Ventnor lifeguards win final women’s race of the summer in honor of their late captain
By DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff
VENTNOR – Whether Bill Howarth was looking down from heaven last week on the female athletes he mentored for decades is a question left to theologians.
There is no question that a lot of those women competing at the annual Bill Howarth Women’s Lifeguard Invitational Aug. 11 were looking up and thinking of him – especially the guards on the Ventnor City Beach Patrol.
The VCBP guards were motivated to win the final women’s lifeguard race of the season on their home beach, from the rowers and swimmers right down to the members of the four-person surf dash team who charged across the sand and water to clinch the title as the sun was setting on the Ventnor beach.
A pair of rookies – Cedar Creek High School senior Samantha Keough and Holy Spirit High School junior Kira Murray – teamed up with veteran guards Stacey Price and Sarahjane Hehre to win the surf dash by a wide margin.
“This was in honor of Captain Howarth,” said Hehre, who worked with the late captain. “I thought of him the whole way through and how he pushed on in his life and that’s what we were doing tonight too.”
Keough and Murray were the first two legs on the relay and they got things started by getting their team out to a lead. Hehre was next and she was itching to go.
“Honestly, my adrenaline was already running,” she said. “Stacey Price was already killing it in the (earlier) racing. I was watching the two girls ahead of me crushing it and getting ahead. My niece was next to me cheering me on too. It was just an adrenaline rush having my girls by my side and being a part of Ventnor in general.”
By the time Price was ready to anchor the relay, she had an even bigger lead.
“I could’t have asked for a better group of girls to have my back,” Price said. “Especially coming off of two races prior. It’s nice when they give you an incredible lead. I really didn’t have to do anything. It was amazing just watching them go and passing me that can strap with a solid lead.”
“It means everything to me,” Keough said about the victory. “It’s my first year out here and being with such a great group of women is really cool.”
The win “meant a lot,” Murray added. She loved the support from her beach patrol. “It’s a big family. It feels really good.”
“It was really a great way to wrap up the season,” Price said. “I think we all really missed racing for the past year… I think everyone was happy to be back in competition against each other. It’s been a really great summer and we’re already ready for next summer.”
When Hehre said Price had been killing it in the earlier races, she wasn’t kidding.
Not only did Price do triple duty in the team’s four events, her points were critical to the team win. She and partner Katie Fisher picked up 2 points in the doubles row and then she came back with a second-place finish in the singles row for another 4 points before hustling over to be the anchor leg on the surf dash.
That finish gave the team 5 more points for their total of 11.
Margate’s Auble twins, Kristine and Amanda, won the doubles row which opened the evening’s races. Amanda also placed third in the singles row to give Margate 8 points, good enough for third place overall. Margate tied with Longport, the patrol that won the other two women’s team events this summer, but got third because of the better finish in the doubles row – the tiebreaker.
Longport’s Kira McCully and Taylor Phy were fifth in the doubles race, the team’s swimmer, Megan Fox, won the swim – she swept all three women’s swim events this season – and Longport’s Taylor Fox was fourth in the singles row.
Atlantic City was the second-place team overall with 9 points, with partners Raina Roche and Julianna Granese finishing second in the doubles row and teammate Morgan Simpson winning the singles.
The Upper Township Beach Patrol finished fifth overall with 7 points courtesy of a third-place finish in the doubles row by Eve Chiarello and Brooke Handley, and a second-place finish in the surf dash. Their surf dash team included Chiarello, Casey McLees, Grace Steele (all Ocean City High School graduates and former Red Raider athletes) and Mackenzie Blake.
Wildwood Crest’s Adrienne Bilello was second in the swim, followed by Avalon’s Becca Cubbler, Cape May’s Kate Luft in fourth and Sea Isle’s Kayleigh Olszewski fifth.
In the surf dash, Sea Isle’s Jenna Mesisca, Kylie Fry, Kaitlyn Hnatkowsky and Oliva Buddy were third, Brigantine’s Kylie Patitucci, Megan Winterbottom, Grace Emig and Abby Gragg were fourth and Wildwood Crest’s Sofia Jurusz, Abby Thompson, Emie Frederick and Christina Adams were fifth.
Rowing dynasty?
