Friday night, the OCBP competed in the 49th annual Dutch Hoffman Memorial Lifeguard Races, coming in 2nd place overall as a team. This competition is the 1st of the “Big 3” races, which was held in Wildwood with dark overcast skies and rough wind blown waters that caused problems for many of the competitors.
OCBP Maggie Wallace defended her historic win from last year’s swim race with another 1st place finish this year and is again the only female to ever win a race in the “Big 3”. In an exciting and closest of race finishes in recent memory, OCBP Bryan Theiss had come towards the shore with a comfortable lead in the Paddleboard Race, but a powerful wave had knocked him off his board. His experience in paddleboarding allowed him to get back on, but he had lost his lead at this point. Once he reach the beach, however, he sped down the beach and managed to dive across the finish line first and was initially awarded the 1st place stick, but after a judge’s review it was determined that the Wildwood Crest competitor’s legs had actually crossed first and Bryan was then awarded a 2nd place finish.
In the Doubles Row Race, OCBP Sean McCann and Hunter Devine came in ahead of the Wildwood Crest team to allow Ocean City to take 2nd place in the team standing in a tie breaker with WWC. The following are the results:
Doubles Row:
5th – Wildwood
4th – Atlantic City
3rd – Upper Township
2nd – Cape May
1st – Longport
Paddleboard:
5th – Cape May
4th – Longport
3rd – Sea isle City
2nd – Ocean CIty (Bryan Theiss)
1st – Wildwood Crest
Swim:
5th – North Wildwood
4th – Longport
3rd – Atlantic City
2nd – Wildwood Crest
1st – Ocean City (Maggie Wallace)
Beach Run:
5th – Avalon
4th – Stone Harbor
3rd – Sea Isle CIty
2nd – Upper Township
1st – Wildwood
Singles Row:
5th – Atlantic CIty
4th – Brigantine
3rd – Longport
2nd – Cape May Point
1st – Ventnor
Team Standings:
5th – Atlantic City 6 points
4th – Upper Township 7 points
3rd – Wildwood Crest 9 points
2nd – Ocean City 9 points (tie breaker)
1st – Longport 12 points
