At Onset of Groundbreaking of New Aquatic Center, Montauk Swim Challenge Returns To Live, In-Person Event for First Time Since 2019

The 15th annual Montauk Ocean Swim Challenge on Sunday morning marked the first time in four years that the event returned to local waters after being virtual the past three years due to the pandemic. The event was still held the past three years as a weeks-long virtual event, where swimmers could complete the three different distances in nearby pools, oceans, bays or lakes.

Over 60 people came out to Ditch Plains and completed in either the 5K, 1-mile or half-mile swims. Matthew Raske, a 40-year-old Bronxville native coming off his victory of the 27th annual Montauk Lighthouse Triathlon exactly one week earlier, won the 5K swim in 1:15:16.39. Lori King, 48, of Rockville Centre came ashore not too long after Raske and was the female champion and second overall finisher of the 5K in 1:18:12.31.

Both the 1-mile and half-mile swims were dominated by females. Four of the top five finishers in the 1-mile were all women, led by Tyler DiMarco, 20, of New York City, who finished in 26:47.58. Will Dowling, 27, of Washington, D.C., was the first male to finish the mile, third overall, in 27:38.56. Carolyn Casey, 20, of Brooklyn, finished second in 27:12.91.

Lars Merseburg, 48, was the overall winner of half-mile swim in his hometown, finishing in 15:12.55. Merseburg is one of the founders of Imagine Swimming, a New York City-based company that offers swimming lessons to more than 4,000 children every week and runs five swimming pool facilities in Manhattan and Brooklyn. The organization will help run the new aquatic center at the Montauk Playhouse, funds for which were raised by the ocean swim challenge. The next eight finishers of the half-mile swim were all females, led by Molly Grande, 12, also of Montauk, who came in right behind Merseburg in 15:12.86.

All results can be found at elitefeats.com

Montauk Playhouse Community Center Foundation President Sarah Iudicone admitted on Monday that events such as the swim challenge don’t exactly raise a ton of money, but what they lack in fundraising efforts they more than make up for in helping the local community become better swimmers and raise awareness of the town’s local waters, which is really the entire point of the new aquatic center.

Iudicone said that it’s really the unique individual donations that come in that really drive the fundraising, and thanks to the many that have come over the past two decades, groundbreaking of the aquatic center is set for this upcoming Wednesday, August 2, at 10:30 a.m. at the Montauk Playhouse Community Center.

“A lot of time and hard work went into this unique project, and a lot of it couldn’t have been done without the generous support of individual donors,” Iudicone said. “Those individual donations have the ability to make a direct impact, and with the aquatic center being on the first floor, and that’s all set, we are still fundraising to complete the second floor where the community center will be. So we’ll continue to have events and accept donations while that is still going on.”

Adding a community pool to the Playhouse facility was one of the original goals of the foundation when it was formed in 1999, due to a lack of nearby public swimming facilities — the nearest year ’round facility being the YMCA in East Hampton Village.

As reported this past April, the aquatic center will comprise two swimming pools, according to preliminary sketches of the design — one a four-lane, 25-yard-long athletic lap pool, the second a smaller recreation pool that could be used for fitness and wellness programs for seniors and for helping babies acclimate to water. Changing areas and locker rooms for men and women are also to be included.

The aquatic center will be constructed within the first floor of the Playhouse building, which was originally built in the 1920s and was donated to the town in 1999. The building underwent an extensive renovation from 2003-2006, which renovated the eastern half of the building into a gymnasium and community spaces that has been home to daycare programs, a senior nutrition program, town annex and a fitness center.

One thing noted by both Iudicone and Jen Fowkes, executive director of the Montauk Chamber of Commerce and Visit Montauk, and who helped organize the event the with the foundation, was how East Hampton Volunteer Ocean Rescue was on hand to safeguard the water so the swimmers felt comfortable. That really drove home the need for both the incoming aquatic and community centers.

“We have a lifeguard shortage, so swim instruction is really important,” Iudicone said. “We had a feasibility study done last fall into January for our stakeholders that used statistics to really hone in on the community needs, and they found that there was an overwhelming need for swim instruction with an aging population that could really use something like a pool where low-impact exercise can be done.

“We’re still raising funds for the second floor of the cultural center, which will be a multi-use space,” she added. ‘The plans are flexible and really designed to fit our community in the coming years, whether it’s for Red Cross, or lifeguards, or area to have CPR classes, a community rehearsal and performance space, to a book group.”

For more information on the Montauk Playhouse Community Center Foundation, head to montaukplayhouse.org.