Hodag swimmers finish 3rd at Small School state

The Rhinelander High School boys’ swim team likely will not be the favorite to defend its WIAA Division 2 state championship in less than three weeks’ time, but the Hodags served notice Saturday that they still plan to be very much in the conversation down in Waukesha.

Rhinelander scored nine top-five finishes and came home third in the 19-team Small School State Invite, hosted by Shorewood High School.

Virtually all of the schools that will factor into the team competition at next month’s WIAA D2 state meet were in attendance Saturday. Though last year’s state runner-up McFarland won the meet in a landslide, Hodag coach Jenny Heck said she was happy with how her team performed in the final tune-up prior to championship season. 

“We were happy with that,” she said. “We wanted to see what we could do in maybe some other events. We mixed up some of our events and I thought we did well in those. It kind of helps us figure out where we’ll be best for conference, sectionals and state.”

Even without junior Brock Arrowood (illness), the Hodags finished only 11 points behind Whitefish Bay for the runner-up spot. The Hodags mainly flexed their muscle in the relays on Saturday, taking second or third in all three of those events. 

The group of Zacha King, Shawn Denis, Judson O’Malley and Dolan O’Malley swam to a runner-up finish in the 200-yard medley relay (1 minute, 41.91 seconds). Denis, Dolan O’Malley, Samson Shinners and Mathias Fugle took second in the 200 freestyle relay (1:32.07). The Hodags added a third-place swim in the 400 freestyle relay with King, Judson O’Malley, Fugle and Shinners (3:21.60). 

“The guys really swam hard and swam right at or better than most of their best times. That was really promising,” Heck said.

Individually, Denis came home third in both the 50 freestyle (22.64) and the 100 breaststroke (1:03.21). King, the runner-up at state in the backstroke last February, finished third in that event on Saturday (54.64). He placed behind reigning state champ Lyon Hall of McFarland, and Hall’s freshman teammate Blake TeBeest — who won the event by nearly 2 1/2 seconds. 

Fugle and Shinners both broke the 50-second mark as they took fourth and fifth, respectively, in the 100 freestyle. Shinners added a fourth-place swim in the 200 individual medley. 

King finished sixth in the 100 butterfly while Dolan O’Malley was eighth in that event and seventh in the 200 IM. Fugle added an eighth-place swim in the 200 freestyle. 

“Shawn did really well, was solid in his swims,” Heck noted. “Samson got a chance to do the 200 IM, swam it fast. It was nice to get a time on him. He really had a good fight. I thought Dolan’s 200 IM was really good, a season best also. 

“Zacha swam right at his times. He was happy with his races. Bubba (Fugle) swam a season-best 200 and looked really strong in his 100.”

McFarland, bolstered by a strong freshman class, won all three relay races and eight events overall as it beat Whitefish Bay 397-261 for the team title. The Spartans finished 1-2 in five different events on Saturday as they stated their case to be the team to beat heading into the state meet Feb. 17 in Waukesha. 

“McFarland was just really strong. They’re going to be breaking records at the state meet this year,” Heck said. “I don’t know how many pool records they broke today, just a ton.” 

While Heck noted McFarland wore it time-optimizing speed suits at the meet, the Hodags opted not to, saving those for when they have rested for the sectional and state meets. 

“Everyone does it a little bit different. It’s always interesting to see the tactic different teams take. I think it was the right one for us,” she said.

Before the Hodags worry about the postseason, there is first the matter of winning a sixth straight Great Northern Conference championship, which the team can do Friday night in Medford. From there, Rhinelander will try to garner as many state qualifying spots as possible at the D2 sectional meet Feb. 11 at Ashwaubenon. Heck said Saturday’s swims should set the team up well for the home stretch of the season.

“We raced well, competed well and it just kind of makes us excited for the end of the year,” she said. “The kids kind of know the drill and understand it. We’ll be excited to taper and get some rest.” 

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].