Depth leads Hodags swimmers past SPASH

Stevens Point won more races than Rhinelander Tuesday, but the Hodags’ superior depth helped them prevail in a battle of reigning girls’ swimming champions in the Wisconsin Valley and Great Northern conferences.

The Hodags won five events and edged the Panthers 92-78 at the Heck Family Community Pool. Though the Panthers bested the Hodags 6-5 in the win column, Rhinelander had a 6-5 advantage in runner-up finishes and a key 9-2 edge in third-place finishes to score the win.

Points pay down to five positions in dual meets and, in three of SPASH’s victories, Rhinelander was able to offset the wins with high enough finishes elsewhere to break even or outscore the Panthers. 

“I told those girls, you (score) through fifth place. So, if someone wins a race, if they get the one in the four, we get the two, three, five, we even out,” coach Jenny Heck said. “That’s really important to know that all their points matter and they have to fight for those points, whether they’re in first or they’re going for the fifth.”

A few key events helped swing the final score in Rhinelander’s direction. The Hodags had the lone 1-2-3 finish of the night, sweeping the top three spots in the 200-yard freestyle. Senior Emma Houg (2 minutes, 9.07 seconds) edged junior teammate Ella Heck to the wall by a half second for the win while June Chiamulera was third, less than a second and a half back.

“Some of those girls, we were trying to keep out of that medley relay so they could have a good swim,” coach Heck noted. “And, you’re kind of like, ‘is that the right thing to do?’ as a coach. You don’t always know, but I think it really proved that was a great race for all three of those girls to push each other. And that’s a hard race to swim. So if you can swim with your teammates, that helps to get good races.”

    Rhinelander’s Millie Gruett swims the 100-yard butterfly during a non-conference girls’ swim dual meet against Stevens Point at the Heck Family Community Pool Tuesday, Sept. 9. Gruett won the event by 0.13 seconds over Stevens Point’s Claire Lemke, one of five event wins for the Hodags in a 92-78 victory. (Bob Mainhardt for the River News)
  

The closest finish of the night resulted in a four-point swing in the Hodags’ direction. Senior Millie Gruett appeared to be slightly behind Point’s Claire Lemke late in the 100 butterfly, but a well-timed thrust by Gruett to the wall got her there first (1:04.04) as she edged Lemke by 0.13 seconds.  

“That was definitely the highlight of my night as far as a finish, just fantastic,” coach Heck said. “And for her as a senior to just really have those strong finishes, she struggled for three years finishing some of the races and her confidence and her strength have just really come out right now. That’s what we’re looking for. That’s what we need. We need those people to step up and we’re seeing that out of her.”

Rylee Mickevicius claimed the 500 freestyle for the Hodags (5:49.81), Vivian Lamers took the 100 breaststroke (1:12.01) and Rhinelander won the 200 freestyle relay with the group of Chiamulera, Ella Heck, Gruett and Lamers (1:45.05).

The Panthers featured some top-level talent, led by senior Klare Pilger, who placed third in Division 1 in both the 200 individual medley and the 100 backstroke last November at the WIAA state meet. She swam and won both of those events Tuesday, going 2:10.07 in the IM and 58.35 in the backstroke. Pilger was also on winning relays for the Panthers in the 200 medley (1:52.77) and 400 freestyle (3:49.47). Sophomore Kate Keehan picked up wins for SPASH in the 50 freestyle (25.25) and the 100 freestyle (55.99).

“You get these great girls who swim really fast, that makes us better,” coach Heck said. “We see what they’re doing, we see what they’re good at, try to copy some of the things they’re doing, or maybe learn from them. We can learn a lot from other people, so that’s what we’re trying to do.”

Lamers scored a runner-up finish in the IM, Kiley Pooch was second in the 50 freestyle, Ella Heck was second in the 100 freestyle and the Hodags were second in a pair of relays. Pooch, Lamers, Gruett and Mickevicius were runners up in the 200 medley relay while Chiamulera, Ella Heck, Pooch and Mickevicius were second in the 400 freestyle relay. 

The Hodags got third-place finishes from Chiamulera (200 freestyle, 100 freestyle), Gruett (200 IM), Mickevicius (50 freestyle), Houg (100 butterfly), Pooch (100 backstroke) and Kyree McMahon (100 breaststroke). Rhinelander also took third with its B entries in both the 200 freestyle and 400 freestyle relays. 

“SPASH is a great team. They have some amazing swimmers, and we do, too. We just had some more depth and were able to place our swimmers, move them around a little bit,” coach Heck said. “I wasn’t sure if that was going to be the right decision before the meet, the way we kind of moved our relays and things, but we need to need to be able to do that. We can’t rely on everyone swimming the same event. We need to develop our second stroke and our third stroke. So that’s what we’re working on doing.”

A busy week of competition continued for the Hodags Thursday as they traveled to Tomahawk for a GNC double dual that also featured Colby/Abbotsford. Rhinelander wraps up the week tomorrow in a non-conference invite at Brookfield which will feature a number of the state’s top swimmers in D1 and D2.

“That’s going to be a fast meet. We’re swimming the fastest in the state, D1, but it’s such great experience,” coach Heck said. “I told those girls, we’re going down there because we’re going to learn something, it’s going to make us better in the end. That’s why we do it and we’re looking forward to the challenge.”

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].