Sync and swim.
In the early-morning chill of darkness, on June 12, 1962, three federal prisoners attempted to escape from Al- catraz, and to this day, exactly 45 years later, nobody knows whether Frank Morris and the Anglin brothers were successful in their quest. They disappeared off The Rock.
“I think they made it,” says Wyatt Oerman, a middle school student from Centennial.
The 11-year-old Wyatt has undeniable proof that the feat can be accomplished.
On Sunday, for the second time in his (very young) life, Wyatt swam from the island of Alcatraz a mile-and-a-half to San Francisco. This time in 32 minutes, 47 seconds.
The Alcatraz Sharkfest Swim was just a modest test for Wyatt and four other youngsters from the Denver area. Small test? They are determined to be Big Fish across the pond in August.
Three girls – Sara Nash, Maggie Cyr and Kianna Lee, who finished ninth, 11th and 12th in Sunday’s event – and three boys – Tim Soderlund, Erik Biernat and Oerman – will try to become the youngest relay team in history to swim the 21-mile English Channel. By then, all six will be 12, the age required for chasing the open-water dream from Dover, England, to Cap Griz Nez, France. Each will use the freestyle and fly strokes for an hour, then be replaced by another youth in the accompanying pilot boat.
The channel swim has been completed by almost 1,200 wet daredevils, the first being Eng- lishman Matthew Webb in 1875 (on his second effort) in 21 hours, 45 minutes.
The Colorado team, taking turns, hopes to do the grueling swim in 15-18 hours. Their leap of opportunity is from Aug. 6-12 (because of favorable tides).
I have done the crossing – in The Chunnel (train under the channel) and on a ferry and a hovercraft. I can barely swim from the top of this column to the bottom, so I am duly impressed.
The age-record relay swim across the historic channel – crossed by boats over the centuries with every contingent from the Romans to the D-Day Force – was an idea conceived last year by Nash’s father, Kevin Nash, who had been a college swimmer at Cal-Berkeley. With Wyatt’s mother, he brought together kids from swim teams in Boulder, Aurora and Centennial. Voni Oerman, who has swum the English Channel and in a marathon around the island of Manhattan, became the team’s main coach.
Two months ago Kevin Nash died on a hospital operating table during surgery. The youngsters have dedicated their challenge to Nash.
“After what happened, the kids are more strongly resolved than ever to do this for Kevin. He was supposed to swim alongside his daughter Sara, and he will be with us all the way,” said Voni Oerman, Wyatt’s mother. “The girls and boys have been training hard for months, and now that they’re getting closer to going to England, they’ve got a lot more left to do to be ready.”
They have been working out for two hours a day on a lake, in 50-something degree temperatures, at Pelican Lakes Golf Course near Windsor. Soon they will switch to Prospect Lake in Colorado Springs, and they must adjust to swimming at night. The crossing must begin either at 3 a.m. or 3 p.m., and they will spend hours in dimming light and dark.
Without wet suits.
The dogged young people will wear only swimsuits in the cold, choppy waters between the Atlantic Ocean and the North Sea.
“Certainly, there is fear,” said Voni Oerman. “But they’ve never given up in the long, tedious and monotonous practices, and they understand what they’re facing. They know the rewards, and they thrive on it.”
Are these overzealous Swim Parents throwing a bunch of children into hazardous water?
“Understand that these kids aren’t average pool swimmers,” Oerman said. “They have astounding abilities. It takes a special athlete to swim and train like they do. Nobody is being pushed. This is something they truly want to do. Open-water swimming will be a sport in the Olympics (for the first time) in Beijing, and they want to be Olympic swimmers.”
The boys and girls will compete June 30 in a pre-qualifying six-kilometer race for the 2008 Summer Games.
Wyatt, who began swimming in local meets when he was 6, did admit that after he endured the Alcatraz-San Francisco swim at 9, “I was discouraged once. I wanted to quit. I liked being on the water polo team more.” He doesn’t have to swim quite as far in water polo.
“But I really missed (open-water) swimming,” he said. “It brings out the best in me. It’s really fun.”
Fun during a 1 1/2-mile swim? “I got bored (Sunday), but I would think about the English Channel swim, and it kept me going. It’s not easy, but I’m part of a team that can do something big, and it makes it better hanging out with the guys,” and, he added, “the girls.”
The seventh grader-to-be at Campus Middle School never has traveled to Great Britain or seen the English Channel. “We can’t wait to get there. It’s going to be awesome, and I know we can swim it,” he said.
The young swimmers have no sponsors, and there won’t be prize money or trophies – but, rather, at the finish line, a lighthouse to touch on the French coast, a quiet moment to honor a father who passed away and a lifetime to appreciate and enjoy their achievement.
The six boys and girls are in sync, and they will swim.
Staff writer Woody Paige can be reached at 303-954-1095 or wpaige@denverpost.com.
