August 4, 2004

Sea Isle wins Tri-Resort Championships

By GUY GARGAN For The Press, (609) 272-7210, E-Mail

UPPER TOWNSHIP - The Sea Isle City Beach Patrol won five of the seven races Tuesday and won its fourth straight team title at the Tri-Resort Lifeguard Championships at Webster Road beach in the Strathmere section of the township.

Sea Isle City finished with 25 points for first place. The other two teams, Wildwood and Upper Township, both had 19 points, but Wildwood received second place by virtue of winning the doubles row, the South Jersey Lifeguard Chiefs Association tiebreaker. Scoring was 5-3-1.

Pat Healy led Sea Isle with two victories. He was part of the winning paddle relay and also took first place in the swim, which had three swimmers from each patrol and was scored like cross country. Healy won the swim by 20 yards over teammate Jordan Troyan, and Jess Stusnick was fourth. Together they totaled seven points for first place in the event.

Healy, 19, is a swimmer at Penn State University. "I like the paddleboard a lot more than swimming, but I don't get to do it that much," Healy said.

The 3x1-mile beach run relay had a thrilling finish. In the anchor leg, Sea Isle's Tim Carroll was running stride-for-stride with Upper Township's Greg Hughes before Carroll put on a spurt in the last 100 yards for the win.

Paddlers Ryan Weathers of Sea Isle and Brian Riordan of Upper finished even in their leg of the host relay. Sea Isle singles rower Sean Riley and the doubles crew of John Temme and Dave Stearne gave the patrol the win. Joanne Lombard gave Sea Isle a lead in the surf dash and teammates Pat Hoban, Matt Devlin and Tom Smyth made it an easy win.

Wildwood's Ed Schneider won the singles row, the first event, and returned to capture the doubles with partner Ryan Meyer. "I had a good night," Schneider, a 35-year-old, 16-year guard, said. "Ryan ... really pushed me in the doubles. He was talking all the way."


RESULTS

SINGLES ROW

1. Ed Schneider, Wildwood, 4:59: 2. Greg Van Gilder, Upper Township, 5:04; 3. Mike McConnell, Wildwood, 5:15.

PADDLE RELAY

1. Sea Isle City (Pat Healy, Colleen Smith, Jordan Troyan) 12:45; 2. Upper Township, 13:00; 3. Wildwood, 14:39.

BEACH RUN RELAY

1. Sea Isle City (Molly Curran, Matt Ruhl, Tim Carroll) 14:24; 2. Upper Township, 14:34; 3. Wildwood, 16:28.

DOUBLES ROW

1. Wildwood (Ed Schneider-Ryan Meyer) 12:15; 2. Wildwood (Steve McGuinn-Mike McConnell) 12:19; 3. Upper Township (Mike Manning-John O'Neil) 12:20.

SWIM

Team scoring

1. Sea Isle City, 7; 2. Upper Township, 16; 3. Wildwood, 22.

Individual finishers

1. Pat Healy, Sea Isle City, 6:30; 2. Jordan Troyan, Sea Isle City, 6:51; 3. Schuylar Rockey, Upper Township, 7:24; 4. Jess Stusnick, Sea Isle City, 7:45; 5. Karl Bonar, Wildwood, 7:54.

HOST RELAY

1. Sea Isle City (Ryan Weathers, Sean Riley, John Temme-Dave Stearne) 12:02; 2. Upper Township, 12:15; 3. Wildwood, 13:14.

SURF DASH

1. Sea Isle City (Joanne Lombard, Pat Hoban, Matt Devlin, Tom Smythe) 2:14; 2. Upper Township, 2:27; 3. Wildwood, 2:54.

 See Race Pictures

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