Hodag swimmers take 2nd at home relays

The Rhinelander High School boys’ swim team had a chance to swim against some fast competition on Saturday in its home non-conference invite. 

The Hodags won two events and placed second in six others as they finished second behind Division 1 program Bay Port in the Hodag Relays at the Heck Family Community Pool.

It was a similar story to last year when Bay Port edged Rhinelander for the title in this event, winning six events to the Hodags’ four. This time around Bay Port won eight events, including three in which it beat the Hodags to the wall by 2 seconds or less.

“It was a really fun meet to host with some great competition,” Hodag coach Jenny Heck said. “Bay Port’s a very fast team. They lost a lot, we lost a lot (from last year). They considering themselves a rebuilding team and I guess we are too. I think it was a great matchup.”

Senior Zacha King was on both of Rhinelander’s winning relays. He teamed with Shawn Denis, Mathias Fugle and Samson Shinners to take the 600-yard freestyle relay in a time of 5 minutes, 29.55 seconds. King swam with brothers Judson and Dolan O’Malley to claim the 300 backstroke relay (2:50.35).

    Rhinelander’s Dolan O’Malley swims a leg of the 300-yard butterfly relay during the Hodag Relays boys’ swim meet at the Heck Family Community Pool Saturday, Dec. 9. (Bob Mainhardt for the River News)
  

“Zacha had a great meet. He’s our only senior and he sure is a key player for us,” Heck said. “I really thought Dolan O’Malley really had a fantastic meet, really swam some outstanding times, best-ever times. I’m looking for him to make a big move this year. All those juniors just swam fantastic. We’re going to need those guys. The freshmen are just trying to figure it all out … I thought they really swam well for their lack of experience.”

King nearly added a third win to his total but was touched out by 0.08 seconds as Rhinelander’s anchor swimmer in the 300 butterfly relay, swimming with teammates Brock Arrowood and Dolan O’Malley (2:51.94). 

The Hodags also lost a fairly close race in the 400 individual medley relay as the team of Arrowood, Charlie Antonuk, King and Dolan O’Malley finished 1.60 seconds behind Bay Port. The Pirates also rallied over the final 50 yards to take the 500 decrescendo freestyle relay by 2.00 seconds over the team of Shinners, Fugle, Arrowood and Chris Larson. 

“We had some really good races and that’s what it’s all about,” coach Heck said. “You’ve got to have good competition and you’ve got to realize that there’s always someone faster and to try to chase them down. Sometimes you win those close ones and sometimes you don’t. A couple of those I wish would have come out on our side, but it wasn’t our day. But I think there was a lot of learning that went on today.”

Denis, Shinners and Fugle took second in the 300 breaststroke relay; Shinners, Antonuk, Fugle and Larson were second in the 300 freestyle relay; Judson O’Malley, Dennis, Arrowood and Antonuk took fourth in the 400 medley relay at the end of the meet. 

Larson, Judson O’Malley and Denis were third in the 150 mixer medley relay. Larson, Dolan O’Malley, Antonuk and Judson O’Malley were fourth in the 200 reverse medley relay. 

With nine swimmers, the Hodags barely had enough to fill out a relay for all 10 races, while keeping the swimmers at the maximum four events allowed under WIAA regulations.

“In think all the teams, except for Rice Lake, were in the 20s (for team members),” Heck said. “We had nine so we didn’t have a lot of options. We had to do what worked and I think, that being said, they worked well as a team and had some really great things happen to them.”

The meet was Rhinelander final non-conference invite prior to the start of the new year. Heck said it served as a good barometer as the team enters is most intense training of the season over the coming weeks. 

“I think we’re strong,” she said. “I think we have a lot of work to do and I think we can be great. We just have to keep working together as a team and work on those things that can put us from good to great.”

The Hodags will face Shawano/Seymour in Seymour on Tuesday and are home on Thursday to host Antigo in a Great Northern Conference dual meet. 

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].