Hodag swimmers take fifth in state primer, second at SPASH

The Rhinelander High School boys’ swim team on Saturday got a preview of the competition it will likely face next month at the WIAA Division 2 state meet. Based on the results, the Hodags may be a long shot for a fourth straight top-two finish at state, but still have the potential to do well in some areas.

Rhinelander had five top-five finishes and four more top-10 finishes as they placed fifth out of 17 teams at the Small School State Invite at Shorewood High School.

The field featured two-time defending D2 state champ McFarland, along with several other top programs in Division 2. Coach Jenny Heck said it served as a good litmus test for her team as it enters the home stretch of the regular season. 

“About half the team hadn’t swam at this pool before at this meet, so it was a really good experience, and you get to see a lot of fast swimming,” Heck said. “I know that the guys thought it was a good meet too. It’s a long drive. It’s a big commitment of a day. No one comes nearly as far as we do for this meet. But we think that always being around fast competition makes us better in some way — whether it’s physically, mentally, or both.”

“Fifth overall isn’t too bad out of this young group and we know it’s going to be a building year, but I think that they’re trying to prove themselves and they’re making the drops that are needed to come together and see how we can do at the end of the year.” 

Sophomore Dean Gillingham captured the lone win for the Hodags, taking the 100-yard breaststroke as part of a 1-3 finish in that event with junior teammate Judson O’Malley. Gillingham finished with a time of 1 minute, 1.90 seconds, rallying past Shorewood’s Dashiell Gansner over the final 50 yards to win by 0.34 seconds.

Gillingham added a runner-up finish in the 100 freestyle (50.15). While Heck said there are things the team can refine with Gillingham’s races, he’s got the raw speed to compete at the top level.

“Dean had not a great start, came up behind in the breaststroke and so his first 50 was slow, but his second 50, he came back stronger,” she said. “Dean, he’s doing really good. For being a sophomore, he’s got a lot of those little things that he’s learning and working out … starts and turns, those things take some time to develop compared to the seniors and the older kids. He’s really going to come along. It’s kind of fun to watch him though.”

Judson O’Malley went 1:04.53 in the breaststroke, which could give the Hodags some options at the end of season — either in the medley relay or in which individual events he swims.

“Judson wanted to swim that breaststroke and he just keeps getting faster. That guy has become a new breaststroker on the team. So it’s been really fun and he had just an awesome swim,” Heck said.

The Hodags put their top four swimmers together for a pair of relays as the squad of Gillingham, Charlie Antonuk, Judson O’Malley and Kellen O’Malley finished fourth in both the 200 medley (1:44.88) and the 200 freestyle (1:33.62). Rhinelander finished ninth in the 400 freestyle relay with the group of Elias Simonsen, Matthew Wood, Chris Larson and Daniel Meier (3:46.05).

“Our relays, we’re trying our best seeing where we can be fast,” Heck said. “We loaded up two of our relays and then our 400 free relay, these guys are pushing to see how fast we can make them. So at the end of season we can try to get three relays to state.”

Antonuk added seventh-place swims in both the 100 butterfly (57.21) and the 100 backstroke (59.89), narrowly missing the podium in both events. 

Judson O’Malley added a ninth-place swim in the 50 freestyle (23.16), Finn Thorsen and Meier were 10th and 11th in the 500 freestyle with significant time drops while Kellen O’Malley took 11th in the 200 IM. Rhinelander also got a point-scoring finish from Simonsen in the IM (16th).

“Finn had a great drop. He and Daniel both dropped in the 500. They were in the same heat together and ended up placing, which was really great. We were happy about that. I thought Kellen had a great meet, another dropping in his IM and his back. That was impressive and needed,” Heck said. “We had a few guys on the edge that 17th, 18th position. We were trying to get as many top 16s as we could, but I thought they did a really good job.”

McFarland edged Whitefish Bay by 11 1/2 points for the team title, followed by Shorewood, Sauk Prairie/Wisconsin Heights and Rhinelander. Madison Edgewood, which also figures to be a player on the state stage in a few weeks’ time, withdrew from the meet due to travel concerns during last weekend’s Arctic blast. 

Stevens Point double dual

The Hodags followed the trip down south with a trek to Stevens Point on Tuesday for a triangular against a pair of Wisconsin Valley Conference schools that was postponed last month due to inclement weather.

Rhinelander won four events as it took second in the triangular. The Hodags fell to the hosting Panthers 160-121 while Wausau East was a distant third with 21 points.

“We were a little short on the depth for numbers, but the kids, we asked those guys to go after and give it their all,” Heck said. “They didn’t want to be beat by a D2 school and we tried to beat the D1 school. That makes us all better.”

Gillingham played a role in three of Rhinelander’s four wins on the night, overcoming an early takeoff that led to a disqualification of the Hodags’ top 200 medley relay team. Gillingham won the 200 freestyle (1:52.54) and the 100 butterfly (55.35) with ease, and posted a 48.42-second anchor split in the 400 freestyle relay (3:29.68) to make winners out of a group that included the O’Malley brothers and Antonuk.

“Dean had some really strong (races). Although we did have that jump in the medley relay, he came back strong and is 200 free, right afterwards with a season-best time, and he also had just a fantastic split on our 400 free relay,” Heck said. “They were in position to beat us in that 400 free relay, and we came from behind with a strong second half. That was a lot of fun, and Dean came out on fire on that. Charlie Antonuk too, just really had some nice freestyles tonight.”

Judson O’Malley claimed Rhinelander’s other victory, taking the 200 individual medley (2:07.41) and added a runner-up swim for the Hodags in the 100 backstroke (57.43). Antonuk was runner up in both the 50 freestyle (23.85) and the 100 freestyle (52.92).

The Hodags added a runner-up finish with its 200 freestyle relay team of Larson, Meier, Kellen 

O’Malley and Simonsen (1:42.88).

Kellen O’Malley took third in the 100 butterfly and Espen McMahon was third in 500 freestyle. Rhinelander also took third with its B relays in the 200 medley and 200 freestyle. McMahon, Paul Denis, Larson and Wood made up the quartet in the medley, while it was Denis, Kaleb Lehmann, Broden Wagner and Simonsen in the 200 freestyle. 

Overall, Heck said the team had 33 time drops during the meet.

“We had some big season drops and we love celebrating those times,” she said. “Some of our guys had some things we were really looking for. I thought Kaleb Lehmann and I thought Broden Wagner had a really fantastic meet. Some of those guys were waiting for that to happen and everyone kind of drops at different times. So it was great to see that. Our 500 guys, Matthew Wood (fourth) did really well in that and so did Espen McMahon. So that was fun also.”

The Hodags were back in action Thursday in their final home meet of the season as they took on Medford and Shawano in a meet that concluded after press time for today’s edition. Visit RiverNewsOnline.com for a recap of that meet and read a full report in Tuesday’s River News. 

Rhinelander returns to action Friday, Feb. 6 as it seeks its eighth straight Great Northern Conference title during the conference meet at Lakeland.  

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].