Hodag swimmers pushed in home relays

The Rhinelander High School boys’ swim team got a taste of some strong competition Saturday in its home relay meet. 

Bay Port won nine of 10 events and cruised to the team championship in the Hodag Relays at the Heck Family Community Pool. The Hodags came home second, fending off two other Division 1 programs — Superior and Marshfield — for the runner-up spot.

Rhinelander broke the meet record in the 150-yard mixer medley relay and beat the previous meet record in three other events. The problem for the Hodags was they finished second behind a loaded Pirates squad in those races. Bay Port set five meet records on Saturday and won the meet by a whopping 54 points. 

“These guys love to race this D1 competition,” coach Jenny Heck said. “You have bigger schools, sometimes they’re faster, sometimes they’re not, but, you know what, it gives you different competition, and I thought they swam, and they really attacked all their races and were really successful.”

The one record the Hodags claimed Saturday was the longest-standing record in the meet. The trio of Shawn Denis, Judson O’Malley and Mathias Fugle posted a time of 1 minute, 14.71 seconds in the 150 mixer — which included 25 yards of freestyle with 25 yards in one of the other three strokes for each leg of the relay. That was more than a second faster than the previous record in the event, set by the Hodags back in 1987.

“That’s been on there a long time, what was it ‘87? You know, those were fast swimmers back in the day,” Heck noted.

    Rhinelander’s Samson Shinners competes in the 500-yard decrescendo freestyle relay during the Hodag Relays boys’ swim meet at the Heck Family Community Pool Saturday, Dec. 14. (Bob Mainhardt for the River News)
  

Rhinelander was under the record time in three other events, only to get out-touched by Bay Port. The trio of Denis, Dean Gillingham and Samson Shinners went 3:12.18 in the 300 breaststroke relay, beating the old record by three seconds, but lost to Bay Port by 0.61 seconds. 

The Hodags were nearly six seconds faster in that the previous record in the 500 decrescendo freestyle relay as Shinners, Gillingham, Fugle and Denis posted a time of 4:27.25, but they lost there by a second to the Pirates. The Hodags then lost a touch in the 400 medley relay by 0.23 seconds to Bay Port with the squad of Dolan O’Malley, Gillingham, Charlie Antonuk and Shinners. With a time of 3:47.88, they beat the previous record by 0.78 seconds.

“We broke the records. Someone else broke them, but it made us better too, made them better, and that’s why we do this,” Heck said. “So, we’re thrilled to have great competition. Everybody had someone to race today from the new swimmers to experienced swimmers, and that’s what just makes it so much fun.” 

Rhinelander also finished second in the 600 freestyle relay with the team of Antonuk, the O’Malley brothers and Fugle (5:46.27) as well as the 300 butterfly relay with O’Malleys and Antonuk (3:00.07).

Despite finishing second, Heck said she was pleased with the team’s split times — a number of which were season-bests for the squad.

“You know, we trained really hard this week, and we were a little bit sluggish on Thursday, but I saw the bounce back today, and I think it was the adrenaline and the fun of it all,” she said. “That’s what racing can do. You get fired up, and sometimes these guys don’t know that. That’s what being in these tough moments really trains your mental preparation, and it gets you ready for the end to season — conference, sectionals and state where the pressure is on.” 

Rhinelander 116, Tomahawk 46

The Hodags won all 11 events Thursday as they improved to 3-0 in the GNC with a 116-46 victory at Tomahawk. 

Though Rhinelander took all the wins, the Hatchets scored a number of second-place finishes and kept the Hodags honest in a few events. 

“They had 12 guys and so it was you know good competition,” Heck said. “We had our guys and some of maybe not their best events but some opportunities that they’d have good races with Tomahawk, and I think that made it fun for them and for us.”

Denis and Fugle were four-event winners for Rhinelander on Thursday. Individually, Denis won the 100 freestyle (51.33) and the 100 backstroke (58.36) while Fugle took the 500 freestyle (5:29.60). Denis was on the winning 200 medley and 400 freestyle relay squads while Fugle was on all three winning relays. 

The closest race of the night came in the 50 freestyle as Judson O’Malley, celebrating his 16th birthday, scored the win for the Hodags (23.46), fending off Tomahawk’s Sam Zastrow by 0.58 seconds. 

“He won that 50 free, which was a great time for him against good competition,” Heck said. “I think Tomahawk went 24 low so that was a great race and good win for him and way to celebrate being 16.”

Antonuk took the 200 freestyle for Rhinelander (2:06.27), Gillingham won the 200 individual medley (2:10.00), Dolan O’Malley claimed the 100 butterfly (59.30) and Shinners won the 100 breaststroke (1:07.70).

The O’Malley brothers, Denis and Fugle made up the winning quartet in the 200 medley relay (1:44.77), Dolan O’Malley, Fugle, Antonuk and Shinners won the 200 freestyle relay (1:35.19) and Denis, Judson O’Malley, Fugle and Antonuk claimed the 400 freestyle relay (3:35.63).

“Dean Gillingham had a strong 2 IM and Charlie Antonuk had some fast relay splits,” Heck noted. “Matthew Wood freshman got his automatic lettering time and 100 freestyle that was quite exciting.”

Up next

Rhinelander will host Shawano/Seymour tonight in a battle of unbeatens in GNC play at the Heck Family Community Pool. The Hawks moved to 3-0 in the GNC with an 84-69 win over Medford on Thursday. 

The Hodags will travel to Antigo this coming Thursday to round out the round-robin portion of the GNC schedule. 

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].