October 13, 2022 at 8:33 a.m.
Hodag swimmers cruise in GNC finale
Hodag swimmers cruise in GNC finale
The Hodags finished 7-0 in conference duals and will likely be two points ahead of Medford entering next Friday's conference championship meet in Tomahawk. The Raiders had the chance to get to 6-1 against Mosinee (1-5) Thursday in a match that concluded after press time.
Much of the competition came from within the squad on Tuesday as Rhinelander finished 1-2 in eight events.
"They still want to win, so they're trying to beat themselves, their teammates. I think, where it counted they all did well," said assistant coach Marna Winnicki, who led the team on deck Thursday with head coach Jenny Heck away on a pre-planned absence. "Some of the kids swam events they haven't swam yet this season. We tried to give them a break from what they tend fo be swimming a lot of, tried to change it up for them a little bit. They're tired. It's the end of the season. We just told them they've got to push hard and finish."
Eleven different Hodags played a role in at least one victory, led by four-event winners Abi Winnicki and Ellyse Younker. Winnicki won the 200-meter individual medley (2 minutes, 31.77 seconds) and the 100 butterfly (1:07.09). Younker swept the sprint freestyle races, taking the 50 (28.73) and the 100 (1:03.00). Both were on the team's winning 200 medley and 200 freestyle relay teams.
Genna Fugle scored three wins for Rhinelander, including an individual triumph in the 400-meter freestyle (5:05.29). Emma Houg won the 200 freestyle (2:22.68) and held off Antigo in the closest finish of the night, swimming the anchor leg of the winning 400 freestyle relay (4:49.11). The Hodags held off the Robins by 1.04 seconds for the win in that event.
Margaret Lambert won the 100 backstroke for Rhinelander (1:16.70) and Camilla Gruett won the 100 breaststroke (1:25.89).
"Emma had a nice finish on that 400 (freestyle relay). There were a couple of other finishes at the wall that the nice and close," coach Winnicki said. "Margaret was really pushing on that one. It was nice to see her swim hard. Not quite the time she wanted, but it was close. She had a good swim."
Younker, Abi Winnicki, Fugle and Lily Thorsen were the winning quartet for the Hodags in the 200 medley relay (2:15.31). Winnicki, Claire Caselton, Alicia Lentine and Younker won the 200 freestyle relay (2:03.99). Fugle, Abbie Ames, Gussie Gruett and Houg made up the winning team in the 400 freestyle relay.
The Hodags swept the top three in the 200 freestyle with Houg, Camilla Gruett and Caselton. Gruett returned the favor, beating Houg as part of a clean sweep of the top three in the breaststroke. Ella Cordy finished third in that event. Additionally, Rhinelander got runner-up finishes individual events with Gussie Gruett in both the 200 IM and the 100 backstroke, Fugle in the 50 freestyle and Thorsen in the 400 freestyle.
Tuesday's meet presented a unique challenge as the only short-course meter pool the Hodags will swim in this season. That makes each length fractionally longer and makes gauging performances an exercise in arithmetic.
Each event has its own conversion factor to find what the equivalent time would have been in a short-course yard pool. For instance, Younker's 28.73-second win in the 50 converts to 25.68 seconds in a yard pool. Abi Winnicki's 1:07.09 time in the 100 butterfly converts to a 1:00.23.
"It's a little hard and a little frustrating when the kids come to you and ask what their splits are. We can tell them their splits, but it doesn't mean anything unless we can give them (conversions)," coach Winnicki said. "We only know yard times, so it's a little frustrating there. We just told them to go out and swim hard, and still try to swim fast. Once we see the converted times, we'll see how well they listened."
Rhinelander is off until next Friday's GNC meet. The Hodags will likely be favored to win multiple events at the meet as the look to secure their fourth consecutive conference title.
"We're going to for sure be doing a lot of looking at the leaderboard and other teams," coach Winnicki said. "We've got the taper group. We know who those kids are. There will be some tapering for conference and we'll just kind of go and see from there. That's going to really help us figure out what we're doing for sectionals. We just want them to stay mentally strong. That's the biggest thing right now."
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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