ATLANTIC CITY — Despite the calm conditions, the Ocean City Beach Patrol had a rough day in the surf July 18 during the 2025 Atlantic City Lifeguard Classic at Albany Avenue beach.
The Longport Beach Patrol won the team title, scoring points in five of the six events, followed by Ventnor City Beach Patrol with 16.
The host Atlantic City Beach Patrol and Brigantine City Beach Patrol tied with 15 points apiece in the field of 12 teams, while Margate City Beach Patrol was fifth with 9 and the OCBP sixth with 6 points. Last year, Ocean City was second behind Atlantic City with 18 points.
The event includes a surf dash relay, doubles surfboat rescue, one-mile doubles race, swim/paddle relay, doubles surfboat relay and singles row.
Ocean City placed third in the singles row, fourth in the surf dash and fifth in the swim-paddle relay.
Atlantic City’s Emmett Kane, Samia Ghazaz, Andrew Gillman and Ty Costabile won the opening surf dash. Longport’s Will Murray, Max Smilevski, Joe Russo and Alivia Wainwright were second and Margate’s Liam Kennedy, Bear Wawmer, Callie Duff and Pat Agnolini were third.
The OCBP’s Jach Ruggieri, Peyton Rautzhan, Andrew Shaw and Wyatt Clayton were fourth and the Brigantine crew of Grace Emig, Alex Passehl, Sean O’Neill and Kyle Graybill was fifth.
Shaw said he likes that the event is open to the entire patrol to form a team.
“It’s very similar to what we do on the beach every day. You’re running out to get to the victim and then coming back in,” Shaw said. “Everyone’s really good at that skill that we train to do every day.”
The tide was near low, making for shallow conditions conducive more to running than swimming.
“It definitely benefits me — I’m like 5’9” on a good day,” Shaw said.
“The conditions were good today. It was honestly a pretty calm course but tough competition out here today because there are a lot of patrols and everyone’s been working really hard this year,” Rautzhan said. She is a rookie on the patrol this year and she and her female teammates won the surf dash at the OCBP Women’s Lifeguard Invitational earlier in the week.
Ocean City’s Brian Pasternak and Mason Medolla did not fair well in the doubles surfboat rescue, which consisted of a pair rowing their boat out to a flag positioned about 300 meters in the sea, grabbing a 25-pound bag and rowing back to shore. Longport’s Joe Costa and Tim Schwegman won the race, followed by Ventnor’s Ben Werber and Erik Runne. The ACBP’s John Swift and Tom Muskett were third, Island Beach State Park was fourth and Diamond Beach Patrol fifth.
Pasternak took responsibility for the poor showing.
“When we turned the boat around I was a little too far from the flag,” he said, which made it difficult to unhook the rescue bag and pull it into the boat. “We lost a boat length at the turn, so it’s on me. Sometimes that stuff happens.”
Brigantine’s dynamic duo of brothers Joe Savell and Brandon Savell won the doubles row, followed by Longport’s Mike McGrath and Sean Duffey in second and Atlantic City’s Vince Granese and Nick Guidara in third. Ventnor was fourth and Margate fifth. Ocean City’s Matt Oves and Kevin O’Sullivan did not place in the event.
“Not the result we were looking for but it’s good to get out there,” O’Sullivan said.
In the fourth event, the swim-paddle relay, Brigantine’s James Haney, Myatt Sahl, O’Neill and Graybill took first, followed by the Harvey Cedars Beach Patrol’s Connor O’Neill, JJ Freeman, Yater Henry and Randy Townsend in second. Lavalette Beach Patrol’s Adam Mekrami, Matt Liott, Ben Dupree and Steve Myzl were third, Longport fourth and Ocean City’s Jacob Texter, Dante Buonadonna, Frank Christy and Chase Ritter were fifth.
“We’ve got a good team and everyone’s been working hard. Going out there we knew that we could do a really good job and just bring it home,” Ritter said. “Amazing conditions; you can’t have a better night than this.”
The doubles surfboat relay featured two men and two women from each team competing in a rowing relay.
Ventnor’s Sam Keough, M. McMenamin, Kira Murray and B. Werber won, followed by Longport’s Maddie Fox, Emma Barnhart, McGrath and Schwegman in second. Brigantine’s Ron Defelice, Molly Hoffman, Matt Dolan and Allie Lee were third, Atlantic City fourth and Margate fifth
Ocean City’s Chloe Malone, Ellis Kirk, Callie Bellwoar and Jay Stokes did not finish in the top five.
“On the turn, we just went a little too wide and once we had the turn, we were maybe half a boat length behind everybody else and that really sealed the deal. We couldn’t really recover after that,” Kirk said.
Ventnor’s Matt Spiers won the final event, the singles row, followed by Chris Spiers of Margate and AJ Oves of the OCBP.
Atlantic City was fourth and Brigantine fifth.
Oves cut across in front of the ACBP boat, securing his spot on the podium.
“On the way in I got on a wave and couldn’t keep it straight,” Oves said.
– STORY and PHOTOS by CRAIG D. SCHENCK/Sentinel staff
