Ocean City’s Bill Pugh remembered; youths win the day with top finishes
OCEAN CITY — There was a notable absence at Saturday morning’s T. John Carey Master’s Swim, the one-mile ocean race from the 42nd Street beach to the finish at 34th Street.
Ocean City’s Bill Pugh, who had been a fixture at the races for years, swimming well into his 80s, died earlier this year. A poster memorializing him was at the 34th Street lifeguard station for those who didn’t know him, but many of the longtime competitors didn’t need a poster to remember Pugh, who was often the oldest swimmer in the race.
Ocean City Beach Patrol RTO Lt. Andrew Shaw said he was doing the swim to honor everyone on the beach patrol and Bill Pugh.
“It’s a really great race,” he said. “I’m excited to get out there and give it a go.”
Unlike Pugh, who challenged himself for fun, the competitive aspect belonged to the young people.
Paul Brosky, 20, who summers at the shore with a family home in Marmora, won the race in 22 minutes and 13 seconds, just ahead of a trio of youngsters who haven’t even started high school.
Lifeguard Lexi Santer, 26, representing the Ocean City Beach Patrol which sponsors the race, was the first woman across the finish in a time of 23:18.
Jacob Yushan, 13, of Egg Harbor Township, was second overall, 4 seconds behind Brosky. Friend Billy Jenkins, 14, of Upper Township, hit the finish 2 seconds later and Logan Manning, 14, also of Egg Harbor Township, was 7 seconds after Jenkins.
All three of the young teens, who swim for the EHT Seahawks, enjoy open-water swimming.
“In recent years, thanks to my coaches, I’ve gotten into open water swimming,” Yushan said. “I want to get better at this. When I turn 16, I want to start lifeguarding, maybe in Ocean City.”
Does he find it challenging? “It depends on what the conditions are in the water. The waves are nice today. I think it will be a calm swim,” he said, adding he has done the race before.
“I’m out here because I swim on the EHT Seahawks with Jacob and Logan and our coaches have put me more in the distance area,” Jenkins said. “I really enjoy it and I love swimming open water. He enjoys the pool as well, but said, “Open water is more fun, depending on the conditions.”
Manning, who is going into his freshman year at Egg Harbor Township High School, thought the race “would be a lot of fun, trying out something new. I don’t usually do these kind of swims. This is my first time doing this one.”
(He did the Pageant Swim last year.) He was surprised to find his friends on the beach in Ocean City.
“I didn’t even know they were coming,” Manning said of Yushan and Jenkins.
Brosky, whose home base is Horsham, Pa., when he’s not at the shore in the summer, swims for Miami University of Ohio.
“It feels really good. I just came and did it for fun, but I loved it,” he said of the Master’s Swim. “This is the first one I’ve done in Ocean City, but I’ve done a few ocean swims before.”
The 400 individual medley is his main event in college, quite unlike the Master’s Swim.
“I kind of shied away from distance these past three years but I love doing these open water swims. They’re nice and something for fun,” he said.
His strategy was to go out fast.
“I might have gone out a little too fast,” he admitted. “Really once I hit that third buoy I tried to kick it into gear the last 400 meters. I rode the wave in at the very end. That was nice. It kind of helped me out a lot. It was a good race.”
With the three young teens neck and neck with him, body-surfing the wave to the beach helped keep him ahead.
Brosky said the mile open water swim is “definitely tough,” but there are pleasant aspects compared to pool swimming.
“It’s nice because you have people to race with you. Everyone is right next to you. It’s not separated by lanes. You kind of gauge it and see where everyone is. That’s what I look to do. And tried to stay with them as best as I can and try to kick it into gear on that last 400 meters.”
Asked for her perspective of the race, Santer laughed. “It was long. I definitely had to race the whole time. I had someone on my heels the whole time so I didn’t get to let up at all. It was hard work, but I’m happy I finished and I got a little wave at the end,” she said.
Santer likes to race her own race, staying on a course rather than following the pack.
“I sighted off the Port-O-Call (hotel) and that worked out for me. I was right off the buoys the whole time,” she said. “I tried to draft off that first group but they were too fast for me. I couldn’t keep up, but I kept them in my sights.”
Santer, who is back on the OCBP, swam shorter distances in college, including the 400 IM, 200 backstroke and 500 freestyle.
“The mile was never my strength, but I’ve been training open water since I was 9 years old with one of the old lifeguards, Dimitar Petrov. I’ve been doing open water a lot longer than a lot of folks.”
With the lifeguard racing season beginning this week, she hopes being the first female finisher bodes well. She aims to compete for the OCBP in the swim, paddle board and surf dash.
“I know our races are a little bit shorter, distance wise, but that gives me a little confidence for the season knowing I’m not totally washed up yet,” she said, smiling.
Master’s Swim a race for all ages
The annual event attracts a range of swimmers from young to old who enjoy it, as evidenced by Bill Pugh.
Allyson Adams of Olney, Md., 58, was one of the first to get to the 42nd Street beach on Saturday morning, well ahead of the 10 a.m. start.
“I get here early and I walk the beach to the start,” she said. The Master’s Swim “is a little more challenging than the pool where I normally swim. I really like open water. I like this race. I’ve done it a lot. I grew up in New Jersey but I live in Maryland and come up from there for it.”
Hannah King, 19, of Downingtown, Pa., used the Master’s Swim for a workout to prepare for her next season at Bryant University in Rhode Island.
“I’m a college swimmer so it’s a way to get in some training,” she said. King noted she isn’t a distance swimmer.
“I’m a sprinter,” she said. Asked if she was she planning to do much sprinting over the course of the mile, she laughed. “Once, at the end.”
King said she was doing the Master’s Swim for enjoyment as well as training.
“It’s fun that you’re racing other people. It’s a different crowd, too. It’s just a different scene,” she said.
It was the inaugural swim for OCBP Capt. Brian Pasternak, of Upper Township, who has been on the beach patrol for 12 years.
“It’s actually my first time doing this. I’ve been swimming a lot with a buddy in the off-season so I figure this will be my year to give it a shot and hopefully I’m in shape enough to get a decent time today,” he said. Pasternak noted he usually works the race for the OCBP.
“I’m usually helping out and working it, but I made the call and asked if I could swim it this year and they were OK with it,” he said.
Pasternak was a baseball and basketball player in high school, not a swimmer.
“We’ll see how it goes. I’ve been swimming so hopefully I can hold my own against some of the other guys around the area,” he said. “Ron Marks is going to teach me a little bit today.”
Pasternak, 39, finished first in his age group and 12th among men.
Marks, 64, of Beesleys Point, was second in his age group and eighth overall.
He is a veteran of the Master’s Swim, as well as a competitor in U.S. Master’s Swimming in the pool.
“I’ve done it more than 30 times,” he said of the ocean race. He keeps coming back because he was on the beach patrol and as an alumni “you’ve got to do it.”
“It’s different than pool. You’ve got some challenges, different currents. It’s a different animal. Different stroke pattern,” Marks said.
“It’s my annual ‘I have to do well for the Ocean City boys.’”
Full results are at splitsecondracing.net.
By DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff
