The Hampton Lifeguard Association’s entry in the national lifesaving tournament at Virginia Beach wound up with the locals, from East Hampton and Southampton beaches, finishing ninth among the 26 teams. The four-day contest for senior and junior guards from both coasts ended Saturday.
Meanwhile, also on Saturday, a 3-on-3 basketball tournament held at the Sportime Arena in Amagansett drew 18 teams, including a teenage one from Rumson, N.J., which won the 18-plus division, and a team of East Hampton Sport Camp at Sportime counselors, Team LED, which won the 14-to-17 bracket. The free-throw contest was won by Cameron Gurney, who sank 39 of his 50 attempts, and thus won a free slice of pizza every day of the year at Fini Pizza in Amagansett.
Asked if Gurney, a division singles champion when he played tennis for East Hampton High School, were living out here year round, Mark Crandall, one of the organizers, said that given the prize he won, “he may be thinking of it.”
The 3-on-3 tourney was the first event in a Hoops 4 Hope doubleheader, the second being a fund-raising party at the Sagaponack Farm Distillery on Sunday that Crandall said drew about 120 attendees.
Hoops 4 Hope works with children in numerous communities in Zimbabwe and South Africa, and here as well. It champions the spirit of Ubuntu (“I am because we are”), which was palpable at the party, one example being the donated food from a number of businesses here, including Estia’s Little Kitchen, Harbor Market, Sag Harbor Kitchen, the Honest Food Group, Provisions, Amber Waves, and Balsam Farms.
The basketball tournament wasn’t the only athletic event Saturday: Stand-up paddleboarders and kayakers left Montauk Point at dawn that day in the direction of Block Island, 18 miles distant. At least $150,000 was reportedly raised for the beneficiary, Paddlers for Humanity, through the Block Island Challenge.
Lars Svanberg, in a Facebook post Monday, thanked “all the generous supporters for keeping this tradition alive, and to all the support boats, donors, and my fellow paddlers for all the laughs while sharing this somewhat grueling endeavor.”
Apparently there wasn’t a shark sighting this year, but there was one of a submarine that had surfaced.
As for the national lifeguard tournament — the H.L.A. finished third in 2021, its highest finish ever, and fifth last year — John Ryan Jr., chief of the town guards, said Sunday night that the open competitions, which in some cases rapidly segued from heats to semifinals to finals, were extremely tough, taxing the South Fork’s younger entrants.
“Because we have so few open guards, our U-19s really had a tough schedule,” said Angelika Cruz. Among those younger guards who went willingly into open events, she said, were Brodie Schneider, Melina Sarlo, Ryleigh O’Donnell, Luke Castillo, Emma Hren, Tenzin Tamang, Curran O’Donnell, Patrick O’Donnell, and Ava Castillo in particular. “They gave it their all knowing the odds were stacked against them.”
“A few of our open guards did the same, and went into almost every event,” she continued. “Bella Tarbet was outstanding, as was Sophia Swanson, who gave 100 percent and missed the finals in one of the events by one place. Two other open women who stood out were Paige Schaefer and Julia Brierley. They competed in two of the more difficult events, the surf boat and surf ski, without hesitation and with smiles on their faces.”
“There were so many heats, semifinals, and finals run right after each other,” Ryan said. “Some of our kids were doing six to seven events in a day . . . it was like a mosh pit. . . . Four of our rescue race teams just missed the semis — they were exhausted. Just getting to a final was a struggle.”
“Some of these teams, Los Angeles County and Cal State, offer year-round employment and training, for instance. They’re not picking kids out of high school — they’ve got D-1 swimmers. Monmouth is going to competitions every week, sometimes twice a week.”
Nevertheless, he added, “When it comes to these competitions, it’s not so much the winning that matters for us, but what we can learn so that we can become better lifeguards.”
As for results, Schneider was eighth in the open men’s 2K beach run; Thomas Brierley, Ethan McCormac, Patrick O’Donnell, and Vincent Mullen were fifth among 16 teams in the open men’s landline rescue race; the open men’s 4-by-100 relay team of Colin Schaefer, McCormac, Jack Duryea, and Luke Castillo was ninth among 17 finalists; Cruz won the 50-54 women’s surf race and the 2K beach run; Mike Bahel won the men’s 55-59 2K beach run; John Ryan and T.J. Calabrese were second in the men’s 55-59 surf boat race; Ryan was third in men’s 55-59 beach flags, and Barry Moore won the men’s 60-64 beach flags.
Scores were not kept in junior lifeguard events, though if they had been, the H.L.A. team would have been up there with their Monmouth, N.J., counterparts. Monmouth’s open competitors won the tournament, with Sussex County, Del., second, Los Angeles County, which has dominated national competitions since they began being held in 1970, third, Jones Beach fourth, and California State fifth.
In U-19 events, Schneider won the male distance run and was fourth in beach flags; Dylan Cashin was second in the female distance run, with O’Donnell third, and Patrick O’Donnell, Nathan Blunt, Dan Rossano, and Curran O’Donnell were third in the male rescue race.
In A (14-to-15-year-old) division events, Evan Schaefer was second and Liam Knight third in male beach flags; Knight was second in the male distance run, and, with Miles Menu and Nick Chavez, won the boys surf team competition, and Daisy Pitches was second in female beach flags, third in the female board race, third in the female run-swim-run, and, with Lylah Metz and Elizabeth Daniels, second in the female surf team competition.
Those doing well for the H.L.A. in the B (12-to-13) group were Bridget Lockwood, who won the female distance swim, was second in female Ironguard, and, with Lucy Knight and Molly Grande, third in the female surf team event; Austin Schneider, second in the male distance run, and Cybelle Curry, who was third in female Ironguard.
In the C (9-to-11) group, Callie Amicucci won female beach flags; Oliver Early won the male distance run; Heidi Rizzo won female Ironguard, was second in the female run-swim-run, was third in in the distance run, and, with Sierra Metz and Evelyn Rizzo, was third in the surf team competition, and Mason Curry was second in the male distance swim and run-swim-run, was third in junior Ironguard, and, with Jackson Bahel and Ryder Bahi, was third in the male surf team race.
