Six 12-year old Colorado swimmers became the youngest relay team in history to complete the 23.5 mile swim of the English Channel — carrying out the vision of one of the swimmer's father after he died.

The team consists of Wyatt Oerman and Maggie Cyr, of Centennial; Erik Biernat, of Littleton; Kianna Lee, of Aurora; Tim Soderlund, of Boulder, and Sara Nash, of Broomfield.

The swimmers were led by boat Captain Neil Streeter who has more than 10 years of experience leading swimmers across the Channel. The team completed the swim in 9 hours and 58 minutes — well ahead of their original goal of 15 to 18 hours. Water temperature in the Channel was a very chilly 64.58 degrees Fahrenheit.

The concept of creating a team of young swimmers and trying to break the world's record had been the brainchild of team member Sara Nash's father last year. He was a swimmer in college. He joined forces with Wyatt Oerman's mother and together they built the team.

In April, Kevin Nash passed away during surgery. The team became determined to fulfill his dream and accomplish the goal of breaking the world record in his memory.

Each member of the group is a competitive swimmer. The three boys and three girls have been training since April and even swam from Alcatraz across San Francisco Bay without wet suits last month.

When the kids weren't taking their turns swimming, they were tended to in a boat that followed them.

The group's coach and a mother of one of the swimmers, Voni Oerman, of Centennial, is a veteran open-water swimmer who swam the English Channel in 2002 in just under 11 hours.

"The excitement and dedication of these kids is inspiring," she said. "It all started last August when a group of parents asked me what it would take to prepare a group of kids to undertake a channel relay, and the kids decided to go for it."

Each swimmer rotated in the swimming relay for an hour until they reached the shores of continental Europe.

According to the BBC, every year, hundreds of people attempt to swim across the English Channel at its shortest point, the 24-mile crossing from Dover to Cap Gris Nez in France. The success rate is lower than 10 percent. The dangers include hypothermia, severe cramping, jellyfish and, as if those weren't bad enough, raw sewage. There are also 600 commercial ship movements and 80 to 100 ferry crossings between Dover and Calais every day.

Tides are also problematic, as they change every six hours or so.

The COWS (Colorado Open Water Swimmers) had a vigorous training regimen:

All swimmers practiced an average of four days a week in a pool. Practices consist of swimming 5,000 to 7,000 yards per day.

Training without wetsuits began in April at various Colorado Front Range reservoirs with water temperatures 55-65 degrees.