Hodag swimmers take 7th in Ashwaubenon

The Rhinelander High School boys’ swim team got its first taste of some fast competition in a championship-style meet Saturday, Jan. 10, taking seventh out of 16 teams in the Jaguar Invite at Ashwaubenon High School.

The meet featured a number of larger Division 1 programs. The Hodags were the second-best D2 program in the field, finishing 12 points behind host Ashwaubenon and were only 29 points out of second in a tightly-packed leaderboard. 

“That was really good to have some fast competition,” coach Jenny Heck said. “We just talked about what we were really proud of, and there were lots of great things that happened. It might not look like that on paper to people (who say) that, ‘Hey, you were seventh,’ but we’re pretty proud of what we did. We think we’re in great position for end of season.”

The Hodags secured six top-five and nine top-10 finishes on the day, led by their three returning state qualifiers — juniors Judson O’Malley and Charlie Antonuk and sophomore Dean Gillingham. 

Gillingham was the only to record a top-three finish and a spot on the podium, taking second in the 200-yard individual medley (2 minutes, 3.17 seconds). He added a fourth-pace swim in the 100 breaststroke (1:02.65). Judson O’Malley was fourth in the 100 freestyle (51.12) and fifth in the 100 backstroke (57.82) while Antonuk took eighth in the 100 butterfly (57.78) and ninth in the 50 freestyle (23.86).

“Dean went a 21 for the first time in a 50 freestyle (during a relay) … Judson and Charlie are always solid and we’re working to refine everything a little bit to make them faster and working on the details, so we saw a lot of good things there,” Heck said. “We’re trying to figure out where they’re best suited, where they’re going to be, what events will be best for them, end of season. We’re still working that out, not sure about that. But they’re going to be in good position.”

Antonuk, Gillingham and Judson O’Malley were also on a pair of fourth-place finishes in the relays. They paired with Kellen O’Malley in the 200 medley relay (1:44.42) and with Daniel Meier in the 200 freestyle relay (2:134.31).

Kellen O’Malley, Meier, Elias Simonsen and Chris Larson came home seventh in the 400 freestyle relay (3:46.03), with all four swimmers posting sub-57-second relay splits. 

“To get that out of these guys is, was really fantastic,” coach Heck said. “We just need to get those other guys up to speed so we can finish off some great with some great relays too. We need four for one relay, but we need a bunch of guys for three relays. They all want to be a part of that, because, relays are a ton of fun, but we only get one of them at sectionals per relay. So you know, the race is on.”

Kellen O’Malley added an 11th-place finishes for the Hodags in the 100 backstroke and a 14th-place swim in the 200 IM. Meier added points by placing 15th in the 500 freestyle and 16th in the 200 freestyle. Broden Wagner also scored thanks to a 16th-place swim in the 100 butterfly. 

“We just had some amazing time drops, and that’s what we’re looking for,” Heck said. “No one’s expecting anything from us without any seniors and just a few returning state guys. So these guys are on fire to prove themselves that we’re still fast and we’re still going to do great things. And I think this was the first step of seeing that tonight.”

The Hodags will be looking for their eighth straight WIAA D2 sectional title next month in Rice Lake, and Ashwaubenon could prove to be the team’s closest competition. The Jaguars finished 23 points behind the Hodags at sectionals last year and overtook Rhinelander at the end of Saturday’s meet with a runner-up finish in the 400 freestyle relay. 

“We knew it was going to be close the whole way. I think they’re in the same position. They don’t have a lot of seniors, so they’re also a young team,” Heck said. “It was great to swim against them and know that they’re going to be, probably our toughest competition when it comes to sectionals. That was good racing. Of course, we wanted to come out at the other end against them, but now it gives us something to shoot for.”

Rhinelander is scheduled to get another crack at Ashwaubenon tonight in the nine-team Lightning Invite hosted by Appleton North. That meet marks the back end of a two-day road trip for the Hodags, who were in Shawano last night for a GNC double dual against Shawano/Seymour and Tomahawk that concluded after press time for today’s edition. Visit RiverNews

Online.com for a recap of that meet and read a full report from the Shawano and Appleton meets in Tuesday’s River News.

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].