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WILDWOOD - Seven different beach patrols each won a race Monday at the 40th annual Dutch Hoffman Memorial Lifeguard Championships at Lincoln Avenue beach.

That made for a lot of uncertainty at the awards ceremony, which was held on the beach as the sun was setting. The point totals were close, and few people other than than the scoring officials knew who the team champions were until they were announced.

The Sea Isle City Beach Patrol, led by rookie Chelsea Martin's victory in the women's swim, was the overall patrol champion with 16 points combining the men's and women's races. Stone Harbor also had 16 total points, but Sea Isle won with a higher finish in the men's doubles row, the standard tiebreaker of the South Jersey Lifeguard Chiefs Association.

Stone Harbor, with a win in the two-mile beach run, won the men's title with 12 points, edging out Ocean City, which had 11. Brittany Bruder's victory in the women's singles row helped Longport to the women's crown.

Sea Isle patrol captain Renny Steele didn't know until it was announced that his team had won the overall championship.

"Chelsea Martin has been getting better and better," Steele said. "She had a great start and a good course. It was the first time she put it all together. I think it helped us that the points were distributed so evenly between the teams. We thought we were pretty much out of it when both of our singles rowers didn't score. It's ocean racing. Sometimes you don't know who won until they announce it."

Martin achieved her first win against other patrols. The 16-year-old Mainland Regional High School junior won by 20 yards over Brigantine's Kaley Swider.

"This feels awesome," Martin said. "My course was better and my bashes (leaps over the waves) were better. Two people from my patrol taught me how to do the bashes, and it definitely helped."

Sea Isle also got help from Blake Trabuchi-Downey, who finished second to Wildwood Crest's John Maloy in the swim. The Sea Isle doubles crew of Colin Corcoran and Sean Riley took third behind winners Ashton Funk and Chuck Gowdy of Margate.

Maloy, the two-time South Jersey swim champion, pulled away near the surf at the end of the 600-yard box course, and he got up alone and ran to the line to win. Trabuchi-Downey stood up in the surf moments later.

"It was fun," Maloy said. "It's always great racing against these guys. Blake and I were looking into each other's eyes the whole way in. I'm pretty sure we were on the same wave, but I caught the better part of it and it took me five more yards."

Atlantic City's Michelle Elberson and Kara Beres won their third straight women's doubles race.

"It was really good conditions," Elberson, the bow, said. "We started to go sideways but we straightened out. There's one more to go."

Elberson and Beres can complete an undefeated season with a win Aug. 12 at the Cape Atlantic Women's Lifeguard Invitational in Ventnor.

Funk and Gowdy rowed up onto a wave and won by three boat lengths over Ventnor's David Funk and Matt Given.

"That was tough," Ashton Funk, the bow, said. "This was our first win this year, and we needed it. It was a big confidence-booster for the next two races (the Margate Memorials on Friday and the South Jersey Lifeguard Championships on Aug. 14 in Margate)."

Wildwood's Mike Syrnick won the beach run's individual title for the third year in a row. The race had three runners from each team and was scored like cross country. Stone Harbor easily won with a second place by Skip Stiles, a fourth by Dan McDevitt and a fifth by Cody Harper.

Bruder finished a boat length ahead of Stone Harbor's Kelly Bainbridge in the women's singles. Ocean City's Dylan Kosten pulled out a close win in the men's singles.

E-mail Guy Gargan:

ggargan@pressofac.com

-30-

OVERALL PATROL TEAM SCORING

(Scoring in all races was 5-4-3-2-1 for the first five places. Some of the times were unavailable.)

1. Sea Isle City, 16; 2. Stone Harbor 16; 3. Longport, 15.

MEN'S TEAM SCORING

1. Stone Harbor, 12; 2. Ocean City, 11; 3. Sea Isle City, 10.

WOMEN'S TEAM SCORING

1. Longport, 11; 2. Atlantic City, 8; 3. Ventnor, 6 (Sea Isle City also has six points but Ventnor got third place with a higher finish in the women's doubles row).

WOMEN'S QUARTER-MILE DOUBLES ROW

1. Atlantic City (Michelle Elberson-Kara Beres) 5:30; 2. Longport (Paige Funk-Beth Mooney) 5:35; 3. Ventnor (Meghan Holland-Debbie Bateman) 5:36.

MEN'S 600-YARD SWIM

1. John Maloy, Wildwood Crest, 8:39; 2. Blake Trabuchi-Downey, Sea Isle City, 8:57; 3. Tim Hayes, Stone Harbor, 9:05.

WOMEN'S 600-YARD SWIM

1. Chelsea Martin, Sea Isle City; 2. Kaley Swider, Brigantine; 3. Kathryn Moorby, Cape May Point.

MEN'S 1 1/4-MILE DOUBLES ROW

1. Margate (Ashton Funk-Chuck Gowdy); 2. Ventnor (David Funk-Matt Given); 3. Sea Isle City (Colin Corcoran-Sean Riley).

TWO-MILE BEACH RUN

Team results - 1. Stone Harbor, 11; 2. Cape May Point, 29; 3. Sea Isle City, 33.

Individual results - 1. Mike Syrnick, Wildwood, 9:57.6; 2. Skip Stiles, Stone Harbor,: 3. Kevin McDonnell, Wildwood Crest.

WOMEN'S QUARTER-MILE SINGLES ROW

1. Brittany Bruder, Longport; 2. Kelly Bainbridge, Stone Harbor; 3. Kelly Haughey, Atlantic City.

MEN'S QUARTER-MILE SINGLES ROW

1. Dylan Kosten, Ocean City; 2. Darrick Kobierowski, Stone Harbor; 3. Erich Wolf, Avalon.

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