Lucky No. 27 for the LBS is a success

The 27th year of the Long Bridge Swim was a smashing success.

Over 600 swimmers from across the country participated in the open water swim.

“Last year was a rebuilding year after the pandemic, but this year was great,” Long Bridge Swim Director Jim Zuberbuhler said. “This year was great and we’re very fortunate to have the outcome we had for the race.”

This year’s open swim race saw a tight finish for the top-spot, but ultimately it was 18-year-old Matthew Mantz who finished in first place with a time of 39:03.

Mantz etched out Marcus Gentry, who finished just two seconds behind Mantz, with a time of 39:05.

The top female finisher was Lila McGeachy, who finished in sixth place overall with a time of 41:10.

The oldest racer to finish the race was 81-year-old Jim Fry, who finished with a time of 58:50. The youngest swimmer to finish the race was nine-year-old G. Luckens, finishing with a time of 2:13:38.

When Zuberbuhler began his morning meeting prior to the race to discuss safety details, he found out that there were 15 states represented along with a handful of countries.

“We had people from France, South Africa, Mexico, and someone from China,” he said. “We had quite a bit of representation. We always have at least half a dozen countries.”

Prior to the beginning of the race, conditions on the water seemed less than ideal.

At 6 a.m. the water appeared to have white caps, but Zuberbuhler was confident it would settle down in time for the race

“We have a great relationship with NOAH (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) and that relationship is so important,” Zuberbuhler said. “They can tell us on a micro-scale what is going to happen to the weather, which helps the event out a ton.”

Through the relationship with NOAH Zuberbuhler and the event staff were confident that the wind was preparing to get better, so the event continued as scheduled.

“It’s okay if it’s a tough swim,” Zuberbuhler said. “That’s not dangerous, but we might have called the swim if we knew it was going to build because you have to put safety first.”

Only six swimmers got pulled throughout the event, which was only a third of the racers. Even with the difficult conditions, that number was significantly less than in previous years, according to Zuberbuhler.

As most swimmers know, the Long Bridge Swim is a swim designed to be fun; however, those who came in to be competitive were challenged.

“These conditions really challenged those competitive swimmers,” Zuberbuhler said. “It’s a very different event when you’re competitive. You’re really having to set a pace, if you’re in here swimming for fun, you’re in here having fun, but that’s very different when you come in here trying to finish in 45 minutes.”

Swimmers who finished at the front of the pack were gassed and lying down at the end of dog beach following the end of the swim. The drain from the swim came from the conditions of the water.

“When you have adverse conditions like this, it can add ten percent more time,” Zuberbuhler said. “They don’t like that. I bet half of those top 10 or 20 swimmers threw up before coming over here. When you push that hard, it’s hard not to throw up near the end.”

Another major staple of the Long Bridge Swim has been its work to include and allow those with special needs or conditions to pursue the swim.

This year, the nonprofit group Panhandle Special Needs, Inc. sponsored the event, and had their own swimmer, Sierra Nicholson, take on the swim.

“I’ve been aware of their organization for a very long time,” Zuberbuhler said. “I think they’re just great and when they had one of their staff call me to sponsor the event, we jumped at the chance.”

The drive behind the nonprofit wanting to sponsor the swim came directly from Sierra Nicholson wanting to participate.

“This little girl wanted to swim,” Trinity Nicholson, PSNI director, said. “We wanted to get our name out there and we support people with special needs and all the barriers that they have to go through.”

Sierra loves being in the water but also wanted to make sure that the nonprofit was able to get their name out there.

“The whole family works here, so I knew that it would be a great thing to do to get our name out there,” Sierra said. “Once we learned we could sponsor and donate money, it moved it to the next level.”

Sierra’s grandma, and Trinity’s mom was a semi-Olympic swimmer, so swimming is in her blood.

“I always thought I could go out and swim,” Sierra said. “My mom has always encouraged me to swim, so I thought if I trained to do it that I could go out there and finish it.”

Sierra began training for about a month prior to the race, she would bike up Schweitzer to get into shape and then began to get into the water.

“My biggest challenge was swimming in a straight line,” Sierra said. “I still struggle with it, but I got better and I have ear problems so having the right gear was able to help.”

After all her training, Sierra was able to finish the race in two hours and four minutes.

“I was a little worried that I was going to be one of the people that got pulled in by the boats,” Sierra said. “I thought I was going to take an hour and 45 minutes so two hours is close enough for me.”

When it came time for the swim, the group had a hard time figuring out transportation; that’s where Zuberbuhler and the Long Bridge Swim group stepped in to help make sure everyone got a chance to watch Nicholson swim.

“(Trinity) said we’d like to bring some of our clients to watch (Sierra) finish,” Zuberbuhler said. “It was a long walk for them so we were able to coordinate a way for them to get transportation and that was fun. We were also able to give them a space to be able to watch Sierra swim and I think they had a wonderful time today.”

Trinity has been a Sandpoint native her entire life and had never been to a Long Bridge Swim.

“I think it’s great that her daughter finished.” Zuberbuhler said. “I think it was a thrilling experience for them and we’re very happy to help swimmers with disabilities and this is the first time we’ve helped facilitate a group of spectators.”

After going to her first Long Beach Swim, Trinity is really happy with the outcome and everything that the event stands for.

“I think it’s really awesome,” Trinity said. “We don’t have a lot of opportunities as a group to get out. Transportation is an issue; accessibility is an issue, so it takes some coordination. Everybody was so excited and wanted to get together.”

Panhandle Special Needs Inc, has been around Sandpoint since 1975. Trinity just recently formed “A-team Idaho”

“It’s a nationwide group of grassroots advocates,” Trinity said. “It’s a group of people who support awareness, advocacy, and advice. We work with our local state government to make good decisions with people with disabilities.”

The A-team goes beyond the agency and reaches out to more people, giving more access to those with disabilities.

“We reach out to help people with disabilities find housing, transportation, and employment,” Trinity said. “We want to see people have successful and beautiful lives.”