Sectional six-peat

ASHWAUBENON — The defending WIAA Division 2 boys’ swim state champions will be back in Waukesha later this week with a big entourage. 

The Rhinelander Hodags had a strong day Saturday, winning seven events and advancing 16 of their 21 entries into the WIAA state meet, as they won a sixth-straight sectional title in Ashwaubenon.

The Hodags fended off the host Jaguars by 24 points for the sectional crown and will now set their sights on a bigger goal this coming Friday night.

“That’s always a nerve-wracking day. Everyone has a little bit of a different goal and position they’re in. I’m glad today is over,” Hodag coach Jenny Heck said. “They did really well. Really happy to be able to win. Ashwaubenon had a great lineup and was right behind us and pushed us all the way. There were some good races between a lot of different guys in the sectional. It was a good meet, fast meet.”

Ashwaubenon used a stacked lineup in the 500-yard freestyle to jump the Hodags in the team standings two thirds of the way through the meet. The Jaguars went 1-2-3-5 in that event to take the lead and still held a 299-261 advantage with three events remaining. 

The Hodags had a big trump card up their sleeve, however, as their stacked lineup in the backstroke came through. Zacha King led a top-four sweep of the event for Rhinelander while Chris Larson added a 14th place finish, to put Rhinelander ahead 334-308. The Jaguars gained a few points back in the breaststroke, but Rhinelander won the 400 freestyle relay to lock up the title. 

Not only did the Hodags sweep the top four in the backstroke, all four swimmers — King (51.45 seconds), Dolan O’Malley (55.46), Judson O’Malley (56.12) and Brock Arrowood (56.68) — posted times among the 16 fastest in the state, advancing to next week’s state meet.

“That was a fun race to watch,” Heck said. “I’d like to re-watch it because there was so much going on. We just have a lot of talented backstrokers. When you have that, you go where you feel you can do best. That was definitely where we had some success. I’m really pleased that those guys all made it in.”

Six Hodags will have four-event programs in Waukesha later this week. King, Dolan O’Malley, Arrowood, Shawn Denis, Samson Shinners and Mathias Fugle all advanced in all four of their events. 

    Rhinelander’s Zacha King swims the backstroke leg of the 200-yard individual medley during a WIAA Division 2 sectional meet in Ashwaubenon Saturday, Feb. 10. King won all four of his events on Saturday and posted the second-fastest qualifying time in the state in the 100-yard backstroke. (Jeremy Mayo/River News)
  

King was the lone four-event sectional champion of the bunch. The defending state runner-up in the backstroke, King’s time in the event Saturday has him as the No. 2 qualifier in that event going into Friday. King also won the 200 individual medley (1:59.61) with the fourth-fastest qualifying time.

“Zacha’s been a beast. He’s been training really hard and I think he’s got more in him,” Heck said. “I know he’s got more in him. To get those drops is really optimistic. Everyone drops at their own time but he went even faster than I thought he was going to go today. I know he’s excited and I’m looking forward to seeing what he can do next week.”

    Rhinelander’s Brock Arrowood makes a turn in the 200-yard medley relay during a WIAA Division 2 sectional meet in Ashwaubenon Saturday, Feb. 10. Arrowood won the 100-yard butterfly and the Hodags claimed all three relay races on the day. (Jeremy Mayo/River News)
  

Arrowood swam to a comfortable win the 100 butterfly on Saturday (53.29), beating runner-up Anthony Hendrickson of Ashwaubenon by 2.11 seconds. Shinners added a win in the 200 freestyle (1:48.02), beating Ashwaubenon’s Andrew Hodek by 1.68 seconds. Both had the ninth-fastest times in the state in their respective events.

“We didn’t know what (Arrowood’s) second event was going to be and he swam very well, very tough. He hasn’t swam that time in a while and he’s got some more opportunity for next week. His fly was really good, fast,” Heck said. “With ninth for Samson, I think that’s nice to be the top seed in the first heat. It will take a little bit of the waves out of the equation.”

Despite playing it conservative on the relay exchanges, the Hodags posted comfortable wins an all three events. King, Denis, Arrowood and Dolan O’Malley made up the winning quartet in the 200 medley, posting the second-fastest qualifying time in the event (1:38.68). The Hodags also checked in second in the state with their winning 200 freestyle relay of Denis, Dolan O’Malley, Shinners and Fugle (1:29.94). Rhinelander posted the fifth-best qualifying time in the 400 freestyle relay with King, Arrowood, Fugle and Shinners (3:18.35).

“The relays were very, very safe relay starts,” Heck said. “That was important. Their times were good, which leads me to think that if their 50s and 100s are good, these guys are going to swim faster soon, in just a few short days.”

Fugle, a junior, was the runner-up in both the 50 (22.29) and 100 freestyle (48.93) — times that were seventh and fifth overall in the state. Shinners took third in the 100 (49.58) and also had the ninth-fastest qualifying time in the state in that event. 

“I kind of expected them to be what they were. They’re just such solid swimmers that I knew that we could wait til next week to get their best performances. I think they’re positioned very well,” Heck said.

Denis overcame a bit of a scare early in the day as he failed to drop time and finished fifth in the 200 individual medley (2:05.69). He still made it in as the 14th-fastest qualifier, 0.85 seconds ahead of the cutline. The junior responded with a big swim in the breaststroke as he went 1:01.16 in that event to take second in the sectional and qualify seventh for state.

“He didn’t have the race that he wanted to have, but he’s never swam sectionals not rested before,” coach Heck said. “He swam decent, but it wasn’t crazy fast and he just snuck in. IM is a crazy fast race this year, but he didn’t let that get in his head. He knew he had an important relay and another individual to do. That’s half of it. If you can stay in the fight and not let that get you down, it turned out all right. He made it in and now he can see what he can really do when he’s rested.”

Dolan O’Malley added a fourth-place swim in the 200 individual medley (2:04.02), qualifying for state in that event for the second year in a row.

The nearest miss for the Hodags came in the butterfly where Judson O’Malley took fourth in the sectional (56.69) and missed out on qualifying by 0.82 seconds. Menomonie’s Gavin Hall, who finished just ahead of O’Malley on Saturday, took the final transfer spot.

Charlie Antonuk added sixth-place swims for Rhinelander in the 200 freestyle and 100 butterfly. Larson added a 16th-place swim for the Hodags in the 200 freestyle.

“Even the guys that didn’t make it in had really great swims, swam their hearts out,” Heck said. “It was a fast year in some of those events. The fly was really fast. But it was a good experience. It sets those freshmen up for knowing what to expect for future years.”

Rhinelander’s 16 state entries are third-most in the state, behind McFarland (18) and Whitefish Bay (17). Those are the two teams the Hodags figure to be chasing for either a gold or silver trophy going into Friday’s state meet.

“I feel good. I feel like they swam really fast and they continued doing what I hope they’re doing,” Heck said. “Now I can focus on some small details for this week of things we can do better and hopefully just get some more rest and good health and continue plugging away each day.”

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].