Hodag swimmers cruise past Medford in GNC play

The Rhinelander High School boys’ swim team made short work of Medford Thursday, Dec. 11, sweeping the top two spots in all 11 events as they defeated the Raiders 136-19 in Medford.

Eleven different Hodags played a role in at least one victory as the Hodags moved to 2-0 in Great Northern Conference duals. 

“A lot of the freshmen really came out with some strong times, and it’s fun to see these guys dropping so much time,” coach Jenny Heck said. “We just had a lot of good things happen tonight. It’s a good chance to be able to mix it up.”

Sophomore Dean Gillingham was one of three Hodags to score three wins on the night, albeit in unusual fashion. As part of a training challenge, the Hodags entered Gillingham in four consecutive races at the end of the meet. He started by swimming the second leg of the winning 200-yard freestyle relay, followed that with a win in the 100 backstroke (59.80 seconds) and then took the 100 breaststroke (1:05.78) before swimming the leadoff leg for a 400 freestyle relay squad that took second. 

With only one heat in each of the events, Gillingham went straight out of the water and back onto the starting blocks with virtually no rest in between.

“He said the tough part was coming out of the 100 breast into the leadoff of the 400 free relay,” Heck said, noting she could only recall one other time — Marcus O’Malley in 2022 — that a swimming did at least three consecutive events. “We could tell he was tired on that, but all his times were really good. We knew if a person could do it, we knew it would be Dean.”

Matthew Wood and Judson O’Malley added two individual wins each for the Hodags. Wood claimed the 200 freestyle (2:09.48) and the 100 butterfly (1:06.36) while O’Malley won the 50 freestyle (23.82) and the 500 freestyle (5:39.25).

“I thought Matthew Wood had a really good meet with some almost close to best times is in the 200 free and the 100 fly,” Heck noted.

    Rhinelander’s Charlie Antonuk swims the backstroke portion of the 200-yard individual medley during a GNC boys’ swimming dual meet at Medford Thursday, Dec. 11. (Matt Frey/Star News)
  

Charlie Antonuk won the 200 individual medley (2:19.45) while Daniel Meier claimed the 100 freestyle (58.15).

Antonuk and Meier teamed up with freshman Elias Simonsen and junior Chris Larson to claim the 200 medley relay (1:59.02). Antonuk, Judson O’Malley, Finn Thorsen and Kaleb Lehmann won the 400 freestyle relay (3:50.57). Wood, Gillingham, first-year swimmer Konner Bex and Kellen O’Malley made up the winning quartet in the 200 freestyle relay (1:49.64).

“We tried to mix it up a little bit different guys on some relays,” Heck said. “Our new swimmer Konner Bex was on a winning relay. That was a lot of fun, plus he continued to drop time. He started out a 1:00 and he’s down to :33 now. So it’s a lot of fun. And it was fun to see all those guys dropping time.” 

Rhinelander swept the top three in six of the eight individual events — Wood, Espen McMahon and Broden Wagner in the 200 freestyle; Antonuk, Simonson and Larson in the 200 IM; Judson O’Malley, Kellen O’Malley and Meier in the 50 freestyle; Wood, Lehmann and Larson in the 100 butterfly; Judson O’Malley, Antonuk and Wagner in the 500 freestyle; and Gillingham, Kellen O’Malley and Simonsen in the 100 breaststroke.

“It was fun to see Broden with a little exciting race in the 500 free,” Heck noted, as he edged Medford’s Logan Roullier by 0.57 seconds for third. “Broden was equal or a little behind Medford the whole way until the last 50. His last 50 was faster than his first 50 of the race. So he really turned it on in that last 25 to get the third. That was that was a fun race.”

McMahon added a runner-up swim in the 100 freestyle while Lehmann was second in the 100 backstroke. The O’Malley brothers, Thorsen and Wagner were second in the 200 medley relay. Larson, Lehmann, McMahon and Meier were second in the 200 freestyle relay and Gillingham, Simonsen, Wagner and Wood were second in the 400 freestyle relay. 

Perhaps the only setback for the team on Thursday was that Medford, in a practical joke, “captured” the wood-carved Hodag mascot the team brings to every meet. A second lock, not belonging to Rhinelander, was placed on the chains that secured the Hodags’ cage to the bleachers in the Medford pool, causing a bit of a delay following the meet.

“They tried to blame a wrestler, but I don’t know if that’s true,” Heck quipped. “I think it might have been one of their swimmers put a lock on our lock and we got to stay there an extra 20 minutes and get it undone. But it worked out OK and the kids are happy to have a virtual day (of learning) tomorrow.”

Rhinelander was back in action Saturday, hosting the Hodag Relays at the Heck Family Community Pool, which concluded after deadline for today’s edition. Visit RiverNewsOnline.com for a recap of the meet and read a full report in Friday’s River News.

The Hodags return to GNC dual meet play tonight at Lakeland.

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].