RHS Sports recap: Saturday, Feb. 10

Boys’ swimming: Rhinelander 1st/10, WIAA Division 2 sectionals

The Rhinelander High School boys’ swim team captured its sixth consecutive WIAA Division 2 sectional title on Saturday, winning seven events to take the championship by 34 points over hosting Ashwaubenon. 

Rhinelander scored 16 entries into next week’s WIAA state tournament, led by its sectional-winning 200 medley, 200 freestyle and 400 freestyle relays. Zacha King won the 200 individual medley and the 100 backstroke, Samson Shinners won the 200 freestyle and Brock Arrowood took the 100 butterfly

The Hodags swept the top four spots in the backstroke, all of whom advanced. Dolan O’Malley, Judson O’Malley and Arrowood will join King in that event. Shawn Denis made it with a runner-up finish in the 100 breaststroke and a fifth in the 200 IM. Mathias Fugle was the runner-up in both the 50 and 100 freestyle, qualifying in both events. Shinners also qualified in the 100 freestyle and Dolan O’Malley also qualified in the 200 IM.

The WIAA D2 state meet takes place this coming Friday night in Waukesha.

Wrestling: Rhinelander 8th/13, WIAA Regionals

The Rhinelander High School wrestling team advanced three wrestlers to sectionals as it took eighth a WIAA Division 2 regional competition in Medford on Saturday.

Owen Kurtz took the regional title at 215 pounds, winning all three of his matches by pin. Logan Schwinger advanced as the runner-up at 190 and Aiden Ostermann moved on thanks to a third-place finish at 144.

Seniors Gavin Liebherr, Robert Schramke, and Maxi Singhammer narrowly missed advancing, finishing fifth in their weight classes. Reid Schultz was unable to wrestle at heavyweight for Rhinelander after sustaining a knee injury in practice leading up to the tournament. 

Kurtz, Schwinger and Ostermann will compete at sectionals next Saturday in Tomahawk.

Boys’ hockey: Antigo 9, Rhinelander 4

The Rhinelander High School boys’ hockey team couldn’t not slow down Antigo’s dynamic duo of Eli Kassler and Owen Dickman on Saturday as it fell to the Red Robins 9-4 in the fifth-place game of the GNC tournament in Mosinee. 

Kassler scored five times for the Robins while Dickman scored three times and Antigo won despite getting outshot by the Hodags 37-26. Joey Belanger scored three goals for the Hodags as he surpassed 200 points for his high school career. Karter Massey also scored for Rhinelander.

Tyler Kimmerling made four saves in the first period for Rhinelander. Asher Rivord played the rest of the way, stopping 13 pucks.

Rhinelander (7-13-0, 2-8-0 Great Northern) will face Tomahawk on the road Thursday to open the WIAA tournament.

Gymnastics: Rhinelander 8th/9, Ashland Invite

Rhinelander posted a total of 109.9 points as it finished eighth in the nine-team Valentines Invite in Ashland on Saturday.

Alexis Smith had the best individual finish for the Hodags, taking eighth on the vault and she also led the Hodags on the floor exercise (20th) and in the individual all-round (23rd). Karly Gillingham was tops for the Hodags with a 15th place finish on beam as she took 25th in the all-around. Samantha Aschenbrenner led the Hodags on uneven bars (39th) and was 29th in the all-around.

Rhinelander will host the Great Northern Conference meet this coming Saturday at the YMCA of the Northwoods.

Full reports will be published in Tuesday’s River News.