Swimmers from the Clarkston Sea Wolves took their skills outside of the pool to an open water race in early July.
Twelve members from the program participated in the 15th Annual Motor City Mile for the first time on July 9.
They swam in the Detroit River, starting and finishing the races at Belle Isle Beach. They also had the choice of swimming in the 5K, 1-mile, or half mile.
Two Sea Wolves competed in the 5K Swim. Kelsey Gilbert finished in fifth place out of 33 swimmers in her event at 1:21:51.58. Drew Vassilakos, finished 14th out of 25 swimmers in his event at 1:23:59.56.
Eight Sea Wolves competed in the one mile swim. In the Open Women event Emma Barnes finished sixth out of 120 participants at 25:10.61 and Kirkland Maguired finished in 33rd at 29:11.97.
For the Men’s 13-14 one-mile event with a total of 28 participants, Brady Wilson finished in ninth place at 26:49.35 and Matt Vassilakos finished in 18th place at 29:29.76.
For the Women’s 13-14 one-mile event with 51 participants, three Sea Wolves stayed close to each other finishing one within each other. Caroline Hughes finished in 16th place, 27:41.95; Julia Nellis, 17th place, 27:47.19; Alyssa Schroeder, 18th place, 27:47.30.
Sydney Clements finished in the 12 years old and under event at 36:12 at 20th place out of 29 swimmers.
CJ Hughes finished in first place out of 16 participants in the Open Women half mile event at 11:07. Nolan Gerish swam in the 10 and under half mile and finished in fourth place out of ten participants, 13:56.
A total of 500 swimmers participated and proceeds from this year’s event went to Breaststroke 4 Hope Foundation and the National Brain Tumor Society.
The Sea Wolves swim and train year-round at the Clarkston High School Natatorium, which is affiliated with USA Swimming. Their head coach is Jeff Wiseman and team manager is Kenwyn Chock.