Team review: RHS boys’ swimming

To truly reflect on what the Rhinelander High School boys’ swim team has done over the past several years, perhaps it requires the perspective of someone who has been around the program for the better part of the last half century. 

As an athlete, and then a coach, Dan Jesse has seen plenty of great swimmers and teams come through Rhinelander. Earlier this month, when the Hodags held their season-ending banquet, Jesse attempted to put into context just how good the Hodags have been over the past four years.

“The seniors are walking away with an average finish of second at state. That’s the highest finish, before this group got there, that any team had done in one year —and you guys averaged that over four years,” said Jesse, who still helps out the team as an assistant coach. 

Technically speaking, only one other class has been able to match what the Hodag swim Class of 2025 has done. That’s the Class of 1968, which was a part of four straight runner-up finishes at state during their high school career. It could be argued that this year’s class has the tiebreaker, thanks to winning the program’s only state championship in 2023. 

Jesse said, as a swimmer and a coach, his accomplishments and those of his athletes were always measured against the great Bob Smith teams of the 1960s. Jesse said the next generation of Hodag swimmers has a new gold standard to measure itself against.

“You guys have established a new high standard because no one in the ‘60s did what you guys did. You guys have erased that and put yourself in that position,” he said.

The 2024-25 season was another chapter in what has turned into an impressive Hodag dynasty over the last several years. The Hodags now own seven straight Great Northern Conference titles, seven straight WIAA D2 sectional titles and five finishes of third or better at the state meet since 2019.

“We’re just really proud,” coach Jenny Heck said after bringing home another trophy from the state meet. “We know Rhinelander’s is very proud of us and we would just want to do the best we could to represent.” 

Here are five storylines from the recently completed season. 

Conference domination

    In this Feb. 7, 2025 file photo, Rhinelander’s Shawn Denis reacts after breaking the pool and conference records in the 200-yard individual medley during the GNC championship meet at the Heck Family Community Pool. (Bob Mainhardt for the River News)  

It was another GNC-championship romp for the Hodag swimmers this season. Rhinelander never won fewer than nine of 11 events in any conference dual or double dual and had a perfect league record. The Hodags were so dominant that they had at least the top two times in every event except the 200-yard  medley relay during the conference regular season. 

That domination continued during the GNC meet, held at the Hodags’ own Heck Family Community Pool. 

Rhinelander broke seven GNC records that night, and four Heck Pool records as well, as it won all 11 events and nearly doubled the score of runner-up Tomahawk —winning the meet over the Hatchets 463-235. 

“We put a lot of a lot of yards into this pool, to be able go out on a great meet conference meet, break a bunch of records, it means a lot, and I’m so proud of all these guys for giving their all. It was so fun,” senior Dolan O’Malley said. 

Rhinelander set conference records in with Mathias Fugle in the 50- and 100-yard freestyle; Shawn Denis in the 200 individual medley and 100 breaststroke; Samson Shinners in the 200 freestyle as well as the 200 and 400 freestyle relays. After this year, only two conference swim records stand that do not have Rhinelander’s name next to them — the 100 butterfly (Travis Phillips, Tomahawk, 2020) and the 500 freestyle (Jack Garcia, Lakeland, 2018).

Non-conference competition

Much of Rhinelander’s top competition this season came when it ventured outside the GNC. The Hodags ended up with five runner-up finishes on the season. Three of those came to Division 1 programs and the other two were at the hands of eventual D2 state champion McFarland. 

Bay Port proved to be a strong rival early in the season as it came to Rhinelander and captured the Hodags Relays and then outpaced Rhinelander for the title at the Jaguar Invite in Ashwaubenon in early January. D1 program Oregon edged the Hodags for the Appleton North Invite title the following week and McFarland clipped Rhinelander and Whitefish Bay for the title at the Small School State Invite at Shorewood in late January. 

That meet proved to be a harbinger of things to come as McFarland, Rhinelander and Whitefish Bay finished 1-2-3 at the D2 state meet for the second straight year. 

“We go to those invites so we can be exposed to better competition, more competition,” Heck said. “We’re fast here in the Northwoods, but there’s always someone faster and we always feel it’s important to be exposed to different teams before we get down to sectionals and state. That helps prepare us, mentally.” 

