Hodags swimmers roll to eighth straight GNC title

The cast of characters may have changed significantly from last year, but the end result was still the same for the Rhinelander High School boys’ swim team in the Great Northern Conference.

The Hodags were dominant again Friday night, winning 10 of 11 events and scoring 21 top-three finishes overall, as they waltzed to an eighth straight conference title during the GNC meet hosted by Lakeland Union High School in Minocqua. 

Rhinelander’s three returning state qualifiers — Dean Gillingham, Judson O’Malley and Charlie Antonuk — were all four-event winners on the night. Seven different Hodags were conference champs in at least one event, and all 14 of Rhinelander’s swimmers earned all-conference honors by finishing in the top three at least once on Friday.

“It was really fun. It never gets old and to continue the winning tradition has been super fun,” Hodag coach Jenny Heck said. “I think we had something great happen in every single event. I really could talk about each and every one of them and something special, they all did. Definitely a group effort and a ton of fun.”

Rhinelander cruised to a 149-point victory over runner-up Shawano/Seymour while Tomahawk, Medford and Lakeland rounded out the field. 

    Rhinelander’s Dean Gillingham competes in the 100-yard breaststroke during the Great Northern Conference boys’ swim meet in Minocqua Friday, Feb. 6. Gillingham won the race in a meet-record time of 1 minute, 0.62 seconds. (Brett LaBore/Lakeland Times)
  

Gillingham, a sophomore, took down the lone conference record of the night. He won the 100-yard breaststroke in a time of 1 minute, 0.62 seconds. That broke the previous mark of 1:01.32 set a year ago by Rhinelander alum Shawn Denis. Gillingham added a win in the 200 freestyle and was on the team’s winning 200 medley and 400 freestyle relays.

“That was fantastic, a great swim for him, as a sophomore,” Heck said. “Anytime you can get a record these days on our record board, you know you’re swimming fast, and that was really fun.”

Judson O’Malley had arguably the toughest opposition of the night as he went head-to-head against Tomahawk’s Bruce Peetz in the 50 and 100 freestyle. O’Malley came out on top in both events. He went 22.63 in the 50 to beat Peetz by 0.52 seconds and went 50.20 in the 100 freestyle as he swam to a 0.66-second win. O’Malley was also part of the wins in the 200 medley relay and 200 freestyle relay.

“Judson had just some amazing, starts and underwaters,” Heck said. “He has a strong desire to win, and he was ready for him because we knew Peetz was going to be swimming fast. Those were some good races.”

    Rhinelander’s Charlie Antonuk competes in the 100-yard butterfly during the Great Northern Conference boys’ swim meet in Minocqua Friday, Feb. 6. Antonuk won the race, as part of a four-win night for the junior. (Brett LaBore/Lakeland Times)
  

Antonuk led a 1-2-3 sweep in the 100 butterfly (56.65) with Hodag teammates Kellen O’Malley and Chris Larson. He also claimed the 100 backstroke (58.90) in a 1-2 finish with teammate Elias Simonsen and was on the winning 200 and 400 freestyle relays. 

“We’re pretty happy with Charlie. He had all four of his events in the second half and he was pretty tired. For a sprinting-type of guy, that’s a lot, but he handled it really well,” Heck said.

Kellen O’Malley added a win for the Hodags, claiming the 200 individual medley (2:12.36) and was on the winning 200 medley and 200 freestyle relays.

“That was a fantastic swim,” Heck said of Kellen O’Malley’s IM. “He just keeps continuing to drop, and he knows that if he wants to get down to the time that he wants to do, he has really had to work on his breaststroke, which was a lot faster as a split. He had a really a strong meet as well. He has a lot of motivation and desire to be fast and that was great to see.”

The Hodags mixed their relays on Friday as they tinker with lineup ideas for this coming Saturday’s WIAA Division 2 sectional in Rice Lake. Daniel Meier swam with the O’Malley brothers and Gillingham in the 200 medley relay (1:45.34); Simonsen swam with Antonuk and the O’Malleys in the 200 freestyle relay (1:35.06) and the 400 freestyle relay was comprised of Antonuk, Meier, Matthew Wood and Gillingham (3:33.64).

“We wanted to see what we could do and with different guys swimming different things. It gave us a lot of good information,” Heck said. “Next weekend’s going to be completely different — a lot more teams, different teams. We’re going to have to put together our best, and we’re going to have some serious thinking to do after tonight and looking at our times.”

Shawano’s Jonah Kuba was the only non-Hodag to score a win on Friday. He took the 500 freestyle (5:35.13). Even then, he had a host of Hodags behind him with Meier, Finn Thorsen and Espen McMahon finishing second, third and fourth in the event.

“We had just fantastic swim by our 500 guys — major drops and those events — which really are important for us,” Heck noted. 

Simonsen added a runner-up swim in the IM while Paul Denis took second in the breaststroke. Two of Rhinelander’s B entries scored runner-up finishes in the relays. McMahon, Denis, Larson and Thorsen took second in the 200 medley while Thorsen, Simonsen, McMahon and Larson made up the runner-up quartet in the 400 freestyle. 

Meier added a third-place finish in the 200 freestyle, and the remaining Hodag swimmers received an all-conference honor with a third-place swim in the 200 freestyle relay. Wood teamed with Konner Bex, Broden Wagner and Kaleb Lehmann in that event. Notably Bex, a first-year swimmer, broke the 30-second barrier in the 50 freestyle for the first time in the race. 

“You get a swimmer, new like Konner Bex who starts out like that, ends up being on an all-conference relay, that’s really awarding as a coach,” Heck said. “He broke the 30 seconds for the first time, which was the challenge all year long, but something I thought we could do right from the beginning. Those things are always fun.”

The Hodags will take part in a 10-team sectional this coming Saturday in Rice Lake. Most of the GNC, with the exception of Shawano/Seymour, will be in attendance as Rhinelander vies for an eighth straight sectional title and as many entries into the WIAA state meet as possible.

“We’ll start to worry about that and think about all our options tomorrow and put together the best team we have for sectionals on Saturday,” Heck said.

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].