RELAY TEAMS BEAT FORMER OLYMPIAN IN MACKINAC ISLAND SWIM

This story first appeared in the August 18, 2023, Mackinac Island Town Crier print edition

Early Sunday morning, August 13, more than 400 swimmers in wetsuits – and, for the first time, a few without them so long as they had their own support kayaks – congregated on the Lake Huron shoreline near the school. It was a gray morning, with mostly calm waters and looming gray clouds, when swimmers participating plunged into the water at 8 a.m. The annual Mackinac Island Swim was underway, a fundraiser for the Mackinaw Woman’s Club of Mackinaw City. Wearing bright pink or orange swim caps, swimmers had neon-colored buoys strapped to their waists, which bobbed above them as they swam. They were followed by a flotilla of support kayaks to keep watch, while relay partners and support teams cheered them on. Some supporters even hopped on bicycles to follow the swimmers around the Island. It is the fourth year the swim has taken place, having had less than a dozen swimmers the first year. This is the Island Swim’s third year as a larger, organized event raising money for the Mackinaw Woman’s Club. This year, the club also cheered on one of its own, as member Gail Ranville swam her first-ever Mackinac Island Swim.

Isaac DeVries (from left) and Ben Greshaw, a relay team calling themselves the Raccoons, pictured with Owen Durham and Owen Stevens of relay team Owen Squared. 

Mrs. Ranville is an accomplished triathlete, primarily a runner. Signing up and training for the swim wasn’t something she did on a whim. When she joined the Mackinaw Woman’s Club this past year and found out the event raised money for the club, she decided to participate.

“I said, ‘Well, that’s very cool. Someone from the Woman’s Club ought to be swimming in this thing,’” she said. “It’s a great group, and they don’t have any swimmers. So, I thought, somebody needed to represent them, and thought, ‘Why not?’”

She had swum before, but began training more seriously, completing her first Mackinac Bridge Swim earlier this summer, which benefits first responders in the area. She was more nervous about that swim because of the deep water. Around the Island, swimmers can stand up at nearly all points during the swim. Mrs. Ranville travels around Michigan for her job, working for the State of Michigan inspecting nursing homes. Most of her training was done in hotel pools using a bungee cord set-up for resistance training. Swim bungees work similarly to a treadmill, only in the water. Other times, she swam in the Straits near Mackinaw City, and said she was glad she had a great support system.

Lauren Seroka (right) is awarded a cherry pie by Ann Fouty, president of the Mackinaw Woman’s Club, for being the first woman solo swimmer to cross the finish line. 

“I was pretty diligent,” she said, about her training. “I think that if you have the inclination, you could do it . . . I [wasn’t] an open water swimmer, so now I am.”

The swim isn’t really a race, it is more of a challenge. But the first male and female solo swimmers and the first relay team to cross the finish line received prizes – humble pies. Mackinaw Bakery provided Michigan cherry pies that were still warm from the oven. The desserts were presented by Mackinaw Woman’s Club President Ann Fouty.

The club distributes the funds back to the community through scholarships and a grant program, which is intended “for the betterment of Mackinaw.” “The more we get from this swim, the more we can give back to the community,” she said.

Lindsey Thompson (from left), Peter Thompson, Connor Thompson, and Chris Thompson, who is being awarded a humble pie as the first solo swimmer to cross the finish line by Mackinaw Woman’s Club members Ann Fouty, Cathy Paquet, and Angie Morthland at the Mackinac Island Swim, Sunday, August 13.

Mrs. Ranville was also surprised with a pie, as was swim announcer Tommy Dylan of Grand Rapids, who recognized every swimmer to cross the finish line. The club also offered cookies to each swimmer.

Swimmers can enter the water solo or with a relay team. They are followed by kayakers and have the option of a seven-mile route or an 8.2-mile route, the latter of which requires some doubling back at the beginning and end of the swim to reach the total circumference of the Island. Swimmers cannot reach the 8.2-mile mark since they are not allowed to swim in the harbor. Water temperatures averaged in the low 60s.

The Owen Squared relay team, comprised of swimmers Owen Stevens and Owen Durham, was the first to cross the finish line in about 3.5 hours. Third to finish was the men’s solo winner Chris Thompson, a former Olympic swimmer. The women’s solo winner was Lauren Seroka, who crossed soon after Mr. Thompson.

There were plenty of volunteers helping swimmers into and out of the water at the Mackinac Island Swim, Sunday, August 13.

Mr. Stevens and Mr. Durham were closely followed by their friends and Racoons relay teammates Ben Greshaw and Isaac DeVries. Both teams hail from Zeeland and competed in the 2022 Mackinac Island Swim as a four-person relay team, and they were first to finish. They decided to switch it up this year for some friendly competition and formed two relay teams, which came out close in the end, they said. The group swam together in high school and on their club swim team, the West Michigan Swimmers.

The Mackinac Island Swim began in 2020 when the annual Mackinac Bridge Swim was canceled, and some participants decided to swim around the Island instead. Brad Conkey of Mackinac Island serves as the on-Island liaison, working with organizer Jon Vos and others. Mr. Conkey has participated in the Island swim every year and loves that it brings so many people together for a family-friendly event. There aren’t many open-water swims where fans and supporters can follow along a roadway as swimmers ply the waters just yards offshore, he said. Mr. Conkey also leads a bike ride the Saturday before the race.

Gail Ranville, a new member of the Mackinaw Woman’s Club, was the only club member to swim around the Island during the club-sponsored Mackinac Island Swim, Sunday morning, August 13. Mrs. Ranville was awarded a humble pie, a still-warm Michigan cherry pie, for her contributions to the club. Proceeds from the swim benefit the club and the community.

Before the swimmers finished, Shari Singh of Lansing was sitting on the lawn at Mission Point Resort waiting for her husband, Kris Singh, to finish the race. A group of friends who usually come with them were unable to make it this year, so she made them team shirts in support of Mr. Singh and laid them out on lawn chairs so they could be there in spirit to support him. It is the only vacation they take all year, she said, and it is Mr. Singh’s third year doing the event. She finds the race well organized and full of vitality, noting many of the swimmers are middle-aged, not picking up the sport until later in life.

“It’s a crazy sport. I just call them ‘wackadoodles,’ because why would anybody with any kind of common sense go into cold water and swim 8.2 miles?” she said. “You have got to have a passion. My husband always says, ‘Water is the great equalizer.”

Former Olympic swimmer Chris Thompson was the first solo swimmer to cross the finish line, completing the swim in about three and a half hours. Here, he is being helped out of the water by volunteers. Mr. Thompson won the bronze medal in the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney in the men’s 1,500-meter freestyle.

Like many group events that come to the Island once a year, the swimmers are a tight-knit community who build each other up and support one another as they all work to accomplish the same feat, all the while raising money for a good cause. It was a successful, if chilly, swim around the Island.

“It was nice to end in the sun,” Mrs. Ranville said. “You couldn’t ask for better, really.”