The 12th annual Ray Licata Memorial Swim

Annual Ray Licata Memorial Swim a record breaker

By Skip Pierce

The 12th annual Ray Licata Memorial Swim drew a record 312 participants to the Long Branch surf for the one-mile swim.

Long Branch Mayor Adam Schneider presided as official starter for the highly coveted annual event.
Seventeen year-old Ryan Waters of Basking Ridge finished first with a time of 16:41.9. Waters swims for the Somerset Valley YMCA and finished second in this event last year and third in 2014 with Ocean Grove-s Doyle Connor winning both of those renditions.

This past March Waters took first place in the 500-yard freestyle at the NJSIAA Meet of Champions.  Finishing second behind Waters was John Stauffer of Skillman, clocked at16:49.5.  Stauffer is also seventeen years old, and like Waters, swims for the Somerset Valley YMCA.  Both athletes are national qualifiers. Sixteen year-old Justin Viotto of Morristown finished third at 16:53.0 and fourteen year-old Matthew Bonnell of Glenside was fourth posting a time of 17:03.4.

Kathryn Petrone repeated as first female this year with a clocking of 17:14.6.  The Brielle resident finished fifth overall. This past winter as a junior Petrone was the Monmouth County and Shore Conference champion in both the 200 and 500 freestyle. She also anchored the Manasquan team to victory in the 400-yard freestyle relay at the Shore Conference Championships. Most recently Petrone was also victorious in the Paddle and Iron Woman events at the United States Lifesaving Association (USLA) Regional Championships.

The swim proved to be somewhat of a youth movement with the first eight finishers being under 20 years old.  Fifty-seven year old John Forrester of Little Silver came across in ninth place at 18:13.7 as the first post teenaged finisher.  Others in the top 20 were 6. Rod Fenton (Boonton – 17:19.2), 7. Adam Kawut (Oakhurst – 17:44.6), 8. Jarrod Hendricks (Nazareth – 17:45.4), 10. second female Megan Bull (Hillsborough – 18:14.9), 11. Grace Yoon (Cherry Hill – 18:32.0), 12. Julie Stankiewicz (Metuchen – 18:41.1), 13. Joshua Franco (Hillsborough – 18:42.7), 14. Malia Wolf (Ocean Twp – 18:42.8), 15. Nancy Steadman Martin (Oceanport – 18:49.7), 16. Sammy Rennard (Red Bank – 18:50.5), 17. Emma Honnold (Rumson – 18:51.6), 18. Isabell Pabon (Long Branch – 18:52.6), 19. Kayleigh Hoagland (Colts Neck – 18:54.8), 20. Melanie Fosko (North Brunswick – 18:58.9).
Of special note about the Ray Licata Memorial Swim – Connor Jaeger, the 1500 silver medalist at Rio and former Long Branch lifeguard, won this event three times.