Santa Barbara Swim Club members, from left, Paige Brown, Olivia Smith, Lucas Stark, Ben Brewer and Walker Bell completed the 12th annual Tiburon Mile in San Francisco Bay. (Photo by Susan Bell).
Walker Bell finished first in his division and was the second age-group swimmer overall at the 12th annual RCP Tiburon Mile open water swim on Sunday in San Francisco Bay.
Bell, of the Santa Barbara Swim Club, finished the one-mile nautical swim from Angel Island to the shores of downtown Tiburon in 22 minutes, 37 seconds, claiming top honors in the male 13-18 age group. Overall, he placed 50th out of 596 swimmers and was second behind Rachel Knowles of Pleasanton, the female 13-18 champion, who posted the fastest age-group time of 22:01.
Bell, a freshman at Dos Pueblos, was joined in Tiburon by four members of the Santa Barbara Swim Club. Ben Brewer was the second fastest of the group, finishing in 24:24 for 13th place in the male 13-18 age group; Olivia Smith was eighth in the female 13-18 group in 24:27; Lucas Stark came in at 25:30 for 22nd place (M13-18), and Paige Brown finished in 26:41 for 14th place (F13-18).
Kane Radford of New Zealand was the overall champion in 18:58, and Australia’s Melissa Gorman won the women’s title in 19:20.
