The Island Swim is back —
for the first time in five years — and Mother
Nature did her very best on Sunday morning to welcome
back the 50 or so participants with open arms.
As swimmers ranging in age from
three-year-old Everlee Rainer to septuagenarians
Maureen Moustgaard, Joe Harrison and Amanda Hey
took to the water at Moonlight Beach, the early
morning air temperature warmed to near 20 C, ideal
conditions for all those in attendance.
And while the likes of James Bertrim
and Nina Kucheran did the expected, finishing 1-2
in the three-kilometre distance with times of 33:54.30
and 39:16.00, respectively, there were plenty of
other, far less familiar names in the local swimming
scene who rose to the forefront at the fifth leg
of the Sudbury Fitness Challenge.
A veteran of both the Nickel City
Aquatics and Sudbury Laurentian Swim Club, Lauren
Buchowski was the first female out of the water
in the one-kilometre event, third overall, covering
1,000 open-water metres in 14:59.70. Preparing to
begin her nursing studies at Laurentian this fall
following her graduation from St. Benedict Catholic
Secondary School, Buchowski has gone without swim
training this summer, her summer job with Camp Sudaca
allowing for precious little in the way of pre-race
preparation.“There’s been no swimming
for me, so that one hurt a little bit, but that’s
OK,” noted the 18-year-old who was partaking
in her first open-water race. “I swim the
lakes with camps and such, but that’s about
it. ”And almost none of that has happened
since the start of May. “In the second half
of that race, I was ready to throw up,” Buchowski
laughed. “But I am glad I did that well; it
makes me feel a little bit better. With no swimming
in a while, it was nice to know I’ve still
got it a bit.”
Contemplating an involvement with
masters swimming as she begins her post-secondary
education in the fall, the reigning NOSSA 200-metre
freestyle champion suggested there were elements
of the lake race setting that she most definitely
favoured over the pool. “It’s much easier
to fall into a pace, just because it’s one
straight line with continuous movement,” Buchowski
said. “Obviously, the walls help in the pool,
but I really enjoyed that. ”Even a mass start,
as opposed to the traditional lane swimming she
is used to, created only a minor early inconvenience.
“Being different heights is a bit of an obstacle,”
she stated with a smile. “Adan Lindfield is
twice my size. I jump in and start swimming and
I’m watching him walking by me.”
The end of the race also threw
her a curveball — though this had more to
do with the fact that maintaining mathematical sharpness
in the midst of race chaos is not always the easiest
thing to do. “The last little chunk was the
most painful, but that’s because I didn’t
realize there was still a next buoy there; I still
had more to go.”
Mike Commito, for his part, is
far more well-known in local sports circles for
his series of Hockey 365 books, with his next undertaking,
Habs 365, set for release around the middle of October.
But long before that, Commito was a competitive
swimmer, as was his sister Kyleigh, both with SLSC
and then the Laurentian Voyageurs. All of which
apparently did little to ready the former athlete
in his 30s for the thrill of a one-kilometre race
he won on Sunday, hitting the beach in 14:23.50.
“Open water was never really
a huge part of my repertoire,” Commito said.
“When I was still part of the club team or
the university team, I would do the Island Swim
at Nepahwin, but this is my first open water race
since 2012. I’m getting back into it now because
I am doing the Beaton Classic in a couple of weeks.”
The Beaton, scheduled for Aug. 11,
and Turkey Gobbler, on Oct. 13, remain to round
out the Fitness Challenge schedule for 2024. With
the taskmaster that is Kris Cacciotti at the helm
of their quartet (tongue in cheek), Commito knows
his current three-times-a-week workouts at Nickel
District Pool are an absolute must. “I think
my team is expecting me to be the Mike of old and
I don’t think I can be that anymore, but I
want to make sure I don’t let them down.”
Looking for a sub-16-minute time
or so, however, Commito surpassed his expectations
at the Island Swim, citing the “perfect conditions
— no waves and the water was beautiful”
as clearly helping his cause. “I got in the
water, got in a groove and felt pretty good and
just kept rolling with it,” he said. “On
the final leg in, I could see some of the guys coming
up behind me and used that as motivation to just
keep going.”
Much like Buchowski, Commito agreed
that for as much as swimming is swimming, the pool
and the lake are not interchangeable. “The
biggest thing, I think, is sight lines,” he
stressed. “Having swum for so long, you can
stay in a straight line relatively easy. But I did
find on the way back, because of where the sun was
at, it was difficult to see the buoys. They came
into view as we came closer to shore.”
Closer to shore — and the beach and the sand
and the glorious sunshine: a near-perfect day to
welcome back the Island Swim, all in all.
Following are some
of the remaining top finishers at the 2024 Island
Swim:
Men’s
3 km distance
– 1st: James
Bertrim, 33:54.30
– 2nd: Hudson
Green, 42:50.00
– 3rd: Tony
Staalstra, 44:10.00
– 4th: Buddy
Green, 48:31.00
– 5th: Paul
Matte, 52:05.00
Women’s
3 km distance
– 1st: Nina
Kucheran, 39:16.00
– 2nd: Christine
Kovalchuk, 44:18.00
– 3rd: Lara
Thompson, 48:40.00
Men’s
1 km distance
– 1st: Mike
Commito, 14:23.50
– 2nd: Blake
Gough, 14:34.80
– 3rd: Adan
Lindfield, 16:00.30
– 4th: Kaeden
Ward, 18:01.90
– 5th: Corey
Lacroix, 19:09.00
Women’s
1 km
– 1st: Lauren
Buchowski, 14:59.70
– 2nd: Jayda
Hartley, 15:26.90
– 3rd: Carol
Mourre, 18:58.10
Kids’
race overall
– 1st: Martin
Eso, 0:44.40
– 2nd: Reagan
Oliphant-McPhee, 0:50.80
– 3rd: Thomas
Eso, 0:59.50
– 4th: Everlee
Rainer, 1:13.60
Randy Pascal’s That Sudbury
Sports Guy column runs regularly in The Sudbury
Star.
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