Fort Lauderdale Rough Water Swim Lives Up To Name

FORT LAUDERDALE, Florida, January 6. IN its 38th year, the International Swimming Hall of Fame's Ocean Mile Swim took on a new name, "The Fort Lauderdale Rough Water Swim," and the event certainly lived up to its new moniker.

The sea was choppy, with three to six foot waves, there were rip currents, 20 mile an hour winds, rain, Man O' War and Jellyfish.

While the conditions kept many would be competitors out of the water and Fort Lauderdale's Ocean Rescue team rescued three of the swimmers, 238 swimmers braved the conditions for the chance to own the "Survivor" medal given to each finisher.

"These were English Channel conditions," said Sid Cassidy, Aquatics Director at Boca Raton's St. Andrew's School and Chair of the FINA Open Water Technical Committee. "We considered canceling the race, but this is what open water swimming has historically been about – challenging and overcoming whatever obstacles nature throws in our way."

The renamed and reformatted event had many new features that were modeled after the La Jolla Rough Water Swim, the oldest and most successful open water competition in the nation. Among the many changes designed to attract more participants were the addition of chip timing with instantaneous, live-time results, the addition of shorter races for age group swimmers, "Survivor" medals for all finishers, which were provided by ISHOF sponsor HASTY AWARDS and moving the staging area to Alexander Park.

"Our objective is to make the Fort Lauderdale Rough Water Swim is to make this one of best run and best attended open water swims in the world.," said Bruce Wigo, ISHOF's CEO.

"While the ocean conditions and rainy weather certainly kept many age group and college teams out of the water and put a damper on the festival atmosphere we had hoped to create," said Wigo. "We think the race was a success and everyone who participated enjoyed the experience. We will now go back and review our performance and see how we can improve it and further and attract more competitors.

The mile race marked one of the few times in the history of the event that a female competitor, Jaclyn Fedors of the University of New Mexico, emerged as the first finisher besting 16 year old Jonah Lombardo of Ontario by 21 seconds.

Special thanks to ISHOF for contributing this report.

5K RESULTS
WOMEN: 13-14: 1. Nicole Vernon 1:14:59, 2. Victoria Ho 1:20:33, 3. Amanda Ford 1:21:37; 15-18: 1. Fallon Fitzpatrick 1:21:32; 19-24: 1. Julie Rioux 1:15:15;
MEN: 13-14: 1. Sean Grady 1:14:57; 15-18: 1. Robert Laniel 1:19:06, 2. Isias Hincapie 1:20;37; 35-39: 1. Chris Derks 1:10:28; 40-44: 1. Ricardo Valdivia 1:05:15.

ONE-MILE RESULTS
WOMEN: 11-12: 1. Julie Suarez 27:36; 13-14: 1. Rebecca Pee 24:02, 2. Saskia McLean 24:41, 3. Sofia Steinberger 37:47; 15-18: 1. Marie-Pier Leduc 23:56, 2. Blaire McKim 24:12, 3. Hayleigh Conway 24:15; 19-24: 1. Jaclyn Fedors 21:02, 2. Sally Bellinger 23:58, 3. Gabrielle Pelletier 25:37; 25-29: 1. Lital Kashriel 24:40, 2. Nicole Holke 29:54; 30-34: 1. Tracy Ljone 26:49, 2. Brittany Doerafeld 30:27; 35-39: 1. Portia Culley 30:41, 2. Laura Thompson 41:49; 40-44: 1. Sarah Bennett 32:52, 2. Meg Cusumano 33:26, 3. Marianela Angeles 36:33; 50-54: 1. Jo-Ann Berry 32:30, 2. Rosie Sidelko 38:47; 55-59: 1. Beverley Clarke 37:28; 65-69: 1. Kitty Kessler 48:04.
MEN: 11-12: 1. Justin Soden 33:51; 13-14: 1. Santiago Rengifo 25:47, 2. Griffin Schumacher Riverdale 30:53, 3. Robert Castano 34:02; 15-18: 1. Jonah Lombardo 21:23, 2. Matt Vierula 22:56, 3. Andrew Grassano 23:20; 25-29: 1. Jonathan Strauss 23:18, 2. Christopher Connard 36:50; 30-34: 1. David Cosby 25:24, 2. Mike Schwebel 25:55, 3. Orlando Cowley 30:21; 35-39: 1. Andy Farrell 23:20, 2. Michael Stus 24:57, 3. Jason Millee 26:19; 40-44: 1. Gillen Deschenes 23:14, 2. Andy Fischer 25:03, 3. Richard Hawes 28:09; 45-49: 1. Blaise Oneil-Gold 29:03, 2. Bob Diener 33:45, 3. Thaddeus Gamory 36:17; 50-54: 1. Tim Erickson 24:48, 2. Ashley Diener 25:52, 3. Chris Burt 27:03; 55-59: 1. Bert Soden 28:18, 2. Edward Slominski 30:20, 3. Robert Morrison 34:08; 65-69: 1. Ron Samson 35:38; 70-74: 1. Tom Hagan 39:55; 75-79: 1. Hume Hamilton 47:24, 2. Ted Erikson 55:53.

HALF-MILE RESULTS
WOMEN: 10-and-under: 1. Kristen Suarez 16:23; 11-12: 1. Lily Payne 18:25; 13-14: 1. Devita Golovia 17:32;
MEN: 11-12: 1. Quinn Cassidy 13:11, 2. Cole Grady 13:29.

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