Sea Isle City second, Ocean City third as competitions kick off for season
LONGPORT – On a bright, breezy and beautiful night July 11, hundreds of people flocked to 33rd Avenue to watch the beach patrols from shore towns battle it out for the title at the 25th Longport Women’s Lifeguard Invitational.
Thirteen of the 15 beach patrols that comprise the South Jersey Lifeguard Chiefs Association sent teams including Longport, Margate, Ventnor, Atlantic City, Brigantine, Ocean City, Upper Township, Sea Isle, Avalon, North Wildwood, Wildwood, Wildwood Crest and Diamond Beach.
Being the first women’s race of the season, tensions were high and all the lifeguards from each town were geared up and ready. Five different teams each won one of the five events – doubles row, swim, paddleboard, singles row and surf dash relay – but it was the host team that came away with the title.
Points are awarded for six places: first gets 7 points, second 5 points down to sixth with 1 point.
Eight teams entered the first event of the night, the doubles row. This race consists of two guards who must jump in the boat and row out to flags and return to shore.
Doubles partners Meghan Holland and Stacey Price won to give the Ventnor City Beach Patrol an early lead.
Longport’s Madelyn Fox and Emma Barnhart were second, Sea Isle’s Callie Reed and Abigail Ryan third, Upper Township’s Lorna Connell and Kailey Grimley fourth, with Margate’s Claudia Scherbin and Alexis Smallwood fifth and Atlantic City’s Julianna Granese and Stephanie Auble sixth.
“You always want to start off with a bang and set that precedent. I think we started off pretty strong and I’m excited for the rest of the season,” Price said.
“I knew today was going to be tough. We knew there was a bunch of younger girls rising and all on their way to being really fast,” Price said. “Meghan and I are just a couple of older girls so we’re just holding them off at this point and hoping for the best.”
Price and Holland’s best was good enough that day and the women were stoked to share their teamwork skills and pull out a win for Ventnor.
In the second event, the ocean swim, Longport set itself apart from the field.
Teammates Megan Fox and Jordan Ricciotti took first and second place, respectively, earning 12 points, which added to the 5 from the doubles row.
Ocean City’s Lexi Santer came out of the water after Sea Isle’s Mary Kate Leonard, but was able to beat her to the finish in the race on the beach. The week before, it was Leonard taking first and Santer second at the Cape May County Lifeguard Championships. Wildwood Crest’s Adrianna Billello was fifth and Avalon’s Katie Scanlon sixth.
Fox said she and Ricciotti pushed each other on throughout the race.
“Coming into today I was hoping to win the swim event and with all the other events I just planned to finish. I’m the most competitive and focused on swim,” Fox said. “I feel good about my performance. I was really happy and then to see Jordan do amazing too.”
The paddleboard race saw the closest finish of the evening when Brigantine Beach Patrol guard Grace Emig, who closely trailed Santer for most of the course, was able to catch “a little runner” in the final ocean leg of the box course and got position on the OCBP guard.
Emig hit the beach first but Santer charged after her, literally finishing on her heels as they raced down the beach. Emig’s winning time was 3:39 with Santer at 3:40, although the difference was closer to a tenth of a second.
Emig was happy with the win and the way the race unfolded. When asked if she heard footsteps behind her as Santer raced to make up ground, Emig said she actually felt Santer on her heels. Santer acknowledged there was contact as they came down the chute.
The Brigantine guard said she enjoys racing Santer and likes her as a competitor. Both were laughing together after the race, showing the camaraderie among the South Jersey lifeguards.
Santer said because Emig got around the turn flag on the beach first and had the inside position, “it was just a battle on the beach. I think it was a photo finish but she just edged me out there. I think I have a bruise on my ankle because we were hitting each other — not on purpose — because we were both aiming for the same place.”
Wildwood’s Katie Collins-Joyce was third, Upper Township’s Lindsay Robbins fourth, Longport’s Megan Fox fifth and Avalon’s Alyssa Sittineri sixth.
With two more events to go, Longport led with Ocean City second and Ventnor and Sea Isle City not far behind.
Sea Isle City’s Maura Quinn, a rising senior at Mainland Regional High School, won the race, pushing her team ahead of Ocean City in overall points.
Atlantic City’s Granese took second with Ventnor’s Sam Keough third. Olivia Coffey snagged fourth for Avalon, Upper Township’s Lorna Connell fifth and Longport’s Madelyn Fox sixth.
Quinn is only in her second year as a lifeguard.
“I rowed my rookie summer and didn’t do as well as I had hoped. I got fourth in South Jersey, so all winter I have just been training and I’m hoping to do better this time around,” Quinn said.
Her success as a rookie and her winter training sure paid off as she bagged her first win of the season and gave her team some much-needed points. While Quinn shared that she didn’t expect to win, she was more than happy to take home a first-place plaque.
The exciting finale was the surf dash relay, which has four lifeguards per team racing into the waters to tag a pole in the water, turn around, race back to shore to tag their teammate who takes the next leg.
Ocean City won with Kat Soanes, Morgan Decosta, Claudia Booth and Lexi Santer. Upper Township’s Grace Steele, Emily Culmone, Eve Chiarello and Grace Malcarney were second 4 seconds later. Ventnor’s Giavanni Mancy, Alexis Guerreri, Lisa Jones and Price were third in a time of 2:02.
Asked what it took to win in a race that was more running than surf, Decosta said, “I thought it took high knees and just running. It was so shallow tonight that everyone dolphin-dived and slowed down and the high knees just pulled through. It feels amazing. I can’t even explain how happy I am right now.”
“It is such a great feeling,” Booth said about winning. She was the first leg. “I was a little nervous because this was my first time racing in surf dash but I was excited as well. I think the adrenaline just got me going.”
Santer, who scored in two other events, enjoys the surf dash because she’s working with her teammates. “It’s always fun competing with the team. I like ending with the surf dash. That’s the most fun event. It’s exciting and you have teammates to celebrate it with.”
Soanes, the anchor leg, said, “I thought this was a straight sprint race and I know we have a great team. I was super excited to start this race off strong because I know these girls are all so great and we all got super close with the practices that we had. In all honesty, we have a lot of grit and a lot of heart and I’m excited for the season.”
After the final event, the guards and their fans headed up to Longport Beach Patrol Headquarters and the winners were announced. Longport won with 19 points, Sea Isle was second with 16 and Ocean City was third with 15.
LBP Chief Thomas Kresz was proud of his women’s team.
“It always feels good to win at home,” Kresz said. “We had a pretty good team going into this event, scored one-two in the swim and two in the doubles. The girls put a really good effort out tonight and it showed.
“We have a good group of lifeguards, talented athletes. We train hard every morning. Our priority is always ocean safety, but if we can win some races along the way it’s always a good feeling.”
The Ocean City Beach Patrol’s Women’s Lifeguard Invitational is at 6:30 p.m. tonight (July 19) at the 12th Street beach.
By DELANEY CRAWFORD/For the Sentinel
Sentinel writer David Nahan contributed to this story.
