Kiah Francis sets two conference meet records

JOURNAL STAFF REPORT

Rhinelander High School senior girls swimmer Kiah Francis recorded two first-place finishes and a pair of conference meet records in the process Friday when the Hodags placed third out of seven teams in the Great Northern Conference Meet held at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point.

Francis won both the 200-yard freestyle (1 minute, 57.53 seconds) and 100 breaststroke (1:06.3). She was also part of a pair of RHS relay teams placing third when she joined Carly Seidl, Grace Heck and Marisa McGuire in the 200 freestyle relay (1:44.71) and Heck, McGuire and Taylor Macak in the 400 freestyle relay (3:55.1).

Seidl and Macak were part of another third-place relay team that also included Maddie Quinn and Jenna Hawley in the 200 medley relay (2:02.59).

The Hodags, whose 243 points finished behind conference champion Tomahawk (313.5) and runner-up Ladysmith/Flambeau/Bruce (288.5), had four other top-five individual finishes with Heck placing fourth in the 100 butterfly (1:08.05), McGuire finishing fifth in both the 200 freestyle (2:12.47) and 100 freestyle (59.69) and Quinn also coming in fifth in the 200 individual medley (2:34.8).

Seidl added a sixth-place finish in the 50 freestyle (27.98) with Hawley coming in seventh in 28.31. Macak was sixth in the 500 freestyle (6:04.34) and seventh in the 200 freestyle (2:15.32). Heck also placed seventh in the 100 backstroke (1:09.28) with teammate Alexandria Gallegos coming in eighth in 1:10.32. RHS’s other top-eight individual finish came from Taylor Hollands placing eighth in the 500 freestyle (6:16.08).

A pair of the Hodags’ “B” relay teams placed seventh with Gallegos and Hollands joining Shelby Kuehn and Emily McFarland in the 200 medley relay (2:08) and Kuehn, Hawley, McFarland and Hollands in the 200 freestyle relay (1:54.45).

RHS will be back at UWSP this coming Saturday for the WIAA Division 2 Sectional.

GNC MEET

Team scores: Tomahawk 313.5, Ladysmith/Flambeau/Bruce 288.5, Rhinelander 243, Medford 177, Lakeland 121, Colby/Abbotsford 97, Antigo 62.