Team review: RHS boys’ swimming

When determining if something as just a flash in the pan or truly something special, the saying goes, “once is a mistake, twice is a trend, three times is evidence.”

After securing its third consecutive top-three finish in the WIAA Division 2 state championships, no one should be doubting the Rhinelander Hodags’ place as one of the top small school boys’ swim programs in the state. 

Rhinelander did not defend its 2023 WIAA D2 state title this year but did the next best thing, walking out of Waukesha with the silver trophy and a runner-up finish. It completed a trifecta of podium finishes for the Hodags the last three years at state — Rhinelander finished third in 2022 and was also third in 2019. 

Perhaps as impressive for the Hodags is that they finished second in the state this year despite graduating six of the 10 swimmers off of last year’s championship team. It just furthered the Hodags’ case to the rest of the state that their success wasn’t built on the strength of one class. Rhinelander has fast swimmers, and lots of them.

“Everything was so different this year, but you have to adjust and take the group you have,” coach Jenny Heck said after the Hodags’ runner-up finish at state last month. “That’s what these guys did. They molded together, formed their team. It’s not easy. It takes a lot of work. It’s exhausting, to be honest, but when you can do this and you’re there for each other and you work for each other, not just for yourself, this is what you see happen.”

Here are five storylines from the recently completed season.

Reloading

After last year’s state meet, there were serious questions as to whether Rhinelander would contend for a top-five finish at state, let alone another trophy. With only four swimmers set to return, and only a couple of freshmen set to join the program, simply being able to fill every spot in the lineup for sectionals was in doubt. 

The Hodags did bring back some key pieces though, including state runner-up in the backstroke Zacha King, 200-yard freestyle relay champion Mathias Fugle along with fellow state qualifiers Shawn Denis and Dolan O’Malley. 

That core group received a shot in the arm as a pair of juniors who swam with the team as freshmen before opting to focus on the club circuit last year — Brock Arrowood and Samson Shinners — returned to the fold. The Hodags also had one more freshman than originally anticipated, as first-year swimmer Christopher Larson decided to try his hand in the pool, joining Charlie Antonuk and Judson O’Malley. 

Suddenly, as the calendar hit November and the season began, the Hodags had the pieces in place to be competitive again.

“There are options. Just because we might not have a superstar that’s winning everything, I think if we stick together and be a great team, there’s a lot of potential,” Heck said at the start of the season.

Conference

Rhinelander waltzed through the Great Northern Conference, going undefeated in dual and double dual competition. The Hodags lost only two individual races all season against GNC foes, and one of those was due to a relay disqualification in the team’s opening double dual.

The Hodags were the overwhelming favorites going into the conference championship and claimed all 11 events, winning the meet by a comfortable 160-point margin. All nine of the Hodags swimmers finished either first or second in multiple events and seven of them played a role in at least one individual conference victory. 

The biggest question going into the meet was what, if any, conference records would Rhinelander reset. The Hodags already owned five of them and rewrote one of those as King went 53.72 in the 100 backstroke to eclipse Nolan Francis’s previous mark.

“I’m ecstatic that I got that 100 backstroke,” King said, who was later voted the swimmer of the year in the GNC. “It hurt, for about 53.7 seconds. It hurt but once I finished and looked at the board and focused my eyes enough to actually see it, oh man, that made all the hurt go away.”

Sectionals

Despite the Hodags conference dominance, a sixth straight sectional title was not a guarantee going into the sectional meet in Ashwaubenon. 

The host Jaguars were hot on the Hodags’ heels and finished just behind Rhinelander when the two teams meet in the Jaguar Invite in January. The teams met again later in January for a dual meet after the Appleton North Invite was snowed out and Rhinelander won 10 of 11 events to capture a 99-70 win.

Despite that, the Jaguars came in projected to finish only 33 points behind the Hodags at sectionals and figured to use a loaded lineup in the 500-yard freestyle to post a lead in the standings with only four events remaining. 

It did play out that way but, ultimately, the Hodags’ talent prevailed. Rhinelander won seven events and qualified 16 of its 21 sectional entries for state to beat Ashwaubenon by 24 points for the sectional crown. 

While Ashwaubenon loaded its 500-yard freestyle, going 1-2-3-5 in that event, the Hodags had an ace up their sleeve in the backstroke. Rhinelander swept the top four spots in that race, and also got a points-paying 14th-place finish by Larson to take a lead it would never relinquish.

“They did really well. Really happy to be able to win, coach Heck said. “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.”

In addition to wining all three relays, King also won the 100 backstroke and 200 individual medley, Shinners won the 200 freestyle and Arrowood claimed the 100 butterfly.

State

Going into the WIAA Division 2 state meet the Hodags knew that, despite their successes, repeating as state champions would be a long shot at best. Last year’s state runner-up, McFarland, returned virtually all of its squad and brought in some fast freshmen who made an immediate impact. 

The Spartans’ dominance was felt when they swam to a convincing victory in the Small School State Invite at Shorewood in late January. Rhinelander, which was without Arrowood (illness) for that meet, finished third behind Whitefish Bay.

It was clear going into state that it would be a race between the Hodags and the Blue Dukes for the runner-up trophy. Rhinelander entered the state meet projected to finish just 2 1/2 points ahead of Whitefish Bay. 

However, as they did in 2022 and 2023, the Hodags beat their projections soundly. That was not enough to catch McFarland, but it was enough to give the Hodags four second-place event finishes and a 21-point cushion over Whitefish Bay for state runner-up.

“A trophy is a trophy,” King said. “Going into this it was very, very unlikely that anybody was going to beat McFarland. It was a race for second and we just pulled up and did what we had to do.”

King was the runner-up for the second straight year in the 100 backstroke while the Hodags took second in all three relays. That included a school-record performance by Arrowood, King, Fugle and Shinners in the 400 freestyle relay. King set a school record in the 200 individual medley, finishing fifth while Shawn Denis broke a school record in a fifth-place swim in the 100 breaststroke. 

Fugle and Shinners added podium finishes in the 100 freestyle, finishing fifth and sixth, respectively. 

What’s next

Entering 2025, Rhinelander has a luxury that it did not have this season. Eight of the nine swimmers on the squad are slated to return, with King being the only loss to graduation. 

With much of that core group set to return, don’t be surprised if the Hodags are in the mix for yet another top-three finish at state next February.

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].