SWIMMING

Twelve swimmers from the Coeur d'Alene Area Swim Team competed in the inaugural Coeur d'Alene crossing, a 2.4-mile swim across lake Coeur d'Alene on Sunday.

The race raised funds for three local nonprofits - CAST, North Idaho College, and Union Gospel Mission, and featured 148 athletes from Texas, California, Washington, Oregon, South Dakota, Colorado, Montana and Idaho.

CAST had the fastest finisher in 13-year-old Maggie de Tar, who finished in just a shade over 53 minutes. Ethan Cordes was third, finishing in 53:22, with Suzanne de Tar in sixth at 57:20 and Nicholas Brown in ninth at 1 hour, 2 minutes. Beau Urbaniak was 12th, missing the top 10 by 20 seconds. Josh Lyon (29th), Tristan Whiting (32nd) and Marcus Rozier (36th) were separated by about a minute, clocking between the 1 hour, 9 minute and 1 hour, 10 minute marks. Marcus was the youngest athlete in the field at 11 years old. Gabe Markwoski (47th), Katie Yost (65th), Megan Forster (72nd) and Steven Jacobson (94th) rounded out the dozen finishers from CAST.

Long Bridge Swim: With all of CAST's senior swimmers gone for the weekend of Aug. 4, a new generation of CAST swimmers swam amazingly at last weekend's Long Bridge Swim. On a beautiful Saturday morning of racing in Sandpoint the 1.77-mile course was difficult with a strong wind chop, keeping the swimmers working throughout the race. But young CAST swimmers all had personal bests led by a terrific quartet of CAST swimmers.

Matt Chastain (13) finished in 48 minutes, 46 seconds, and finished faster than any other CAST swimmer. Hot on his heels were several other CAST Crocs, followed closely by new CAST member (and first time Long Bridge swimmer) Beau Urbaniak (age 14, 48:58), Josh Lyon (14, 49:47), and followed by Marcus Rozier (11, 52:32) and Tristan Whiting (12, 52:55) and Katie Yost (12, 58:02). Other CAST finishers included Lana Lawrence at 53:59 and Megan Forester in 58:38.

CAST coach Bob Wood was thrilled at how all the CAST swimmers eclipsed the 1-hour mark during a choppy swim through fairly rough conditions. "The future of open-water swimming is in great hands with this young group of talented swimmers," he said. "Matt and Beau and the others have great potential as long-distance open-water swimmers and I would hope they will make national cuts at the 5 and 10K distances in the next 2 to 3 years."

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Information: 664-8176, Ext. 2019