never had before," said junior Charlie Heck, who was on two podium-placing relays. "It was awesome to see these guys come through, especially in the clutch in the last four events when it really matters. They really shined on the brightest stage."
There were bright spots all around for the Hodags. Junior Jack Antonuk broke the school record with his fourth-place swim in the 100 breaststroke. Junior Daniel Gillingham finished on the podium in all four of his events and junior Carter Gaber got on the podium, individually, as a sixth-place finisher in the 100 backstroke.
Of Rhinelander's 17 entries, the Hodags placed nine of them in the top eight and 11 in the top 10.
"It often goes the other way for us around here, so we're absolutely thrilled," coach Heck said. "I think the second half of the meet, the guys just took off.
Gillingham, Antonuk, freshman Samson Shinners and Charlie Heck made up Rhinelander's quartet in the 200 freestyle relay, which came into the event seeded fourth. The Hodags were in the mix through the first two legs. Shinners, fresh off a ninth-place swim in the 500, posted a 21.87-second split to solidify the Hodags in second and Charlie Heck brought it home to a time of 1:28.32. That was 1.20 seconds behind the winning team from Sauk Prairie/
Wisconsin Heights and only 0.56 seconds off the school record set when the Hodags won the state title in the event three years ago.
"That was about a second faster than I did it at sectionals," Shinners said. "I thought I went a 22 when I saw the time, because I did not believe that time. I just swam with whatever energy I had and went a 21, which was amazing."
"We knew we had room to move up and we knew that the way we had constructed our relay, everyone could drop a lot of time," Charlie Heck added. "We went in there with the expectation to get as high as we could, and we weren't putting a limit on what place we could get. We told each other, just race and the times will be what the times are, but if you can out touch that guy, that's what's important."
Jenny Heck called the event a turning point in the meet as the Hodags made up 34 points in their battle for third with Shorewood, which did not qualify for state in the 200 freestyle relay. The Hodags ended up holding off Shorewood by 17 1/2 points for third place in the final standings.
Rhinelander carried the momentum down the stretch. Gaber, who was dead last at state last year in the 100 backstroke, came through with a 55.23-second time in the event to hold off Edgewood's Jack McKerney by 0.02 seconds for the sixth and final podium spot.
"Last year I had a sprained wrist, didn't have a great state meet. I knew coming into this season I had to put all my effort into it," Gaber said. "I was worried a lot about time but, after seeing these guys perform and where were, I was really happy to get on that podium and get us some points."
Then Antonuk stepped in for the 100 breaststroke. He was sixth after an opening 50-yard split of 28.01 seconds, but brought it back strong to get to the wall at 1:00.03. That was 1.23-seconds faster than the school record set in 1995, and he won a race to the wall for fourth in which five swimmers were separated by 0.53 seconds.
"I knew everyone was going to be very close in that race," Antonuk said. "Once I was in the pool I noticed, toward the end, that every single person was just right next to me and I just needed to dig on that last five yards and get my hand to the wall faster than some of those other kids. That's exactly what happened."
It was Antonuk's first individual podium finish at state. He took seventh, one spot off the podium, last year in both the 200 individual medley and the 100 breaststroke. He finished seventh again earlier Friday night in the IM.
"That was one of the goals I had set for myself, just to get on that podium," he said. "When I looked up on the board and saw I had reached my goal it was just a great feeling to have."
Gaber, Antonuk, Gillingham and Charlie Heck started the night with a fourth-place finish in the 200 medley relay (1:38.01). Though the Hodags dropped 1.26 seconds off their qualifying time in the race, they slipped back one spot after coming into the event as the third seed.
"I think they were a little nervous coming into the meet," coach Heck said. "After that medley, which wasn't quite exactly what they wanted, they really came back and kept their composure, which is half the battle. They just attacked each race. That was our goal, take one race at time and not let it be a head game."
Gillingham responded with podium finishes in both of his individual events, edging teammates both times to do so. He took sixth in the 200 IM (2:00.62) to beat out Antonuk for the final podium spot. He was sixth in the 100 butterfly (53.32), edging freshman teammate Brock Arrowood by 0.56 seconds to reach the podium.
"I was just focused on getting good times because we've really been struggling through this tapering process and I wasn't sure about my times," Gillingham said. "I just really dug deep and kept it going. I actually did really well and amazed my own self."
Shinners finished seventh for the Hodags in the 200 freestyle and was ninth in the 500. He was also on the meet-ending 400 freestyle relay with Arrowood, sophomore Zacha King and freshman Mathias Fugle that won its heat and finished ninth overall.
Charlie Heck moved up in both sprint freestyle events, tying for 10th in the 50 and placing 12th in the 100. King was 12th in the backstroke and 16th in the 100, Freshman Dolan O'Malley was 14th in the 200 individual medley and junior Marcus O'Malley was 16th in the 100 butterfly.
"We can only control how we swim and that was to swim faster than we did last week and to go for best times," coach Heck said. "I think that's what we did for the majority of our events. They guys who didn't were continuing taper for a while. It was awesome for them to be here and make those events."
Edgewood beat Cedarburg 274-233 to sweep the D2 boys' and girls' state titles in the 2021-22 school year. The Hodags, who were runners-up to Edgewood this past November in the D2 girls' state meet, finished 71 1/2 points behind the Crusaders this time around.
"Collectively, these are just a bunch of hard-working people from northern Wisconsin that no one really expects much from and we seem to prove, time and time again, that it wasn't just a fluke for us to be here," coach Heck said. "We belong here and we've got a lot of swimming talent in Rhinelander."
Expectations are already high for an encore performance. Rhinelander is slated to return all 10 swimmers who competed at Friday night's state meet.
"This team is going to be really strong next year," Gillingham said. "We're going to have guys working offseason really hard. We're really going to push this next season, it's going to be great."
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected]
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