Vanessa Rizzo, 14, and Matteo Somma, 17, won races here over the weekend. Somma, who lives in Malverne, topped a field of 443 in the Montauk Lighthouse sprint triathlon Sunday morning, and Rizzo of Sagaponack won the Hampton Lifeguard Association’s Run-Swim-Run at Amagansett’s Atlantic Avenue Beach on Friday evening.
A member of the Long Island Youth Triathlon Team that trains at the Nassau Aquatic Center, Tobay Beach, and Stony Brook University, Somma won 2022’s I-Tri youth triathlon. This year Rizzo won that race, contested on July 14 at Noyac’s Long Beach. Liam Knight, a 16-year-old East Hampton Town lifeguard, who recently was named to the United States Lifesaving Association’s world team, topped I-Tri’s field last year.
Vanessa and her sisters, Evelyn, 10, and Heidi, 12, were in I-Tri’s top-5 on the 14th. Similarly, the younger Rizzos did well in the Run-Swim-Run, Heidi placing third in the main event, which comprised a half-mile run, a half-mile swim against the sweep, and a half-mile run, and Evelyn winning the quarter-mile run-swim-run competition.
Vanessa Rizzo, a Pierson student, was a member of East Hampton High’s girls swimming team last fall as an eighth grader. Swimming and long-distance running were her strengths, she said, when questioned after crossing the finish line, though her father, Nick, who goes on early morning 43-mile rides with the Sag Harbor Cycle Club, stands ready to coach her in that sport.
“They take after their mother [Kate] when it comes to their athletic ability,” he said, adding that “they’re all junior lifeguards and Hurricanes, and they’ve got great coaches . . . Sean Knight, Tom Cohill, Angelika Cruz, Eugene DiPasquale . . . everyone. We’re fortunate.”
Sean Knight said that he and his son, Liam, are lifeguarding together at Atlantic Avenue Beach this summer as his son prepared to compete on the U.S. Lifesaving Association’s world team in Australia at the end of August, “Liam has a heavy schedule,” the elder Knight said in an email. “He swims at 6 a.m. with the Hurricanes, runs with his cross-country teammates, does sprint workouts with me on the high school’s track, and works on beach rescues with me, all before we go to work.”
Asked what his son’s competitive strengths were, Liam’s father said, “Swimming and paddling. He’ll also be asked to sprint and compete in beach flags for the world team — he won the beach flags event at the Jones Beach tournament this week.”
Set to enter his junior year at East Hampton High, Liam takes his place in a lengthening line of Hampton Lifeguard Association world team competitors, a list that includes Chasen Dubs, Ryan Paroz, Val Ferraro, Bella
Tarbet, Sophia Swanson, Isabella Swanson, and Amanda Calabrese — who has competed for U.S. Lifesaving teams in Japan (twice), New Zealand, Australia, the Netherlands, Italy, South Africa, and France.
John Ryan Jr., chief of East Hampton Town’s lifeguards, said during a fund-raising party Saturday evening at the Amagansett Life-Saving and Coast Guard Station that Liam’s waterborne and running performances at last year’s national senior and junior lifeguard competitions in Virginia Beach, had impressed the U.S. team’s coaches.
“He’s a step-up kid,” Ryan said of Liam. “He’ll do anything to help. I’m not surprised that he was picked. He’s got great character and works well with others — he’s an amazing team player.”
Regarding the Run-Swim-Run, Ryan said that Tom McGlade, who is 60 years old, had been the runner-up to Vanessa Rizzo, and that Luke Tarbet and Anthony Petershon, with Tarbet doing the swim, and with Petershon doing the runs, were the relay winners.
Liam Knight, who was working at Saturday’s party, said that his lifeguard training began as a 6-year-old with Haley Ryan’s Nippers program. He has made three saves thus far this summer, he said, a persistently strong rip current at Atlantic being the cause. “One day,” he added, “we had 16 saves.”
Lifeguards here are to compete against teams from across the Island in the 36th annual Main Beach Lifeguard Tournament tonight at 5.
Back to the Montauk Lighthouse sprint triathlon, Somma was the winner in one hour and 32 seconds. Matthew Raske, 42, last year’s winner, was the runner-up, in 1:07:10. The course comprised a half-mile swim at Gin Beach, a 14-mile bike leg, and a 5K run on the trails near the Lighthouse. Somma’s splits were 10:11 for the swim, 31:22 for the bike, and 17:47 for the 5K.
Kira Garry, 31, was the women’s winner — and 16th over all — in 1:13:28. (Her sister, Katrina, was the women’s winner last year.)
Other finishers from here in the top 50 included Neil Falkenhan, 41, who was eighth in 1:09:26; Thomas Brierley, 28, who was 12th in 1:10:45; Edmar Gonzalez-Nateras, 17, who was 29th in 1:16:21; Paige Duca, 27, who was 30th in 1:16:23; Alyssa Bahel, 27, who was 32nd in 1:16:49; Robert Reich, 40, who was 33rd in 1:16:51; Mike Bahel, 58, who was 35th in 1:17:16, and Ryan Struble, 42, who was 53rd in 1:19:46.
Tom McGlade, 60, was 69th in 1:22:32; Shawn Eckardt, 44, was 84th in 1:24:26; Craig Brierley, 59, was 105th in 1:26:38; Jason Libath, 42, was 106th in 1:26:38; Lucy Kohloff, 27, was 112th in 1:27:22; Mike Bottini, 70, was 128th in 1:28:35; Bob Bottini, 67, was 149th in 1:30:16; Leonardo Carmo, 15, was 150th in 1:30:16, and Sharon McCobb, 61, was 154th in 1:30:30.
