More than 200 swimmers took the plunge on opening day of the Reef & Run ocean swimming series at East Beach on Thursday.
In its eighth year, Reef & Run swims will be held every Thursday through Sept. 1. Participants can choose between a mile, 1,000-meter and 500-meter swims along the shoreline or do a 1k-swim/3k-run biathlon. Each individual event cost $15.
“It was amazing,” Reef & Run director Jane Cairns said of the opener, which was free. “The swimmers said the water was warm, around 62 degrees. It was beautiful; people were happy. People said it was like summer camp, where you see your friends and see people you only see in the summer. It was a great night.”
Chris Braden was the overall winner of the mile swim in 19 minutes, 48.3 seconds, and Karen Schultz was the women’s champion in 22:54.1. The mile swim drew 85 entrants.
In 1,000-meter event, San Marcos star Sean Aspey took top honors in 12:20.9. Aspey was the Santa Barbara Athletic Round Table boys high school swimmer of the year. Sarah Webb was the women’s winner in 13:14.3.
The 500-meter winners were Mike Gonella (8:29.6) and 11-year-old Madison Halland-Ford (9:50.0, fourth overall).
James Bray posted the fastest biathlon time of 27:26.6
— Noozhawk sports editor Barry Punzal can be reached at bpunzal@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.