Some 150 swimmers took part in the Sixth Annual St. Croix Coral Reef Swim from Buck Island Reef National Monument to The Buccaneer Resort on Sunday.
There were 113 Solo swimmers, 25 Fin Swimmers, and 12 Relay Swimmers . Top overall solo finisher for the third consecutive year was Alex Kostich, 31, from Burbank, California with a time of 1 hour, 44 minutes, and 13 seconds.
The second and third finishers overall were brothers Kieran and Morgan Locke of St. Croix. Kieran, 17, finished with a time of 1 hour, 48 minutes and 4 seconds, shaving 22 seconds off his performance from last year. Morgan, 15, came in at 1 hour, 48 minutes, and 9 seconds.
The top woman finishing the race was Lisa Hazen of Saratoga, California, who placed fourth overall with a time of 1 hour, 49 minutes, and 47 seconds. Hazen is former USA National Champion Open Water Swimmer.
Swimmers from 27 of the United States, Japan, and Canada competed again this year on the five mile open water course. There were 22 swimmers from St. Croix, including Canadian Olympic swimmer Ray Brown, 32, who placed 8th overall with a time of 1 hour, 54 minutes and 52 seconds, and Keri Whitehurst, 15, who placed 15th overall with a time of 2 hour and 47 seconds.
The youngest swimmer in the race at 11, Branden Whitehurst, also from St. Croix, placed first out of 15 contenders in the Male Fin Division with a time of 2 hours, 7 minutes, and 51 seconds.
The top relay team, with a time of 2 hours, 23 minutes consisted of Colleen Birnstiel, age 27, New York, New York; Nicholas Cotter, age 39, Riverside, Connecticut; and Jennifer Wheelan, 33, St. Croix.
The unique event began once again this year at 7 a.m. with the blowing of a conch shell, signaling the participants to begin swimming the 5 mile course. Swimmers participating in the race included 12 swimmers from San Francisco, California who are members of the Olympic Club, America's oldest athletic club.
Other groups came from Atlanta, Georgia, St. Petersburg, Florida, and New York, NY. In addition to the swimmers, 81 kayakers, 6 boat captains, 4 emergency medical technicians, and dozens of other volunteers donated their time and services for a safe operation again this year. St. Croix race organizers are Elizabeth A. Armstrong, general manager of the host hotel, The Buccaneer; Kim Rice of V.I. Family Sports and Fitness Center, Mark Sperber of Mile Mark Watersports, timer Wallace Williams, kayak organizers Andy Wartenberg of Caribbean Adventure Tours and Peter Brown; and boat captain organizer Ed Staats.
