OCBP is a close third after winning open swim, women’s paddleboard races
WILDWOOD CREST — Competition was fierce during the first lifeguard race of the season Monday, when two teams tied for the lead and a third finished just two points behind.
The Avalon Beach Patrol took the tie-breaker over the Sea Isle City Beach Patrol to win the 2023 Cape May County Lifeguard Championship at the Rambler Road beach.
Those two patrols each finished with 22 points, while the Ocean City Beach Patrol in third place with 20, but Avalon finished higher in four of the seven events to earn the victory.
The top three places in the events were spread around among the 10 county beach patrols. Avalon won both rows, Ocean City won the open swim and the women’s paddle board, the Cape May Beach Patrol won the open paddleboard, Sea Isle won the women’s swim and the North Wildwood Beach Patrol wrapped up the meet by winning the surf dash.
The host Wildwood Crest Beach Patrol won a tie-breaker to finish fourth, putting Cape May fifth. Both teams had 13 points. Other scores included Wildwood, 9; North Wildwood, 6; Upper Township, 6; Stone Harbor, 1. Cape May Point did not score.
Avalon’s Gary Eagle and Dave Gillian were first in the doubles row in a time of 9 minutes, 32 seconds, with Sea Isle’s Danny Rogers and Pat Scannapieco second in 9:40; Wildwood Crest’s Pat Bakery and Jake Klecko third in 9:48; Upper Township’s Jim Nilsen and James Garoh fourth in 9:58 and Wildwood’s Brandon Joyce and Cainan Noon fifth in 10:02.
Cape May’s Zeb Tinker won the paddleboard race in 5:19 with Upper Township’s Ryan Manning second in 5:28; Sea Isle’s Dustin Laricks Jr. third in 5:30, Avalon’s Sean Geary fourth in 5:35 and Wildwood’s Matt Comas fifth in 5:37.
Ocean City’s Michael Giardino, 16, a rising senior at Vineland High School, won the open box swim in 8:06.
“It felt great,” Giardino said of his win. “It was a great race and I had a lot of fun. I was trying to go out fast but a lot of my strategy kind of got destroyed.” He said he fell at the beginning but managed to recover.
While Giardino finished about a half-minute ahead of the field, only 2 seconds separated the next three finishers. Sea Isle’s Jack Christian was second in 8:32; Avalon’s Brandon Hontz was third, 8:33; Wildwood’s Brendan Lewis was fourth, 8:34; and Cape May’s Tye Manuel was fifth, 8:44.
Sea Isle’s Mary Kate Leonard, 19, who swims for Boston College, won the swim in 8:54.
“I kind of just wanted to take it out and hold on … really just go for it,” Leonard said of her strategy. She didn’t get into the water first on the sprint from the beach, but once in quickly pulled ahead “and tried to stay ahead.”
“It feels really good,” she said of winning the first race of the season. “I’m super thankful for my coaches, teammates and all that. It feels great and all the love from Sea Isle. I love it.”
Ocean City’s Lexi Santer, who did triple duty for the OCBP on Monday evening, was second in the swim in 8:59, outracing Wildwood Crest’s Adrienne Bilello, who finished third in 9:02.
Avalon’s Katie Scanlon was fourth in 9:27 and Stone Harbor’s Kiera Liesinger was fifth in 9:32.
Santer would turn right around and win the women’s paddleboard, which started just minutes after the end of the swim.
Santer, who started behind the pack, had to to re-energize after the swim, but caught up and passed the entire field to finish in 6:19.
Asked what type of conditioning it takes to do back-to-back events, the swim and then the paddleboard, Santer laughed. “Craziness. I definitely didn’t feel quite conditioned for that. I don’t know if you saw the start of the paddleboard but I was at the back of the pack. I was hurting. It took me a moment to catch my breath from the swim, but I just put my head down, kept trying to pick one person off at a time on the board.”
She actually emerged from the water in third place but overtook her Wildwood Crest competitor in the run to the finish. “The race isn’t over until you cross the line and when you can see the finish line, it’s helpful. You know, ‘OK, I just have to push it past that point,’ and you can dig deep.”
Santer smiled as she said she was “thoroughly warmed up” for the surf dash two events later. Interviewed after the final event of the evening, she noted she was feeling “very, very tired. I’m still breathing hard but I think I have to do the same thing tomorrow night.” (The Longport Women’s Lifeguard Invitational was Tuesday evening.)
Wildwood Crest’s Maddie Priest was second in 6:24, Avalon’s Alyssa Sittineri third in 6:30, Cape May’s Emma DeMario fourth in 6:46 and Sea Isle’s Kylie Fry was fifth in 6:50.
Ryan Finnegan took Avalon’s second win of the night in the singles row. Sea Isle’s Rogers was second, Cape May’s Mike Fitzpatrick third, Ocean City’s Taylor Smith fourth and Wildwood’s Joyce fifth. (Exact times were not available.)
In the final event of the night, the Wildwoods took all three top places.
North Wildwood won the five-person surf dash in 4:13 with Travis McCray, Logan Westerfer, Chase McCray, Hunter Bostwick and Abby Melle. “We just worked hard every day and it showed,” Travis McCray said about the win. “Everyone did 100 percent. That is all you can ask for.”
“It’s awesome,” anchor leg Bostwick said. “Chase McCray, our third leg, did a great job. It gave us a big lead and Abby Melle just killed it. I had the easy job just finishing it out. It’s my first lifeguard race with the team and it’s awesome doing it with these guys. I grew up with these kids.”
Wildwood was second 5 seconds later with Matt Comas, Brendan Lewis, Connor Ewart, Issac Peterson, Margo Fox and Sage Fox.
Wildwood Crest was third just 10 seconds off the winning pace with Brett Pedersen, Pat Bakey, James Smith, Alex Cranch and Maddie Priest.
Ocean City, with Santer in her third event of the evening, took fourth place with teammates Tom Cusack, Nick Bell, Marcus Devita and John Hladun. Their time was 4:27.
Cape May took fifth place in 4:29 with Clay Stephens, Zack Brown, Tye Manuel, Jeff Ungvary and Kate Luft.
By DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff
