By Donald Wittkowski
The somewhat nippy 65-degree water was one thing to worry about. The currents, wind direction and the inevitable jokes about jellyfish lurking offshore may have caused some concerns among the swimmers, too.
But 16-year-old Bridget Courtney of Haddonfield was thinking about something else moments before she plunged into the surf Saturday for a one-mile ocean swim in Sea Isle City.
“I don’t have any concerns, except for seaweed, maybe,” she said.
Who could blame her? No one wants to be in the middle of a challenging ocean swim and have some yucky seaweed wrapped around their arms or feet.
Courtney, a member of the Haddonfield High School girls swim team, seemed to handle the conditions just fine. She finished 119th overall, with a time of 37 minutes, 8 seconds, among the 204 male and female competitors in the Sea Isle Beach Patrol One Mile Ocean Swim.
Wildwood lifeguard Billy Auty, who finished second last year, led Saturday’s race pretty much wire to wire to win in 21 minutes, 59 seconds, just 4 seconds ahead of Ogden Leyens, 18, of Fort Washington, Pa.
Kristen Gullickson, a 14-year-old phenom from Staten Island, N.Y., was the top female finisher, completing the race in 23 minutes, 40 seconds.
The 43-year-old Auty, who has become well known at the Jersey Shore over the years for winning lifeguard races and ocean swims, donned a wetsuit to boost his speed and cope with the chilly water. He estimated the wetsuit cut his time by about 45 seconds.
“The wetsuit really helped my performance,” he said. “I had an advantage with being warm and with speed.”
Auty has been a lifeguard in Wildwood for the past two years and before that was a member of North Wildwood’s beach patrol for 20 years.
He said he definitely had an incentive to win this year’s ocean swim in Sea Isle, after finishing second in 2015. Auty, who has flecks of gray in his close-cropped hair, laughed when he was asked how he, at 43, was able to defeat a pack of teenage and twentysomething swimmers.
“You have to put in the time. You also have to spend plenty of time in the ocean. The best thing to do is to get on a beach patrol,” he said of his workout regimen.
Auty said the ocean conditions Saturday were beautiful, other than the cool water. The scorching weather made it ideal for a swim. The air temperature hovered in the low 90s when the race began at 11 a.m.
Wearing bright yellow caps, the swimmers charged into the waves at 61st Street to start the race and finished at the 46th Street beach.
The ocean swim, now in its third straight year, has been growing in popularity. Saturday’s turnout was more than double the number of swimmers in 2014. The race resumed in 2014 after it was halted in the 1990s because some swimmers suffered from hyperthermia, explained Capt. Renny Steele of the Sea Isle City Beach Patrol.
When the race returned three years ago, the competitors were allowed to wear wetsuits to protect them against chilly water.
“We can’t control the water temperature,” Steele said. “Now, the swimmers are allowed to wear wetsuits, no matter what the water temperature is.”
For Auty, his wetsuit gave him enough of an advantage to win.
Following are the Top 5 overall finishers for the male and female competitors and their times:
- Billy Auty, 43, Wildwood, 21:49
- Ogden Leyens, 18, Fort Washington, Pa., 22:03
- Jake Sannem, 17, Ambler, Pa., 22:49
- Conall Loughlin, 21, Blue Bell, Pa., 22:51
- Frank Pino, 21, Linwood, 22:51
- Kristen Gullickson, 14, Staten Island, N.Y., 23:40
- Gabriel Vanfaselld, 17, Staten Island, N.Y., 24:00
- Deidre McCafferty, 14, Staten Island, N.Y., 24:05
- Sara Ostensened, Staten Island, N.Y., 24:44
- Susan Reich, 57, Ocean City, 25:37
