By Jed Buelow

Tomahawk Leader Co-Editor, Sports and Nature Editor

The depth and talent of this year’s Tomahawk boys’ swim team was once again on full display as the Hatchets hosted Shawano for a GNC tilt Thursday and cruised to a 97-65 score.

Tomahawk won all but one of the events and finish 1,2 in four events on the night. They also took the top honors in all three relays similar to the last time the two teams met up in December.

The meet started out with one of the more entertaining races of the evening, although it wasn’t for 1st place, as the Hatchet 200-yard IM relay team of Trey Miller, Zach Hanse, Travis Phillips and Keaton Jed easily took the top spot in a time of 1:50.86. The photo finish came in the race for the next spot as the team of Cullen Flynn, Adam Hall, Caleb Kretzschmar and Alex Norman just missed out on a 2nd place tapping the finish line just over a second behind Shawano’s 2nd place finishing relay team.

The small victory would prove to be short-lived for the Hawks, as Tomahawk busted out in the next three individual events going 1,2 in all three heading into the break. Top Hatchet swimmers included Brady Tjugum, C. Flynn in the 200 free, T. Phillips and T. Miller dominated the 200 IM and K. Jed and Z. Hanse went 1,2 in the 50 free. The Hatchet JV also was impressive in the event with Austin Snow and Noah Buckwalter taking the top two spots.

Tomahawk showed no signs of idling it back coming out the break. T. Phillips coasted to victory in the 100 butterfly and B. Tjugum and A. Hall went 1,2 in the 100 free. A young Hawks team came into the meet down one of their top distance swimmers and it showed in the 500 free, as K. Jed and Z. Hanse easily took the top two spots.

The only race the Hatchets didn’t win proved to be the other thriller on the night, as T. Miller narrowly missed out on the 1st place finish as he finished with a time of 1:06.38 – just .12 seconds behind the winner from Shawano. A. Hall would right the ship in the 100 breaststroke getting the win heading into the final relay event of the night.

Coming off a nearly 20 second win in the 200 free relay by the team of B. Tjugum, A. Norman, C. Flynn and A. Hall, Hatchet coach Marion Kohl said it was decided Tomahawk would swim the 400 free relay as an exhibition to allow Shawano to score some points. The Hatchets actually finished the race 1,2 but scratched from the score sheet so the Hawks could score 12 points in the race.

The Hatchets will head north to Minoqua Thursday, Jan. 23 to face Lakeland in their home pool in a big GNC showdown – in December the Hatchets (6-2) beat the T-Birds (6-2) by a score  85- 83, so coach Kohl expects to see their best at home. And you can bet Tomahawk will bring their “A game” as they look to make it two in a row after beating them in T-Bird Country last year by one point. The meet begins with the 200 IM relay starting at 5:30 p.m.