The Auble twins have been a consistently potent duo in rowing races over the years. They joined the Margate City Beach Patrol in 2011 and started rowing together in 2013, when they were seniors in high school. They have a lot of rowing trophies to their credit and were happy to add another one for what both sisters called “a perfect row.”
“Great start, we laid into the body of the race, turned the flag and after that it was just get in as fast as we can,” Kristine Auble said. “Sitting stern, I love catching the wave in. That was my favorite part, being able to shoot the wave in. We had a perfect row for the two of us.”
With their boat neck and neck with Atlantic City, the Margate duo caught a wave near the finish and Kristine was smiling when she jumped up to use an oar to steer the boat into the beach for the victory.
“I practice a lot shooting in straight,” she said. “When I saw the wave piling up I was like, ‘I got this.’ Something in me was like, ‘I’ve done it before, I’m going to do it now.’ I pulled my oars in and got ready to steer. Once I could see the beach, I wanted to make it straight. I was like, ‘Everyone is watching me now,’” she laughed.
When they got to the beach, their teammates hoisted them up in their boat.
“It feels amazing,” she said. “It means so much. We have such a supportive team on Margate, so to have everyone there just lift us up and to be there with my sister … we do everything together so doing this and being able to win means so much.”
She noted the quality of the rowers in the races is top-notch.
“We don’t get a lot of opportunity to do true doubles races and it’s very long and a real test of your endurance for all these women,” Kristine Auble said. “I’m just amazed by all of them. It was a tight race overall. It was neck and neck. Great competition. I’ve been doing this a long time and I think this competition we have now is very strong. I think we put all of our hearts into this. I think everyone put all of this out on the water.”
“I have nothing but confidence in her wave-catching ability,” Amanda Auble said of her twin. “She is one of the best in the area. When she’s on a wave, I’m just there for backup. Whatever minor adjustments, otherwise I’m just along for the ride.”
She is going to savor the moment knowing the racing season and summer are ending.
Winning the final women’s race “feels amazing,” Amanda Auble said. “I’m doing it with my best friend. We don’t get to have it in the winter (so the win) keeps me going. I’m on top of the world.”
Top swimmer
Fox, going into her senior year at Atlantic City High School, is in her first year of racing as a lifeguard on the Longport Beach Patrol, but she is no stranger to ocean swimming. That led her to win the swim at all three women’s team competitions this summer.
“I’ve been doing ocean racing my whole life,” she said, and prefers ocean swimming to the pool. “It’s different from what I do all year, from September to June.” Fox also likes the summer season. “It keeps me in shape because I swim a lot at work and fighting the currents makes you a lot better and stronger for the pool.”
Remembering Howarth
VCBP Lt. Meghan Holland told the crowd assembled for the awards ceremony about the man for whom the competition is named.
Howarth said it is for a “beloved VCBP captain of 29 years who lost a battle with cancer in 2016. Captain Howarth was a tremendous influence on so many, especially female lifeguards across all of south Jersey. He was a coach, mentor and friend. … his legacy lives on with this race.”
Asked afterward what Howarth meant to her, Holland, said, “Billy was the best. He coached me in swimming when I was young. He’s one of the reasons I was able to even get into rowing a lifeguard boat – between him and my grandfather.
“Once I made the beach patrol, I initially rowed with his daughter, Megan Howarth. He used to go on the jetski with us and do some training and drill, drill, drill, starts and turns and everything. He was just the greatest guy,” Holland said. “It was such a difficult loss .. because he was such an inspiration. And not just for Ventnnor. He was the type who worked with girls from Cape May Point to Atlantic City, really all the beach patrols. He was always willing to give his two cents in with everything.”
Howarth, she said, championed women.
“He really had a special place, he really looked out for the girls,” Holland said. “He had three daughters and he made sure we had a place on the beach patrol. The Ventnor race was the first one for female athletes across South Jersey. He spearheaded that. He was like a father to us all.”
Although she was a running the competition last week and not racing herself – she is a longtime competitive rower for the VCBP – she was happy to celebrate the win with the rest of her beach patrol.
“It’s alway a blast to win at home,” Holland said. “These girls have been working really, really hard. I’m so proud of all of them. It’s always so much fun to win at home. It’s the best.”