Hilton Head teens sweep record-breaking River Swim
By Mike McCombs
The Island News
In another record-setting year for the YMCA’s Beaufort River Swim, youth was served, once again, as a pair of 14 year olds from Hilton Head Island took home the Men’s and Women’s championships.
The Men’s and Overall champion was Jack Shave, who finished his first 3.2-mile Beaufort River Swim with a time of 52:56, while Piper Lucas took the Women’s Championship.
A rising freshman at Hilton Head Island High School and a member of Hilton Head Aquatics, Shave has only been tackling open water swims for about two months.
“It was fun, it was good,” Shave said. “I haven’t had a lot of experience [with open water].
This was his second 5K race, the first coming a month ago in Ft. Myers, Fla.
Shave said the biggest challenge in open water swims so far has been keeping track of where he is.
“The waves, the current, where to go,” he said. “You have to look where to go.”
Shave wasn’t sure he’d won, at first, because his biggest worry had been going off course.
“I didn’t know I was in first. I knew I was in front of a lot of people, …” he said. “I had to keep looking behind me to be sure I was going the right way. It was pretty hard to see a lot of the buoys. That was probably my biggest worry.”
Lucas, also a rising freshman at Hilton Head Island High School and a member of Hilton Head Aquatics, finished in a time of 53:14.
Unlike Shave, she had a pretty good idea she was winning.
“I knew it was a possibility,” she said. “I left with one of the first groups, so I could look forward and realize there were no other girls in front of me. And I saw one other person in front of me, [who] was Jack, and I tried to stick with him a little bit.”
Lucas, who said she’s been a distance swimmer “my whole life,” agreed with Shave that awareness of where you are in the water is the biggest difference in swimming in the pool and swimming in open water.
“You need to be a lot more aware of where you are and where the buoys are,” she said. “It’s really easy to get lost. So you have to be aware of where you are.”
Wardle Family YMCA Aquatics Director Perri Flaherty said the event had a record 225-plus swimmers, more than the 171 from last year.
“Probably 50 more than we had last year,” Flaherty said. “I’m so proud of everybody that helped. We have a wonderful committee.”
Flaherty’s biggest thrill was that, once again, everyone completed the races safely.
“I think everybody had a great time and everybody came in safe,” she said. “… two years in a row, now.”
The annual event raises money for the Y’s Learn To Swim program, particularly for those who need scholarship assistance so that their kids can learn how to swim. Last year, the Lowcountry YMCA gave out $39,000 in scholarship assistance to more than 350 people. And the number of people who need it isn’t going down.
“With the economy the way it is, we have more and more people that need scholarships,” Flaherty said.
Next year’s event will be the 20th annual Beaufort River Swim, and Flaherty sights are set on more giveaways, more community involvement and the big 2-5-0 – more than 250 participants in the race.
Complete results for the 1-mile swim, the 3.2 mile swim and the relay, along with age group results, as well, can be found at https://bit.ly/45E765H.
Mike McCombs is the Editor of The Island News and can be reached at TheIslandNews@gmail.com.
