HODAGS SWIMMERS WIN D2 TITLE

The Rhinelander High School girls’ swim team has won the WIAA Division 2 state championship. 

The Hodags won six of 12 events Friday night in Waukesha and defeated runner-up Whitefish Bay by 87 points to take their second Division 2 crown in four years. 

Karis Francis won a pair of individual events, taking the 100-yard butterfly (56.05 seconds) and the 100 breaststroke (1:03.99), winning the latter by 0.01 seconds over Stoughton’s Cheyenne Borroughs. Freshman Celia Francis claimed the 200 individual medley (2:09.14) by 0.03 seconds over Jefferson/Cambridge’s Zoey Rank and added a runner-up finish in the 100 backstroke. 

The Hodags took all three relay events. Celia Francis, Karis Francis, Ellyse Younker and Lily Thorsen took the 200 medley really (1:45.63); Vivian Lamers, Millie Gruett, Younker and Abi Winnicki took the 200 freestyle relay (1:38.18) and the Francis sisters, Lamers and Winnicki won the 400 freestyle relay (3:30.61).

Winnicki added a runner-up finish in the 100 freestyle and was third in the 200 freestyle. Lamers took third in the 50 freestyle (24.53) and was fifth in the 100 freestyle (54.19).

The victory gave Rhinelander the boys’ and girls’ state championships in swimming in the same calendar year, something only five other schools have accomplished in WIAA history. 

Rhinelander High School is planning a congratulatory pep assembly for the Hodags at 10:30 a.m. on Monday.

A full report will be published in Tuesday’s River News.