Shore Beach Service’s 21st annual Lifeguard Competition got underway on June 15th at Hilton Head Island’s Coligny Beach Park. Each summer the Beach Patrol supervisors, who act as the team captains, draft teams that are made up of the entire staff. The competition rewards teamwork along with recognizing individual excellence. Every lifeguard in the competition receives team points in correlation to the place that the lifeguard finishes the event. A top-five finish earns that lifeguard individual points that are tallied to crown the overall women’s and men’s champion. The individual points are also used to create a regional competition team. The competition is scheduled as a three-night affair. In each event, the women and men compete separately.

Returning as captains were Scott Ohlson with his Public Beach Rebels, David Murphy leading the Palmetto Gunes, Taylor Smith's Tay Watch, Zac Laffin and his Palmetto Bay Pirates, Luke McGowan commanding the Dread Nauticals and finally sophomore captain  Julie Trodden, bringing the Tropic Thunder. 

The competition commenced with the 400 meter Surf Swim.    Eleonora Unanova, (Tay Watch/HendersonState) snagged 1^st, followed by Maisey Kent (Palmetto Bay Pirates/Delta State),  Kayla Aitken (Tropic Thunder/Evansville),  Leah Dupre (Dread Nauticals) and Liz Madison (Public Beach Rebels/Ball State), .  The men's Surf Swim saw  Gabriel Mirada (Palmetto Gunes/Delta State) taking the top spot, cruising to victory.  Arsham Mirzaei (Dread Nauticals/Lees-McRae) was 2^nd, followed by Kevin Lotzer (Pirates/ Wisconsin-LaCrosse), and Parker Whitley (Tay Watch) and Bogdan Pchynok(Palmetto Gunesr/HendersonState) in 5th.

The 2K Beach Run followed, and Laine McIntyre (Tay Watch) outpaced Maddy Yemc (Pirates), who finished 2^nd.  Leah Dupre finished 3^rd, followed by Kayla Aitken and Eleanora Unanova in 5^th.  Parker Whitley (Tay Watch) sped to victory on the men's side, outlasting, Kevin Lotzer.  Last year's winner Tian Siggins (Pirates) was 3^rd, while Bryan Koenig (Thunder)  finished 4^th and Mitchell Prather took 5^th.  

Night two of competiton started with the Run-Swim-Run, which consists of a 200 meter run along the edge of the water, followed by a swim of 300 meters before coming ashore to run the final 200 meters. On the women’s side, Eleonora Unanova snagged 1^st and Kayla Aitken moved up a spot from the Surf Swim taking 2^nd.  Liz Madison was 3rd, out legging 4th place finisher Leah Dupre in the final run.  Maisey Kent was 5th.  In the men's event, it was Gabriel Miranda again taking 1^st handily, followed by Kevin Lotzer, Arsham Mirzaei, Parker Whitley and Mitchell Prather (Thunder/Ball State). 

Next up was the 100 Meter Dash.   In the women's race, Hunter Dye (Dread Nauticals/USCB) sped past teammate Leah Dupre for the win. Dupre was 2nd, followed by Laine McIntyre (Tay Watch), Kayla Aitken, and Hallie Glavinos (Tropic Thunder).    Aaron Johnston (Dread Nauticals) was 1st across the finish line for the men.  Zach Toman (Tropic Thunder) took 2nd, followed by Ben Ellis(Pirates), Zach Toman (Rebels/Ball State) and Aaron Johnston (Nauticals). The captains then plucked their four best ladies and four best men  for the 4x100 Relay. The Tay Watch team of Rebecca Gerner, Cassidy Langley, Christieanna Apon and Jessica Scott cruised to victory, while  Palmetto Bay Pirates team of Bradley Wilson, Ben Ellis, Jake Dummermuth and Tim Wright were the mens winners.

The grand finale of the lifeguard competition is the biggest crowd pleaser -Beach Flags.  The event is held in an area  that is 10 yards wide by 25 yards long. The lifeguards start lying prone in the sand with their feet facing the flags. The flags are actually cut pieces of a garden hose each about a foot long. When the whistle blows the guards erupt from their position and race across the sand to grab a flag. There is always one less flag than there are competitors, so one guard is eliminated at the end of each round. Through the process of elimination you get down to the most exciting few seconds of the entire competition. Two lifeguards, one flag. 

 Leah Dupre bested the HunterDye for the women's Beach Flags title, as Dye had a false start going for the last flag. Kayla Aitken took 3rd, Laine McIntyre was 4th and Hallie Glavinos snagged 5th.  Jake Dummermuth came back from a torn ACL in the offseason  and defended his 2016 & 2017 titles, edging out Aaron Johnston.  Gabriel Miranda was 3rd, followed by Parker Whitley and Dodge Pruitt (Palmetto Gunes and Tyler Crispen took  took the next two spots, while Elisha Brooks (Nauticals) finished 5^th.   

With her 1st place finish in the Beach Flags,  2nd in the 100 Meter Dash, 3rd in the 2K Run, and 4th in both swim events, Leah Dupre took the Women's Overall Championship.   Gabriel Miranda's 1st place finishes both swims, 3rd in Beach Flags and 4th in the 100 Meter Dash earned him the Men’s Overall Champion title. 

When team points were tallied, Dread Nauticals' strong performance accross every event gave captain Luke McGowan his first team championship. Laffin's Palmetto Pay Pirates were runnners up again for the third straight year,  edging out the Rebels. Tropic Thunder finished 4^th, followed by Tay Watch in 5^th and  Palmetto Goons in last.