Beach Patrol Brings South Jersey Title Back to Ocean City

The Ocean City Beach Patrol won the South Jersey Lifeguard Championship for the first time since 2006 with a pair of second places in the rowing events Friday evening on the Decatur Avenue beach in Margate.

The "Jerseys" will return home to 34th Street next August -- the winner of the event becomes the host of the next year's competition.

OCBP has 33 other South Jersey titles, including 11 straight from 1961 to 1971 and most recently three straight from 2004 to 2006 (a tie with Ventnor).

Dylan Kosten teamed up with veteran Matt Garbutt to take second place to Margate in the doubles row, and Kosten returned to finish second in the singles row.

Ocean City's Brian Pauling took an eighth place in the three-quarter-mile swim.

The competition features three events and the top five finishers in each event score points. Ocean City's two seconds were good for eight points, and defending champion Margate finished second with seven points.

Kosten and Garbutt competed together for the first time this year in Friday's race.

Garbutt said he and Kosten had practiced together only three or four times before the race, but they had the power together to leave all but one boat behind them.

After a brief rest during the swim, Kosten returned to finish second in the singles row. He got a good start, rowed a perfect course to the halfway flag and returned strong.

The team title surprised many OCBP veterans, because it included no first-place finishes, but a post-race celebration (including ribs, live music and the "comedic interludes" of old-timer Mark Rixon) was going strong at Back Bay BBQ on the Longport causeway after the event.