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Hundreds of lifeguards compete in regional championships

Rehoboth hosts teams from Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, New York and Virginia
The beach flags competition is fierce. Body bumping is encouraged. That’s how Dewey Beach Patrol’s Eid Nouhra, despite being behind as they lunge, was able to beat out North Bethany’s Alex Urquhart in this heat during the USLA’s Mid-Atlantic Regional Championships. CHRIS FLOOD PHOTOS
Chris Flood
July 14, 2022

Story Location:
The Boardwalk
Baltimore Avenue
Rehoboth Beach, DE 19971
United States

Rehoboth Beach once again hosted the United States Lifesaving Association’s Mid-Atlantic Regional Championships. The day-long competition July 13 brought more than 300 lifeguards from Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, New York and Virginia. Men and women competed in a number of swimming and running events on what turned out to be a perfect beach day.

There was a slight delay in the middle of the competition because the water-bound flags for the landline competition floated off course due to the strong southern current. In the end, things worked out just fine, and competitors showed off why they can handle running and swimming in the unforgiving ocean waters and soft sand.

A full listing of competition results can be found at usla.org.

 

The after photo of the lunge between Nouhra and Urqurhart shows Urquhart’s hands have come up empty.
Rehoboth Beach hosted the USLA’s Mid-Atlantic Regional Championships July 13. Rehoboth Beach Patrol’s Brady Nicol hands the baton to Nicolas Penarandy during the relay.
Dewey Beach Patrol’s Hank D’Ambrogi, center, battles to keep his relay team in the lead in the second leg.
Rehoboth Beach Patrol’s Anna McDermott, left, and Dewey Beach Patrol’s Hadley Rhue power off at the beginning of their relay race.
Henlopen Acres lifeguard Konner Knarr, far right, comes during hot during one of the beach flags heats.
Dewey Beach Patrol lifeguard C.J. Fritchman, lane 5, fires out of the gate for an early lead in the team relay. The DBP team was the reigning relay champ, and retained the title this year.
Dewey Beach Patrol lifeguard Mikey Frederick prepares to receive the baton from Hank D’Ambrogi.
Dewey Beach Patrol lifeguard Josh Turek played a beautiful rendition of the national anthem to start the competition.
Patrol teammates were cheering for each other, but this sign drew a collective cheer from all the competitors.
USLA official Lara Falcon rakes out the sand before the beach flags races start.
Bethany Beach’s Evan Grace runs away from the competition in the men’s 2K.
You can feel the competitors’ feet digging into the sand as they take off.
After winning the men’s relay, Dewey Beach Patrol’s C.J. Fritchman and Mikey Frederick rescued the landline competition by moving the flags back into place with a SeaDoo. The strong water current had picked up the anchored buoys and moved them off course.
As Rehoboth Beach Patrol member Chase Norton’s face shows, the landline competition is not for the faint of heart.
The water looked relatively calm, but the current was strong enough to pull this buoy and these two anchors out of place.
The Rehoboth Beach Patrol team pulls in the water-bound landline flags to try again.
Rehoboth Beach Patrol Chief Derek Shockro straightens lines in between relay races.
A couple of teams finish the landline competition while others sprint back down to pull in more line.
Henlopen Acres lifeguard Jorge Lagunes fires off the sand during a beach flags heat.
Ocean City lifeguard Haley Wright wins the women’s 2K race.
Sometimes the best way to explain the rules is to get on your belly and show the competitors what to do, as USLA official Dan Matta is doing before the beach flags competition.

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Chris Flood has been working for the Cape Gazette since early 2014. He currently covers Rehoboth Beach and Henlopen Acres, but has also covered Dewey Beach and the state government. He covers environmental stories, business stories and random stories on subjects he finds interesting, and he also writes a column called Choppin’ Wood that runs every other week. Additionally, Flood moonlights as the company’s circulation manager, which primarily means fixing boxes that are jammed with coins during daylight hours, but sometimes means delivering papers in the middle of the night. He’s a graduate of the University of Maine and the Landing School of Boat Building & Design.

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