Paddleboarders raise $100,000 for cancer All...

Paddleboarders raise $100,000 for cancer

All four Newport Beach men competing in a Sunday paddleboard race

from Catalina Island to the Manhattan Beach Pier completed the

32-mile ordeal.

The men joined the race to raise funds for Newport Harbor High

School graduate Suzanne Leider, who died of cancer earlier this

month.

They raised nearly $100,000 for survivors and family members of

synovial cell sarcoma, they said.

Mark Schulein, Scott Lincoln, Jack Hamilton and Keith Munemitsu

all finished the Catalina Classic race in a field of more than 70

participants.

Schulein had the best time of the four, completing the paddle in 6

hours, 19 minutes, and finishing sixth. Lincoln finished right behind

him at 6 hours, 23 minutes.

Hamilton finished further back in the field at 8 hours, 33

minutes. Munemitsu said he pulled up the rear, finishing at 10 hours,

13 minutes.

The men said they completed the race to simulate the grueling

mental challenge that cancer patients face -- the urge to quit, the

will to live.

Schulein and Munemitsu knew Leider, who was living in Napa Valley

when she died Aug. 8. Leider, 33, was a nurse who grew up in Newport

Beach. She graduated from Newport Harbor in 1985 and her cancer was

diagnosed seven years later.

The classic, an annual paddleboard race, has been held for more

than 20 years.

-- Paul Clinton