By LESLEY GRAHAM
The Ocean City Beach Patrol finished the 2019 summer racing series on Friday evening with a third place finish at the Goudy Memorial Rescue Races. Ventnor City Beach Patrol won the team title. Ocean City tied for second place with Atlantic City, but due to a higher finish in the doubles race, Atlantic City took second overall, with Ocean City third.
The 53rd John T. Goudy Memorial Rescue Races are hosted by Ventnor Beach Patrol at the end of every summer and are the last team event in the competitive racing season for South Jersey. The Goudy races consist of four events in swimming and rowing.
Ventnor won both the doubles and singles row events. Wildwood Crest won the combination rescue.
Competing for Ocean City were brothers Shanin and Bryan Theiss in the doubles pick-up, Frankie Brady in the swim event, Kevin Perry in the singles row and Paul Boardman alongside father-son duo Matt and Liam Garbutt in the combo swim-row event.
The Theiss brothers started off the evening with the doubles rescue race, placing fourth overall.
“We had a solid start but struggled to find our rhythm on the course. But I love this style of event. The simulated rescue is exciting to do and for fans to watch,” said Bryan Theiss post-race.
In the second event of the evening, Frankie Brady of Ocean City won the swim. Competitors had to swim out to their respective flag, unhook the 50-pound bag, tether it to themselves and swim it into shore.
Brady, who did the same event last year, learned a thing or two to help propel him to victory – his first this racing season.
“It’s about time,” a smiling Brady said post-race. “At Jersey’s (South Jersey lifeguard championships) I was picking my head up too often, so tonight I told myself just to swim my race and it worked.”
The combination rescue was the third event with a swimmer heading out to the flag, dipping the flag to signal the doubles crew to row out to the swimmer, grab the 50-poumd bag from them and row it to shore.
Liam Garbutt, whose father, Matt Garbutt, has rowed with Paul Boardman all summer for the Ocean City doubles team, led off in the swim portion. The doubles crew of Boardman and Matt Garbutt finished the combination rescue by grabbing the bag from Liam Garbutt, rowing it to shore and then running it up the beach.
The final event of the evening was the singles rescue row. Ventnor’s David Funk won the event, sealing the victory for Ventnor in the team title, but Ocean City’s Kevin Perry had a solid row. Perry finished out of the top five but overall had a great season rowing for Ocean City.
The Ocean City Beach Patrol had a solid 2019 racing season and looks forward to more success in summer of 2020.
Results:
Doubles Row:
1st – Ventnor
2nd – Atlantic City
3rd – Upper Township
4th – Ocean City (Bryan and Shanin Theiss)
5th – Harvey Cedars
Swim:
1st – Ocean City (Frank Brady)
2nd – Lavallette
3rd – Brigantine
4th – Cape May
5th – Wildwood Crest
Swim-Doubles Row:
1st – Wildwood Crest
2nd – Harvey Cedars
3rd – Ventnor
4th – Brigantine
5th – Cape May
Singles Row:
1st – Ventnor
2nd – Longport
3rd – Atlantic City
4th – Cape May
5th – Margate
Overall Team:
1st – Ventnor (13 points)
2nd – Atlantic City (7 points – tiebreaker)
3rd – Ocean City (7 points)
4th – Wildwood Crest (6 points)
5th – Harvey Cedars (5 points)
