Hodag Highlights Dec. 11, 2023

Senior Zacha King swam the second 100 of the 600 yard freestyle relay. Bob Mainhardt photo

GYMNASTICS

Hodag gymnastics held their first meet at the YMCA in the addition that was built over the summer. The Y is the new home of the program for the high school and the middle school.

The Hodags placed fifth out of the seven teams competing and had a score higher than was attained all last season. Samantha Aschenbrenner, a freshman, was the top all around scorer for Rhinelander in 12th place. Freshmen Alexis Smith and Karly Gillingham tied for third and sixth, respectively on the vault. The next home meet for the team is on Tuesday December 19. Bob Mainhardt photos.

Freshman Samantha Aschenbrenner transitions to the high bar during her bars routine. Aschenbrenner was the top Hodag scorer in the all around placing 12th.

Alexis Smith salutes the judges at the end of her floor exercise. Smith tied for third on the vault.

Karly Gillingham rotates on a backwards move on the floor. Gillingham tied for sixth on the vault.

Freshman Samantha Aschenbrenner does the first of her two consecutive wolf jumps on the beam.

Junior Wendy Fronk does her dismount off the beam.

SWIMMING

The Heck Community Pool was host to the annual boys Hodag Relays on Saturday. There were five schools participating with Bayport taking first place as they won 8 of the 10 relay events. The Hodags won the remaining two events and placed second in six of the events and finished with 102 points, 30 behind Bayport. Also swimming were Marshfield, Rice Lake and Superior.

Rhinelander’s lone senior, Zacha King, was part of the two winning relays as he was with Shawn Denis, Mathias Fugle and Samson Shinners in the 600 yard freestyle relay and in the winning 3×100 yard backstroke relay was with brothers Judson and Dolan O’Malley.

After all the events are finished the swimmers all run out to the rock for the annual photo. This year was not quite as challenging as there was not any snow to run through. The festivities ended with the swimmer’s cannonball jumps and then the coach’s cannonball jumps. The swimmer category was won by the Hodags’ Dolan O’Malley and the winning coach was from Bayport just edging out Rhinelander’s Brent Olson. Bob Mainhardt photos.

Mathias Fugle swam the first of the 200 yard legs of the 600 yard freestyle relay.

Senior Zacha King swam the second 100 of the 600 yard freestyle relay.

Junior Samson Shinners anchored the 600 yard freestyle relay with a 200 yard swim. The event was won by more than 10 seconds over second place Bayport.

The winners of the 3×100 backstroke relay were Dolan O’Malley and Zacha King in the back and Judson OMalley in the front.

Dolan O’Malley accepts the first place cannonball plaque from Lily Thorsen.

One of the traditions of the relays is after the event the swimmers all run out to the rock and get a quick photo and run back in.

HOCKEY

Friday night the Hodags played their second conference game, hosting the Waupaca comets at the RIA. Waupaca scored two goals late in the first period, the second on a two-man advantage as the Hodags had two players in the penalty box. The Comets led after the first period 2-0 and went up 3-0 going into the third before Zach Edyvean scored a goal to cut the Comet lead to 3-1. Then the wheels fell off the wagon as Joey Belanger was assessed a five-minute major penalty and Waupaca scored three goals in that five minute span. The Hodags’ Dalton Fritz scored a short-handed goal to make it 6-2 by the end of the penalty. Final score, Waupaca, 7-2 over Rhinelander. Bob Mainhardt photos.

Tyler Kimmerling stopped this shot on goal but moments later the rebound was controlled by Waupaca and would get the puck by Kimmerling for goal number two in the first period.

Gavin Denis brings the puck across the blue line in the first period.

Zach Edyvean battles for the puck in front of the Comet’s net. Edyvean would score one of the Hodags goals in the third period.

BOYS BASKETBALL

Northland Pines came to the Jim Miazga gym Friday night to take on the Hodags in a conference boys basketball game. The Hodags were coming off Tuesday’s 82-63 home loss to Wausau East and were hoping to come away with a win.

The game started out slowly as the score was 8-4 after the first seven minutes of the game. By halftime the score was 19-14. In the second half the Hodags played better defense that led to some fast break points and shots began to fall a bit better to give the Hodags the 59-47 win.

The Hodags’ 19 first half points came on four shots from the field, one made three-pointer and eight points on free throws on 11 attempts.

Will Gretzinger was the Hodags’ leading scorer with 21 points as he was 4-of-4 on free throws in the first half and 7-of-7 free throws in the second half. Gretzinger scored in the second half with the seven free throws along with two field goals and a pair of 3-point makes.

The only other player with double digit scoring was Truman Lamers with 10 points as his time was limited due to foul trouble. Bob Mainhardt photos.