Wrapping Up a Strong Lifeguard Season
Danny Rogers rides a wave at South Jersey Championships.
Danny Rogers guides his boat through the surf on a race start.
Pat Scannapieco (left) and Danny Rogers at South Jersey Championships.
Scannapieco and Rogers at the finish line.
Jack Christian finishes at the Kerr Memorials.
Chalk up two strong seasons.
From varied vantage points, the Sea Isle City and Upper Township beach patrols enjoyed productive summer campaigns. Some accomplishments occurred in traditional races, like the Beschen-Callahan and Cape May County races.
Others unfolded in nontraditional venues like surf-dash events and the Bill Howarth Invitational, the female equivalent of the South Jerseys.
Here’s a look at each patrol’s racing season.
Sea Isle City
Chief Renny Steele savors the upward arc Sea Isle City has displayed over the last few seasons.
“I have been going to these races for 53-some years and there were some in which I knew we had little chance of doing well,” he says. “That’s why it’s been great to get a feeling that every time we go to these races now, we are going to do well and that we have a shot at winning.
“It makes you feel good for the team that competes for us. They train hard, they do well and they are proud.”
There was a lot to be proud of this year.
Sea Isle gave strong performances throughout the season. Major team highlights included victory in the Beschen-Callahans and second both in the Cape May County and Bill Howarth Invitational.
“Both our male and female competition teams had excellent seasons,” Steele says. “Danny Rogers and Pat Scannapieco, if not winning, placed near the top in the doubles and singles rowing events. Jack Christian, a rookie, was a very competitive ocean swimmer.”
The women’s team notched a major season-ending score with its second-place performance in the Bill Howarth by scoring in every event.
This is how the team stacked up that night:
Molly and Maura Quinn, fourth, one-mile doubles row;
Mary Kate Leonard, second, half-mile swim;
Maura Quinn, fifth, singles row;
Kyle Fry, Anna Scoblick, Hailey Mills, and Kaylee Dougherty, third, surf dash can relay.
The event is named for Howarth, a 29-year captain of the Ventnor City Beach Patrol. He died in 2016 and is long remembered as a mentor to female lifeguards.
Leonard, a member of the Boston College swim team, had an excellent summer season, Steele notes. She posted victories in the Cape May County Championships, the Beschen-Callahan races, the Kerr Memorials in the iron woman relay, and the Tri-Resorts Race in Upper Township. Leonard also finished fourth in the Longport women’s race and second in the Dutch Hoffmans. Her performance wasn’t a surprise. But two young guards did surpass expectations.
“The Quinn twins’ fourth-place finish in the Bill Howarth doubles row was exceptional considering they are 17 years of age and their lack of experience,” Steele says. “Maura is a second-year guard and Molly a rookie.”
While that was a late-season gem, Sea Isle won the early-season Beschen-Callahans on a tiebreak with Avalon in mid-July. Major differences from one week earlier – a second-place finish on a tiebreak with Avalon in the Cape May County races – were the victories from Jack Christian and Rogers.
The Beschen-Callahan results:
Danny Rogers and Pat Scannapieco, second, doubles row;
Dusty Laricks Jr., fourth, paddleboard male;
Jack Christian, first, swim male;
Mary Kate Leonard, first, swim female;
Danny Rogers, first, singles row.
Sea Isle also planted the seed of optimism with one of its all-time best rookie classes, according to Steele.
“They were quick to learn and have developed into excellent lifeguards,” he notes. “A number of the exceptional athletes competed in out-of-town races. At our annual awards dinner [Aug. 15], Kevin O’Hare received the beach patrol’s rookie of the year award.”
Steele said the Capt. Bill Gallagher 10 Mile Island Run had the greatest number of registrants in many years. The same can be said of the beach patrol’s 1 Mile Ocean Swim and the Sea Isle City Junior Lifeguard Program. Registration for the Captain Thomas McCann Mascot School, limited to 200 children, closed well before the summer started.
Wave crashes Joseph O’Neil as he and Jimmy Nelson compete in the Goudy Memorials in August.
Joseph O’Neil (left) carries rescue bag after he and Jimmy Nelson retrieved it at the Goudy Memorials in August.
Upper Township
“We have a young racing crew and the majority are not even 21 yet,” says Bill Handley, captain of the Upper Township Beach Patrol. “We had a lot of success with our young athletes and I think we will be set up even better for the next couple of years.”
Some of the young competitors came up big this summer.
The Upper Township surf dash team of Grace Steele, Emily Culmone, Eve Chiarello and Grace Malcarney completed a banner season by winning the biggest race of the season in the Howarth Invitational.
“Our team had a lot of first-, second- and third-place finishes throughout the year,” Handley says. “Grace Steele got us off to a great start, coming out of the water first in every one of them. That motivates everyone who follows her to maintain the advantage that she established for us. Once you realize you are out in front, you don’t want to lose it.”
Culmone indicates that a major key in the surf dash is deciding whether to try leaping the waves or diving under them.
“The taller people like to run through or leap over them,” she says. “Our team has shorter people; we are better diving under them. We were very effective doing that.”
Jimmy Nelson (bottom) and Joseph O’Neil push out through the surf.
Upper Township received strong season-long doubles rowing from Kailey Grimley and Lorna Connell. They finished second in the Ventnor competition.
Connell, along with several patrol members, was also honored by the Upper Township Committee for her role in a rescue. Lifeguard chiefs and captains always stress how that is the guards’ main role.
Mike Parsons had a first-place finish in the men’s can run at the Beschen-Callahans, and Malcarney was second in the women’s can run.
A pair of three-year rowers, Jim Nilsen and James Garoh, secured a strong fourth in the Upper Township Bay Race.
The event was successful on another level. It raised $6,175 for the fight against multiple sclerosis with roughly 100 sponsored boats participating. Launched by Handley, it has raised approximately $175,000 for the cause since being launched 31 years ago.
When the campaign ended, Ryan Manning was voted by his peers as the most competitive. He excelled in the surf dash, paddleboard and rowing programs, Handley says.
Final laps
Which beaches remain open after Labor Day is a fluid situation for both Sea Isle City and Upper Township. Officials will determine what beaches will be open based on the availability of guards. For liability purposes, they don’t want to speculate or make a premature commitment on covering specific beaches. Visitors are asked to swim only on guarded beaches.