Seven at sectionals

The Hodags advanced 15 of their 21 entries from sectionals on to the WIAA state meet as they edged Ashwaubenon by 23 points for the title. 

All four of Rhinelander’s seniors — Denis, Fugle, Dolan O’Malley and Shinners — earned four-event programs at state. Freshman Dean Gillingham also qualified in both of his individual events. Sophomores Charlie Antonuk and Judson O’Malley, each walked away with individual sectional titles — winning the 100 butterfly and 100 backstroke, respectively. 

Shinners also scored a win for Rhinelander in the 200 freestyle and the Hodags took the win in all three relays as they rallied over the final three events to take the title.

The Hodags did it despite having a number of swimmers battling illness during the meet.

“We knew it was going to be close and it was the whole way,” Heck said. “They had to work it and everything wasn’t perfect once again and rarely is. That’s a lesson to be learned that you know, you have to make up your points anytime you can because you don’t know what’s going to happen. 

“To win the for seven years in a row is nothing to take lightly because these guys work their tails off and everyone’s at a little bit different points, which makes it difficult … Just trying to keep everyone healthy it’s a huge challenge, and having everyone swimming right at the right times is not easy.”

Second at state

The Hodags entered state cautiously optimistic about their chances at a second state championship in three years. They finished only eight points behind McFarland at Small School State and were projected 25 points behind the Spartans heading into state, based on where everyone qualified at sectionals.

However, it quickly became apparent that McFarland never showed its full hand during the regular season or at sectionals. The Spartans won eight events — including two in state-record fashion — as they rolled to a 48-point win. 

“I had a feeling that was going to happen,” Heck said of McFarland’s dominant performance. “It’s a strong family of swimmers they have there and, you know, they had some amazing relays. We knew that was going to be tough, and a long shot.”

The race ended up being for second and, just like last year, it was a battle between the Hodags and Whitefish Bay. The Blue Dukes inched ahead with two races left, but the Rhinelander moved back in front after the 100-yard breaststroke and beat Whitefish Bay in the 400 freestyle relay to take the runner-up spot by 12 points. 

The Hodags didn’t win any events at state. The closest they came was the 200 freestyle relay as the quartet of Denis, freshman Dean Gillingham, Shinners and Fugle brought home the team’s only runner-up finish. Shinner and Fugle, swimming the final two legs of that relay and made up nearly 2 1/2 seconds on the Spartans, but settled for second (1:27.28), 0.72 seconds behind.

There were plenty of podium finishes, however. The Hodags opened the meet with a fourth-place finish in the 200 medley relay with Dolan O’Malley, Denis, sophomore Charlie Antonuk and sophomore Judson O’Malley (1:39.10). Shinners, the O’Malley brothers and Fugle came home fourth in the 400 freestyle relay (3:15.55).

Individually, Fugle placed in the top four in both sprint freestyle events. He opened his night with a fourth-place run in the 50 (21.60) and was third in the 100 (47.43). Dolan O’Malley finished fourth overall in the 100 backstroke (53.52) after winning the opening. He also made it onto the podium in the 200 individual medley, coming home sixth (2:00.90). Shinners rallied over the final 100 yards in the 200 freestyle to make the last step of the podium in sixth place. 

Denis narrowly missed out on the podium, taking seventh in both the 50 freestyle and the 100 backstroke, Shinners was seventh in the 100 freestyle and Gillingham took seventh in the 200 IM.

What’s next

While Rhinelander figures to be in a good spot to contend for an eighth straight GNC title, winning an eighth straight sectional title could be a challenge and scoring another top-three finish at state might be even harder still. 

Rhinelander figures to have a very young team next season after graduating the four seniors who swam at state was well as Michael Schiek — who missed most of the year with a shoulder injury. 

Chris Larson is the lone senior-to-be on the squad. He was ninth in his lone event at sectionals, the 100 butterfly. Rhinelander will bring back state qualifiers in Antonuk, Judson O’Malley and Gillingham, but the team will primarily be a young squad with freshmen and sophomores.

“We have going have a lot of spots next year and there’s a lot of work to be done, but there’s also a lot of potential,” coach Heck said. “It’s going be challenging. We losing a lot of seniors and, you know, we we’re going to need other kids to step up.”

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].