West Michigan Swimmers participate in Swim Around Mackinac Island
A group of Zeeland swimmers got a chance to hit the open water in the Great Lakes.
Eight swimmers from the Zeeland-based Michigan Swimmers club participated in the Swim Around Mac event, an open water event around Mackinac Island.
There were 371 swimmers representing 29 states from ages 15 to 74. The finish line acted as a fundraising event via merchandise sales, auctions and raffles of which the proceeds totaled over $28,000 for the Mackinaw Woman's Club.
West Michigan Swimmers who participated were Lauren Miedema, Jenna Meyer, Abby Brinks, Adeline DeVries, Ben Greshaw, Owen Durham, Isaac DeVries and Owen Stevens.
"Open water swimming is new to me. We had fun doing some training in the weeks leading up to it. My leg of the race was 2.75 miles and pretty smooth. A couple of my relay partners had some choppy water in second half of the swim," Stevens said. "One thing I noticed is that all of the swimmers were really kind and positive. It was great to see swimmers of all ages and levels supporting each other."
The event was started by Jonathan Vos, a former West Ottawa and Grand Valley State swimmer.
The event goes from the Grand Hotel to Mission Point on Mackinac Island, a route of 8.2 miles, the same as the bike path around the island.
"The event was actually started by myself and a friend, Eric Hansen Vos said. "We swam around the island together in 2020. After a little arm twisting by Mackinac Island resident, Brad Conkey, we decided to create an event out of it in 2021. Since then I've taken over the event as the Swim Director and Eric has branched out on his own to form The Mackinac Bridge Swim, which was previously 'The Mighty Mac Swim' ran by Jim Dreyer."
Another former West Ottawa swimmer, Drew Scheerhorn, who now coaches at Zeeland and with the West Michigan Swimmers, was a volunteer for the event and brought members of the team who were interested.
The event was not a race, but Zeeland swimmers did well in the group of 371 who participated.
"I can tell you that a relay of 15 and 16 year olds from Zeeland swam their way to the finish line before anyone else. I can also tell you, the experience will likely mean more to them than any additional medal they would have received for 'winning,'" Vos said. "Those would just gather in a pile next to all the other medals they already have, and will continue to accumulate."
"It was super fun getting to swim with my teammates out of season and getting to try open water swimming. We all had fun trying something new and getting out of our comfort zone," Durham said. "It was all of our first time in wet suits so that was different and the water was quite cold. Everyone there was super fun and had all different swimming backgrounds so that was another thing that made it enjoyable. Overall, I think we all really enjoyed the whole event and would love to do it again in the future.
This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: West Michigan Swimmers participate in Swim Around Mackinac Island
