Huntington Beach Open features several local winners

The 50th annual Huntington Beach Open tennis tournament capped two weekends of competition Sunday, with several local players winning division titles.

Art Hernandez of Huntington Beach repeated as Men's Open doubles champion by pairing this year with Carsten Hoffmann of Newport Beach. The duo defeated Neel Grover and Shempei Suzuki, 7-6, 7-5, in the final. Hernandez won his third Huntington Beach Open title and second with Hoffmann. Last year, Hernandez teamed with Brian Morton of Newport Beach to win the Open doubles crown.

"Going back-to-back is always great, especially in a highly-competitive match," Hernandez said of the doubles final. "It is always fun competing at a high level, especially with my good friend Carsten . We are looking forward to defending our title next year, as well. This is a well-run tournament."

Huntington Beach athletes who also claimed titles were Chris Ganz (Men's Open 40s), Jamison Hart (4.5 Men's Singles), Kyle Stone (4.0 Men's Singles) and Dan Oriza (Men's 5.0 Doubles with Marc Roest of Lake Forest). Janna McConnell and Paul Wyrick of Huntington Beach finished second in the 4.0 Mixed Doubles division.

In singles play, top-seed Jeff Thomsen of Newport Beach defeated Doug Mayeda (Centennial, Colorado), 7-5, 6-4, in the Men's Open final. Lindsey Nelson (Orange) defeated Molly Scott (Trabuco Canyon), 6-1, 6-1, in the Women's Open title match. In the Men's Open 40s singles final, Ganz defeated top-seed James Dao (Laguna Beach), 6-4, 6-2.

In the Women's Open doubles final, the No. 1-seeded team of sisters Jennifer Lyons and Julie Shapiro defeated Suzanne Lipscomb and Lauren Villanueva, 6-0, 6-1.

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Local man completes 23-mile swim race

Saying he had "something to prove" to himself, Clay Rinker of Huntington Beach achieved a goal Friday when he completed a 23-mile Catalina Channel Swimming Federation event.

The 23-year-old started his watery journey at 12:35 a.m. Friday at Doctor's Cove, Santa Catalina Island, and finished 10 hours, 51 minutes later at the rocky shoreline of Terranea Resort in Rancho Palos Verdes.

It was the first attempt at the event for Rinker, whose "team" included Kevin Lachman and Eric Steele, who treaded the sea in a kayak and a boat captained by Gary Clinton that had Forest Nelson and Michael Resk onboard as "observers."

Rinker, who has been a lifeguard in Newport Beach for seven years, said he survived the ocean swim.