January 30, 2023 at 8:02 a.m.
Hodag swimmers take 2nd in Small School State Invite
Hodag swimmers take 2nd in Small School State Invite
The Hodags recorded nine top-five finishes and took second overall in the 19-team Shorewood Invite.
The meet is nicknamed "Small School State" for good reason as many of the top programs in Division 2 were in attendance. Hodag coach Jenny Heck said she hopes Saturday's appearance will help as Rhinelander aims to better last year's third-place finish from at the WIAA D2 state meet when it heads to Waukesha Feb. 17.
"This was a great mental preparation for the guys," she said. "I think they all agree that it was just a really important trip for us to make down there, see some of these guys, swim against them. Otherwise some of these guys we're not seeing until the state meet. Now we can have a better idea of what they're going to be facing in a couple weeks, have better mental preparation."
Rhinelander finished a mere 8 1/2 points behind Shorewood, which placed fourth behind the Hodags at last year's state meet. Overall, eight of last year's top nine D2 programs were in attendance.
Seniors Jack Antonuk and Daniel Gillingham placed in the top five in all four of their events.
Antonuk took third in the 500-yard freestyle (5 minutes, 5.62 seconds) and was fourth in the 100 breaststroke (1:02.64). He was also part of a runner-up swim in the 200 medley relay and a third-place finish in the 200 freestyle relay. Gillingham was fourth in the 50 freestyle (22.73), fifth in the 100 butterfly (56.23), was on the 200 freestyle relay that finished third and the 400 freestyle relay that placed fourth.
"It was really fun to see Jack's 500. I think he dropped (a lot of time). He hasn't swam it in a while and we thought he could do better in it. He just looked strong and solid the whole way, dropping 10 seconds," coach Heck noted. "The other guys had to push to get through it. We've still been training hard this past week. Although we knew we wanted to swim fast, we couldn't let up on our training. We had some really good times with just taking a lot of effort and grit to get it done today. We were winning races at the end, touching guys out and I knew they were in pain. It was not easy, but we keep chipping away and hoping that we can do all the right things to continue the success."
Carter Gaber (55.97) and Zacha King (56.61) finished second and fifth, respectively, in the 100 backstroke. Gaber, Antonuk, Gillingham and Charlie Heck made up the runner-up team in the medley relay (1:40.13). King, Shawn Denis, Antonuk and Mathias Fugle were third in the 200 freestyle relay (1:33.52) and Gillingham, Fugle, Gaber and Heck were fourth in the 400 freestyle relay (3:22.78).
Additionally, Gaber and Heck took sixth and seventh in the 50 freestyle. Fugle took seventh in the 100 freestyle and eighth in the 200 freestyle, King was eighth in the 200 individual medley and Denis was ninth in the breaststroke.
"We weren't even concerned about our lineup or really our times," coach Heck said. "We didn't suit up (in our faster tech suits) or anything like that. We just went out there and see what we could do. We kind of changed our lineup here and there with a few events because out main goal wasn't even to win the meet or top three. We just wanted to go there for the experience and really get some great races in. I think we did that.
"We saw things that we definitely need to improve on. We saw some of the fastest guys in the state swimming today. You can learn from other people and learn what you can improve on. It comes down to all those little, fine details now. They really had their eyes opened."
Shawano Double Dual
Saturday's performance came after the Hodags had a perfect night in the pool Thursday, scoring the maximum points their lineup would allow in a double dual win over Shawano and Medford in Shawano.
Rhinelander won all 11 events, finishing 1-2 in 10 of them, and was not beaten by either a Shawano or Medford swimmer. The Hodags defeated the hosting Hawks 124-32 and Medford 124-37.
"We ended up having just a fun night tonight. We've had a tough week of training and we were just ready," coach Heck said, admitting there was some extra motivation for the evening. "We told all the guys we were going for a personal best on the season and if we did that, I'd get pizza. They all had motivation and all had some great swims and pizza was on coach tonight."
All 10 Rhinelander swimmers played a role in at least one win, led by Dolan O'Malley, who won all four events in his program. That including a victory in the 100 breaststroke (1:10.21) where he touched out Charlie Heck by 0.02 seconds. O'Malley also won the 100 butterfly (1:01.34) and was on the winning 200 medley and 200 freestyle relay squads.
"Dolan had four wins today and just swam really strong with personal, season-bests," coach Heck said. "I was really happy with Dolan. He's been training really hard and just happy to see him with all the success tonight."
King led a pair of 1-2-3 finished at the Hodags swept the 50 and 500 freestyle races. King (24.30) beat Antonuk and Marcus O'Malley in the 50 and was ahead of Fugle and Denis in the 500. Fugle and Denis staged their own close battle in the 200 individual medley, with Fugle (2:18.87) edging Denis by a tenth of a second.
Gaber went 1-2-3 with Gillingham and Charlie Heck in the 200 freestyle and went 1-2 with Antonuk in the 100 freestyle (51.27). Gillingham led a 1-2-3 sweep of the backstroke (1:00.61) with Marcus O'Malley and Lundt.
Antonuk, Dolan O'Malley, Fugle and Lundt won the 200 medley relay (1:54.33). Charlie Heck, the O'Malley brothers and Denis took the 200 freestyle relay (1:35.10). Fugle, Marcus O'Malley, King and Gaber made up the winning quartet in the 400 freestyle relay (3:31.88).
"It was a good all-around meet by all the guys trying to get in those events they haven't swam for a while," coach Heck said. "I'm glad we did because we had some really good drops in events that even surprised them."
Up next
The Hodags made up their double dual at Lakeland Monday night in an event that concluded after deadline for today's edition. It served as a make-up of a twice-postponed dual between the Hodags and the T-Birds.
In what figured to be a formality, the Hodags needed a win over Lakeland to secure a two-point lead over Tomahawk in the conference standings heading into Friday night's GNC championship meet in Antigo.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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