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Thursday, March 28, 2024

Friends, family swim to remember Wrightsville waterman

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Inspirational performances marked the second annual Grey Liston Memorial Swim, from the first finisher, 12-year-old Jared Carter, to the final finisher, Liston’s mother, Gail, who was greeted at the finish line by rousing cheers from the hundreds of participants, family members and friends.

Race day, May 16, delivered ideal conditions with blue skies and a calm ocean. The 107 swimmers lined up near Johnnie Mercer’s Pier and swam 1.7 miles south to Crystal Pier to honor Grey Liston’s life and celebrate the Wrightsville Beach waterman’s adventurous spirit.

On July 20, 2013, Liston, a former University of North Carolina Wilmington swimmer and Wrightsville Beach Ocean Rescue lifeguard, died in a mountain climbing accident in Washington’s Olympic National Park.

After the accident, Liston’s father, Rick Liston, established a scholarship endowment fund in his son’s name and, with the help of former UNCW head swim coach Dave Allen, organized an open water swim to raise money.

The gathering of race participants near the water’s edge Saturday morning included current and former UNCW swimmers, ocean rescue lifeguards, local athletes, family members and friends from Washington, Minnesota, Oregon and Texas.

Liston’s stoke for life, which drove him to take on activities like surfing, hiking, climbing, biking and swimming, also helped him make friends easily wherever he went, former UNCW swimmer Bridget Byrd said after finishing the race.

“One of my favorite stories about him is when he moved from Charlotte to Portland, he and his brother Seth did a cross-country road trip and they had a place to stay basically in every city that they drove through. … It just speaks volumes to who he was,” she said.

Byrd said she and Liston were friends on the swim team and remained close after graduation. Eventually they both moved to the West, and he made the trip from Portland, Ore., to Austin, Texas, to visit her once a year, she said.

The open water swim between the piers was a fitting way to honor her friend, she said, because it was a stretch of water he swam often, not just with the ocean rescue squad, but also once a week with the UNCW swim team.

But just as important as the swim itself, Byrd said, was the time spent hanging out with people from around the country brought together by their memories of Liston.

“Now it’s something that I look forward to being able to do every year,” she said, “to come back and be with the people that really loved him and remember him and then pass on his legacy to other people that didn’t know him that well, but found out about this event.”

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