Hundreds of swimmers from around the state and from as far away as Annapolis, Md., will converge at Wrightsville Beach the morning of Saturday, Sept. 12, for an ocean race between Johnnie Mercer’s Pier and Crystal Pier.
This is the 11th edition of the annual 1.7-mile Pier-2-Pier swim, but this year the event was officially renamed in memory of Ryan Alea Young, a University of North Carolina Wilmington swimmer who died in 2009 during her senior year as a Seahawk.
The Pier-2-Pier Swim in Memory of Ryan Alea Young will be highly competitive, drawing collegiate swimmers from UNCW, Davidson College, Duke University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, as well as younger talent from the Cape Fear Aquatic Club’s year-round swim team and a contingent from the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis.
But it will also be an emotional experience for participants who knew Young, like her UNCW swim coach, Dave Allen, and her father, Glenn Young.
After his daughter died, Glenn Young hired Allen to teach him the sport she had been so passionate about. Now, he does Ironman triathlons.
“I love swimming in the ocean because I feel like I’m closer to her,” he said.
Young admitted his daughter had been wary of the ocean swims — a regular part of the UNCW team’s training regimen — especially after an encounter with a jellyfish. Race director Annie Sullivan said spotting the occasional sea creature is just one of the unpredictable aspects of an ocean event.
“There’s the current,” she said, “and you have to get out past the breaking waves, and sighting is a little bit different in an ocean swim.”
Fourteen-year-old participant Kate Pottle, who finished fifth in her age group during the 2014 race, said when she swims in the ocean she looks forward rather than sideways to breathe.
“That way you can kind of see where you’re going,” she said.
Race organizers will check the current and wind direction at 4:30 a.m. race day to determine which direction to run the event. Participants will leave their vehicles at Wrightsville Beach Park and ride buses to the starting line.
Sullivan said she had received 200 registrations as of Sept. 2, and last year 100 people signed up the day of the race. Another change this year that could draw more participation is its designation as the third event in the Coastal Carolina Swim Series.
“People swim in all five swims and earn different awards throughout the series,” she said. “And we have some bigger sponsors so we’re able to pass out some nicer awards.”
In addition to being a memorial, the event is a fundraiser for the YMCA’s Cape Fear Aquatics Club, a year-round swim team for 5- to 18-year-olds.
To register for the Pier-2-Pier Swim, visit www.setup
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