On a beautiful October Saturday Swift hosted its second open water swim at the Old Fort Bay beach with over 50 swimmers competing in either a 5 kilometer or 1.6 kilometer race.
The top three finishes in each age group on either of the two courses were awarded beautiful “Sand Dollar” gold, silver, and bronze medals that were made by Susan Morley. Also there were prints of paintings done by Terry Lamare that were given to the top overall male and female swimmers and the oldest and youngest swimmers in the race. The Open Water Swim event was sponsored by orthaheel, Holowesko Partners, Lyford Cay Real Estate, and Albany. T-shirts were given to all competitors. The top three finishers were Swift’s Zach Moses, Anibal Hernandez, and Laura Morley winning in times of 1:16.34, 1:16.51, and 1:17.24 respectively. Zach and Laura won the donated paintings as the top male and female swimmers. Tremaine Allen won the gold medal for the 12 and under age group in 1:31.13.There was a lot of good age group matchups as the swimmers made their laps around the 1 mile triangular course.
In the 13 to 17 female age group on the 5K course the top three finishers were Laura Morley, Abigail Lowe, and Crystal Rahming as they raced to times of 1:17.24, 1:30.33 and 1:33.07 respectively. The boys 13 to 17 age group saw Anibal Hernandez, Jemarco Armbrister, and Donovan Higgs battle it out with times of 1:16.51, 1:30.16, and 1:30.59 respectively. The 35 to 54 males division saw another good battle around the 3 lap 5K course between Dake Gonzalez, David Morley, and Mark Holowesko with the men taking the gold, silver, and bronze medals in that order in times of 1:22.47, 1:23.11, and 1:23.32. The 35 to 54 female age group saw Joie Lamare, and Katherine Bowers taking the top honors in 1:46.31, and 1:49.42 .
On the 1.6 Kilometer course newcomer Denise Schrader had the over all fastest time and won the gold medal for the 18 to 34 age group in 27.50. In the 35 to 54 age group the top three finishers were Sarah Noar, Susan Morley, and Lynn Lowe in times of 37.40, 38.00, and 41.46 respectively. In the 12 and under boys the top three finishers were Nikolaus Holmberg, Peter Morley and Conner Pinder in times of 32.40, 40.10, and 40.27 respectively. The youngest swimmer who finished the course was Conner Pinder who is 9 and the oldest swimmer was Percy Knowles who is 79. Percy also won the gold medal in the 55 and over male age group. Both swimmers took home the Terry Lamare paintings. The Old Fort Bay Club with its beautiful beach was a great host and a beautiful site for the open water event.