Swim Club competes at championships

Approximately 41 swimmers from the Rhinelander Swim Club traveled to Black River Falls on Feb. 4-5 to compete in the CWSC Championships. The swimmers made quite an impression over the two days, with 14 swimmers finishing in the top six of one or more of their individual events, seven relay teams finishing in the top six, and another state qualifier.

Jack Antonuk (7) had a 2nd, 6th and two 5th place finishes; Russell Benoy (10) had a 1st place and three 2nd place finishes; Miranda Erdmann (10) took a 2nd and two 4th place finishes; Grace Heck (10) had a 1st and a 4th place; Joseph Heck (9) had a 5th place overall finish; Thaddeus Heck (9) took a 6th place finish; Brodie Kasmarek (12) had a 5th place; Kirby Kuehn (14) had three 2nd place finishes and a 3rd; Tucker Lindman (7) finished in 6th place; Marissa Martin (8) took a 6th place finish; Eleanor Schiek (8) took home a 3rd place medal; Alex Stevens (8) had a 1st place and two 3rd place finishes; and Melissa Walenton had a 3rd, 4th, and 6th place.

Four swimmers also took over five seconds off from their seed times. Annika Benoy (13) took off 6.9 seconds from her 200 yd Backstroke; Charlie Heck (6) dropped 5.49 seconds from his 50yd Freestyle; Thaddeus Heck (9) took off 8.05 seconds from his 100yd Freestyle; and Haley Seefeldt (10) took 11.61 seconds from her 200yd Freestyle and 5.98 seconds from her 100yd Individual Medley.

Besides bringing home four medals from his individual events, Russell Benoy (10) achieved state qualifying times in his 100 yd Breaststroke with a time of 1:34.94 and in his 100yd Backstroke with a time of 1:23.81.

With the regular season over, a few swimmers have joined the Northern Lakes Aquatic Club to continue to compete. They will travel to Fond du Lac this weekend to compete at the Regional Championships, and some will travel to Minnesota on March 30- April 1 for the Minnesota Regionals.