January 5, 2022 at 1:20 p.m.
RHS swim keeps rolling, routs Lakeland
RHS swim keeps rolling, routs Lakeland
Rhinelander finished 1-2 in all 11 events and cruised to a 123-19 victory over the Thunderbirds in Great Northern Conference play at the Heck Family Community Pool.
The Hodags were without head coach Jenny Heck and her son, junior Charlie Heck, due to a family matter and the team had three other swimmers out due to illness or injury. Assistant coach Brent Olson led the squad on Tuesday and nine of the 10 swimmers Rhinelander had on deck contributed to at least one victory.
"The guys we had left really put their full effort in," Olson said. "It's the start of a long week, so we're hoping to get them all healthy by the end of the week."
Lakeland had only four swimmers on deck, which caused the meet to move at a fast pace. The meet took just barely more than an hour to complete.
"Without the second heat of (events), that really makes it hard to put four good events together," Olson said. "Some of them really had good times. Some of them, they didn't really have any competition to push them and the excitement level was kind of down with all the guys missing."
Freshman Brock Arrowood was the only Hodag to win multiple individual races. He completed a tough double by winning the 100-yard butterfly (59.37 seconds) and the 100 freestyle (57.19) back-to-back, with no rest in between.
Olson said that wasn't originally how the lineup was drawn up, but with Charlie Heck, Carter Gaber, Zacha King and Jacob Schoppe all out, the team had to make some last-minute adjustments.
"We had a few last-minute scratches and he stepped up and volunteered to do that so that we would have a more even lineup," Olson said. "I give him credit for doing that. His fly was his best of the season so far and he had a decent 100 free and won the event."
Dolan O'Malley took the 100 backstroke (1:02.72), Samson Shinners won the 200 freestyle (1:55.72) Mathias Fugle won the 50 freestyle (24.39) and Jack Antonuk claimed the 100 breaststroke (1:06.94). All four swimmers ended up with three wins on the evening as part of two winning relays.
O'Malley, Shinners, and Fugle teamed with Shawn Denis to win the 200 medley relay (1:54.31). Antonuk, Fugle, Marcus O'Malley and Daniel Gillingham won the 200 freestyle relay (1:39.21). Shinners, Eli Lundt, Dolan O'Malley and Antonuk made up the winning quartet in the 400 freestyle relay.
Denis added a win for Rhinelander in the 200 individual medley (2:25.53) and Gillingham won the 500 (5:33.41).
"I think mostly the freshmen really stepped it up, either at or ahead of their times in at least one event. The older guys kind of held their own and made sure they won their races," Olson noted. "We had a few guys that don't usually get to be the top guy. Shawn won the IM, I think that might be one of his first wins. We had guys in their off events and got some good, valuable information for Saturday's meet."
The Hodags improved to 4-0 in the GNC with the win, which kicked off a busy week of competition. Rhinelander was back at it Thursday night in a dual meet at Tomahawk which concluded after press time for today's edition. The Hodags finish off the week Saturday in the Jaguar Invite at Ashwaubenon High School.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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