YOUR AD HERE »

Reno 18-year-old wins 36th Donner Lake Swim in Truckee

Kaleb M. Roedel
kroedel@sierrasun.com

More online

Visit sierranevadamasters.com/dls.php to learn more about the Donner Lake Swim and to see 2016 results.

TRUCKEE, Calif. — Throughout its 36 years, the Donner Lake Swim, a 2.7-mile swim from the east end of Donner Lake to the west end, has had many neck-and-neck finishes.

That was not the case this year.

Eighteen-year-old Christopher Miller of Reno clocked in a swift time of 54 minutes, 55 seconds — finishing 24 seconds ahead of the field — to claim first place overall at the 36th annual Donner Lake Swim on Saturday.



The race was Miller’s first crack at the Donner Lake Swim, said Ryan Evans, assistant race director.

“I was impressed that he (Miller) was able to win it in his first time doing the race,” said Evans, noting that the “point to point” swim can be challenging for newcomers. “A lot of times with open water swims you swim around buoys out in the water and swim a square course. What makes the Donner Lake Swim so unique is you start from one end and go straight across to the other end — you have to focus on swimming in a straight line.”



On the women’s side, Mackenzie Leake, 22, of the Stanford Masters Swimming club, left the competition deep in her rear-view, finishing more than a minute ahead of the pack with a first-place time of 58:50.

The top area finisher was Incline Village’s Celeste Miller, who captured first place in the women’s 65-69 age division with a time of 1:18:43.

In all, roughly 350 competed in this year’s Donner Lake Swim, Evans said.


Support Local Journalism

 

Support Local Journalism

Readers around Lake Tahoe, Truckee, and beyond make the Sierra Sun's work possible. Your financial contribution supports our efforts to deliver quality, locally relevant journalism.

Now more than ever, your support is critical to help us keep our community informed about the evolving coronavirus pandemic and the impact it is having locally. Every contribution, however large or small, will make a difference.

Your donation will help us continue to cover COVID-19 and our other vital local news.