Tomahawk swimmers drop hatchet on Hawks winning all 11 events: Finish in 2nd  at Hodag Relay over the weekend

By Jed Buelow

Tomahawk Leader Co-Editor, Sports and Nature Editor

The falling snow might have slowed the Hatchets’ role to take on Shawano last Thursday, but it wasn’t enough to cool them off in the pool, as a hot Tomahawk boys’ swim team cruised to an easy GNC victory by a score 114-51.

The Hatchet speedsters finished with first place swims in all 11 events. Those victories included all three relays, as Trey Miller, Zach Hanse, Travis Phillips and Keaton Jed dominated the 200-yard medley relay and the 200 free relay team of Adam Hall, Z. Hanse, Brady Tjugum and Caleb Kretzschmar got the win in a time of 1:44.75. The 400 free relay team of K. Jed, B. Tjugum, T. Miller and T. Phillips would drop the hatchet on the Hawks in the final event of the night getting the win in 3:43.67.

The Hatchets were just as dominant in their individual events. B. Tjugum placed first in both the 50 free and the 500 free where he trimmed 10.19 seconds from his personal best time to finish in 5:48.97. Speedster T. Phillips also breezed to victory in his individual events, taking the top spot in the 100 free as well as in the 200 IM where he went 2:03.66 to best his previous school record time of 2:04.11.

3. Jed kept it going in the 100 backstroke with a victory in 1:03.95 and T. Miller easily coasted to the win in the 200 free with a time of 2:13.41 – a full 10 seconds ahead of the 2nd place finisher in the event.

Not to be outdone by his senior counterparts, Hatchet freshman Zach Hanse took the top spot in both the 100 butterfly in 1:02.97 and the 100 breaststroke in 1:07.82.

Over the weekend Tomahawk traveled to Rhinelander to take part in the Hodag Relays and finished in 2nd place scoring 90 points. Rhinelander won the relay with 110  points and Marshfield (84) rounded out the top three. Lakeland finished in 4th place with 76 points.

“The Hodag Relays is always a highlight of our season – it not only gives us a ton of seed times to work with later in the season it totally gives the swimmers the chance to work together as a team because every one of the 10 events is a relay – we needed all 14 of the guys to pull off 2nd place – and all 14 of them scored Varsity points in the effort today,” Hatchet coach Marion Kohl said. “The Hodag Relays also gives us a chance to swim against Marshfield and the Superior, both of whom are WIAA Division 1 teams.”

In an “Only in Northern Wisconsin Moment”...believe it or not, at the end of the meet the swimmers from all five schools passed the word “snow angels” around the pool while they shook hands, resulting in a mass run from the Hodag pool, out the back door, across the parking lot and into the snow – clad only bare feet and team suits.

Meet medals are given to the teams in each event who place 1st or 2nd, and the Hatchets came home with a fair amount of hardware to show for the day.

The 4 x200 free relay placed first in the meet for the second year in a row. The group of A. Norman, T. Miller, B. Tjugum and C. Kretzschmar were able to bring home the gold with a two second win over the Marshfield team.

Later in the day, the 3 x100 backstroke relay of T. Miller, K. Jed and T. Phillips  also took top honors with a really strong time of 3:03.18, a full 11 seconds faster than the 2nd place Marshfield team.

The Hatchets also got a pair of 2nd place podium finishes in the 3 x100 breaststroke relay and the 4x100 free relay to end the day.

The Hatchet swimmers are back in action tonight (Tuesday) as they host Lakeland for a GNC tilt. Then on Thursday, Dec. 19th Tomahawk travels to Medford to take on the Raiders before taking a much deserved break for the holidays. Opening swim for both meets is at 5:30 p.m.