East Hampton Town’s men’s and women’s teams won the Hampton Lifeguard Association’s invitational tournament last Thursday at East Hampton Village’s Main Beach.
It was the tournament’s 36th year, and apparently it was the first time that East Hampton teams had swept the event, which this year drew a record turnout of 24 lifeguard teams from all over the Island.
East Hampton’s women’s A team (Bella Tarbet, Sophia Swanson, Julia Brierley, Ryleigh O’Donnell, Melina Sarlo, Gigi Michaels, Ava Jaklitsch, Julia Schriefer, and Daisy Pitches), with four first-place finishes in the seven lifeguard skills contests, won handily, finishing with 75 points vis-á-vis the runner-up Jones Beach’s 56. The East Hampton Village A team was third, with 54 points. There were 11 teams in the women’s division, 13 in the men’s.
The women’s A team won the distance swim, the rescue board relay, the sprint relay, and beach flags, the finale, which was contested under lights that Drew Smith, head of the village’s guards, and the village administration provided. Steve Brierley, one of those who helped John Ryan Jr., the town guards’ chief, oversee the tourney, said it didn’t end until around 10 p.m.
John Ryan Sr. said the tournament was “the biggest and best we’ve ever had — teams love to come out here.” The East Hampton Town women’s win was all the more impressive, he said, “because they did it with only nine competitors, not 12.”
He added that the village women’s third-place finish was a high-water mark as well.
The competition was heightened even further by the fact that it was a red-flag day. “The rough surf made for really tough water events,” said the elder Ryan, “especially in the landline rescue, the rescue board relay, and the run-swim-run relay.”
East Hampton Town’s men’s A team (Chris Cinque, Thomas Brierley, Brodie Schneider, John Clark, Joey Badilla, Liam Knight, Patrick O’Donnell, Ethan McCormac, Luke Castillo, and Luke Ferraro) prevailed 77 to 74 over the runner-up, Jones Beach, whose team won beach flags. Long Beach placed third with 67 points.
Besides the East Hampton Town and Village A and B teams, other entries vying in the women’s division were Southampton Town, Smith Point, Fire Island, Robert Moses State Park, Jones Beach, the Town of Hempstead, and the East Hampton Village Ocean Rescue Squad Legends.
The men’s competitors, besides the East Hampton Town A team, Jones Beach, and Long Beach, were East Hampton Town B, East Hampton Village A, East Hampton Village B, Southampton Town, Southampton Village, Fire Island, Smith Point, Robert Moses, Town of Hempstead, and the Ocean Rescue Squad Legends.
John Ryan Sr. said it was “the first time that we’ve had two 12-member Legends teams.”
Aside from the women’s run-swim-run relay, East Hampton’s female Legends, captained by Angelika Cruz and Alex King, competed in every event, he said. Tim Treadwell captained the male Legends.
In related events this week, the Hampton Lifeguard Association was to have sent men’s and women’s teams to the Smith Point invitational tournament Monday, and an East Hampton women’s team was to have competed in an all-female tournament at Lido Beach yesterday.
Nippers (6-to-8-year-olds) were to have vied in a tournament at the Albert’s Landing and Atlantic Avenue beaches in Amagansett Monday and Tuesday, and a tournament for those in the town’s junior lifeguard program is to be held Saturday and Sunday from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Atlantic Avenue.
Money is still being raised to help underwrite the H.L.A.’s team that’s entered in the national lifesaving tournament in Virginia Beach from Wednesday through Saturday, Aug. 12.