Wildwood Crest, Cape May beach patrols go 1-2 in team competition
CAPE MAY POINT – In one of the tightest races in its 15-year history, Ocean City Beach Patrol’s Lexi Santer won the Cape May Point Women’s Lifeguard Challenge at St. Pete’s beach July 27, finishing three seconds ahead of Harvey Cedar’s Beach Patrol’s Jenna Parker, a five-time winner of the event.
Santer turned in a time of 24:00 while Parker closely followed at 24:03.
The race consisted of a consecutive 1.3-mile soft sand run, one-mile ocean paddle, and half-mile ocean swim with a shorter run between the last two segments. Each beach patrol may enter as many as two teams, an A team and B team, each consisting of two female competitors. Each competitor completes the entire course with competitors scoring individually and as a team with cross country style scoring.
Third place went to Adrienne Bilello of the Wildwood Crest Beach Patrol with a time of 24:40, with fourth place to Wildwood Crest’s Katie Collins Joyce. Cape May Beach Patrol’s Madi Bickford placed fifth.
Rounding out the top 10 were Grace Emig of Brigantine City Beach Patrol in sixth place, Maddie Priest of Wildwood Crest Beach Patrol in seventh place, Emma DeMario of Cape May Beach Patrol in eighth, Lindsey Frenia of Cape May ninth followed by Kylie Fry of the Sea Isle City Beach Patrol in the 10th spot.
Wildwood Crest Beach Patrol’s “A Team,” Bilello and Priest, won the team title. Second place went to Cape May Beach Patrol’s “A Team,” Bickford and Frenia.
Brigantine City Beach Patrol’s “A Team,” Grace Emig and Megan Winterbottom, took third place in the team competition.
Bilello led the pack rounding the first turn in the soft sand race followed by Parker and Frenia. Parker took the lead in the footrace at the second turn followed by Priest with Bilello in third place, Rebecca Millar of Upper Township Beach Patrol was in fourth place with Santer in fifth.
At the turn buoy in the paddleboard competition, Parker continued to hold the lead position, followed closely by Santer, Bilello and Priest. The competitors in the paddleboard portion worked hard to return to the beach, fighting an outgoing tide.
Parker was the first competitor out of the water at the end of the paddleboard competition followed by Santer and Bilello. They returned to the ocean in that order for the half-mile swim.
Santer and Parker were neck and neck as they neared the beach at the end of the swimming competition, but Santer was first out of the water. Race Director Kristen Moorby called the race “one of the tightest finishes in all 15 years.”
Santer said Parker was a strong runner, but she caught up with her in the paddle competition and during the final swim, she had the inside spot coming to shore, getting onto the beach first for the sprint to the finish.
Her training program includes a “little bit of everything.”
“I try and stay in shape swimming and running over the winter but in summer I’m just competing a lot too, so a lot of my training happens at the competitions,” Santer said.
The event was blessed with calm seas and a 75-degree water temperature, up from 68 degrees last year, but Santer said the race is never easy.
“I don’t think I was able to catch my breath once during the race, but the conditions were better than years previous,” she said. “We were able to run in the hard-packed sand by the water because the tide was lower; other years we had to tough it out in the soft sand, so that was to our advantage.”
Santer, 27, works as an occupational therapist for Christiana Hospital System in Delaware and as a swim coach. She is in her 10th summer of lifeguarding, six of which have been with the Ocean City Breach Patrol.
On July 4, swimmers in Ocean City made their way to a sandbar across an 8-foot gully causing Santer to rescue 20 people on her paddleboard.
Keeping up with Parker, 39, makes her feel good, Santer said.
Parker said she held a lead to the very end of the swimming competition.
“I’m super excited every time I get to come back here and every year, I see the girls getting better and better and I’m getting older,” she said. “This was my last time racing here.”
Santer was the only competitor who defeated Parker. She noted this year’s event numbered 47 competitors, up from 20 the first year she competed.
Bickford, 17, a senior at the Peddie School in Hightstown, is in her second year of competing in the race. She said her work on the Cape May Beach Patrol was her training for the event, running in the sand and swimming and paddle workouts. She also trains at Cape May Point’s beach to familiarize herself with the course and conditions.
– Story by JACK FICHTER, Photos by DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff
