Cape May lifeguards sweep final three events to win 2026 title in Wildwood
WILDWOOD — Michael Fitzpatrick picked the right time to finish first.
The singles rower steered his boat on a wave to the finish to clinch the 2026 Dutch Hoffman Memorial Lifeguard Championship for his Cape May Beach Patrol team.
The CMBP had picked up points in the doubles row and men’s one-mile run earlier in the eight-event competition, then swept the final three events of the night to win the championship July 31 in Wildwood. It was a hot, sunny Friday evening, but a breeze kept things cool.
Fitzpatrick bested the field of 15 crews from all the beach patrols in Cape May and Atlantic counties, edging second-place Ben Swan of the Cape May Point Beach Patrol by one second.
“I’ve only come in second or third; I’ve never won a race, so that was a good one to win,” an exuberant Fitzpatrick said after celebrating the championship with his teammates on the Schellenger Avenue beach.
“The win for the team is really what matters,” he said.
The Dutch Hoffman Memorial Lifeguard Championship is considered one of the “big three” lifeguard races of the summer. The others are the Margate World War II Memorials coming up this Friday and then the South Jersey Lifeguard Championship Friday, Aug. 14, in Avalon. The championship is held on the home surf of the previous year’s winner.
“That was the best win of all time,” Fitzpatrick said. “I’ve never won a race before. … I’m just thankful for how good of a team we brought today.” Fitzpatrick thanked his dad, the CMBP officers and his teammates, including rowing partner Andrew Treffeisen.
“A.C. and the Point were really giving me a run for my money,” he said. “I didn’t think I was going to catch that wave. It’s a tremendous adrenaline rush I have going right now … I’m just so elated.”
Fitzpatrick and Treffeisen teamed up in the doubles row to kick off the night on the Wildwood beach, placing third in the event to get the CMBP on the scoreboard.
Cape May’s Gavin Mogck raced to a third-place finish in the men’s one-mile beach run for another three points and then Cape May lifeguards Clay Stephens and Madelyn Cassidy won the men’s rescue board and women’s swim. With Fitzpatrick’s victory in the singles row, the CMBP totaled 21 points to take the championship.
The Upper Township Beach Patrol was second with 14 points, Brigantine third with 13, Atlantic City fourth with 12, Margate fifth with 10 and Ocean City sixth with 10.
Atlantic City’s Nick Guidara and Vince Granese won the doubles row and Upper Township’s Chase Brown and Ryan Manning came in second.
Upper Township picked up two more points when Gemma Kohles placed fourth in the women’s rescue board race. Brigantine’s Grace Emig won, Ocean City’s Brynn Gallagher was second and Lauren Crouthamel, a Lower Cape May Regional High School swimmer, was third for the Wildwood Crest Beach Patrol.
“It was really fun,” Emig said of the rescue board event. “I love racing with Brynn. She had an awesome start and got out ahead of me. She had me for a while and then I got her at the end.
“It’s so fun to race with the girls who are just as fast and want to really do well. It makes it more fun for me,” she added. “I’m much older than them and it makes me want to go faster. They really push me to do better.”
Charles Schreiner of the Atlantic City Beach Patrol won the men’s swim; Upper Township’s Logan Manning came in second.
Hometown’s Noah Deckert of the Wildwood Beach Patrol elicited huge cheers from the spectators when he won the one-mile men’s beach run with Brigantine’s Matt Hoffman, a former standout runner for Ocean City High School, taking second ahead of Mogck.
Mainland Regional grad Sofia Day, a Margate City Beach Patrol lifeguard, got to relive a bit of her high school days when she won the women’s one-mile beach run about seven seconds ahead of a former competitor Chloe Care, an Ocean City High School grad, who came in second. Care and Day were standout runners in high school. Sea Isle City’s Grace Burns was third.
Day, a rising sophomore at the University of Charleston, where she runs track and cross country, said she enjoyed the beach race.
“It’s always my favorite racing on the beach and getting to see all the girls, especially because we haven’t raced each other since last year in high school,” Day said. “Being able to see everyone again is really nice.”
She added that running on the beach after running on the track and cross-country courses is a big change, “but it makes the sport more fun.”
The CMBP’s Stephens, who won the paddle at the Cape May County Lifeguard Championship in Wildwood Crest earlier in July, got a lead on the pack in the men’s rescue board race and won it with an 11-second lead over Upper Township’s James Carr. Mitchell Zappone of Margate was third.
Cassidy won the women’s swim by the same margin, coming out of the water 11 seconds ahead of Longport’s Jordyn Ricciotti. Delaney Burns of Sea Isle City was third and Ocean City’s Rhylee Cornell was fourth.
“It was a great race,” Cassidy said. “It was a little bit shorter than the one last week, so I think that one kind of prepared me for this one. I felt pretty confident coming in.”
The 18-year-old Kingsway Regional High School grad, who will be swimming for Rutgers University, said she’s “not really big” on ocean racing strategies.
“I just try to give it all I have and try and maintain that the whole time,” Cassidy said. “I know a bunch of the girls here, so being able to race with them and getting to compete with them is a big honor.”
She called the CMBP’s championship “super, super exciting. I haven’t been part of a race team when we’ve won a title. It’s super, super exciting that I get to contribute to that.”
2026 Dutch Hoffman Memorial Lifeguard Championship
Team scores: 1. Cape May 21; 2. Upper Township, 14; 3. Brigantine, 13; 4. Atlantic City, 12; 5. Margate, 10; 6. Ocean City, 10
Doubles row: 1. Nick Guidara-Vince Granese, Atlantic City 15:15; 2. Chase Brown-Ryan Manning, Upper Township 15:21; 3. Andrew Treffeisen-Mike Fitzpatrick, Cape May 15:22; 4. Bobby Bechtel-Hayden Smallwood, Margate 15:26; 5. Mike McGrath-Sean Duffey, Longport 15:27.
Women’s rescue board: 1. Grace Emig, Brigantine 5:59; 2. Brynn Gallagher, Ocean City 6:01; 3. Lauren Crouthamel, Wildwood Crest 6:20; 4. Gemma Kohles, Upper Township 6:22; 5. Kylie Fry, Sea Isle City 6:36.
Men’s swim: 1. Charles Schreiner, Atlantic City 7:35; 2. Logan Manning, Upper Township 7:39; 3. Tim Hanway, Avalon 8:00; 4. Myatt Sahl, Brigantine 8:02; 5. Jonah Alvarez, Stone Harbor 8:23.
Men’s 1-Mile beach run: 1. Noah Deckert, Wildwood 4:36; 2. Matt Hoffman, Brigantine 4:37; 3. Gavin Mogck, Cape May 4:39; 4. Ben Andrus, Avalon 4:40; 5. Anthony Gargani, Wildwood Crest 4:41.
Women’s 1-Mile beach run: 1. Sofia Day, Margate 5:33; 2. Chloe Care, Ocean City 5:40; 3. Grace Burns, Sea Isle City 5:46; 4. Olivia Orton, Stone Harbor 5:49; 5. Sophia Bostwick, North Wildwood 5:59.
Men’s rescue board: 1. Clay Stephens, Cape May 5:38; 2. James Carr, Upper Township 5:49; 3. Mitchell Zappone, Margate 5:51; 4. Luca DeFruscio, North Wildwood 5:52; 5. Sean O’Neill, Brigantine 5:53.
Women’s swim: 1. Madelyn Cassidy, Cape May 8:38; 2. Jordyn Ricciotti, Longport 8:49; 3. Delaney Burns, Sea Isle City 8:53; 4. Rhylee Cornell, Ocean City 9:13; 5. Gia Cowley, Avalon 9:22.
Singles row: 1. Fitzpatrick, Cape May 10:30; 2. Ben Swan, Cape May Point 10:31; 3. McGrath, Longport 10:40; 4. Granese, Atlantic City 10:41; 5. Matt Dolan, Brigantine 10:54.
By DAVID NAHAN/Cape May Star and Wave
