When the best of the west traveled to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, for the three-day National Lifeguard Championships last week, nine of the 12 L.A. County junior guards who made the trip were from Will Rogers State Beach–a testament to their dedication and quality of Palisades–program. In addition to learning water safety, junior guards have the chance to compete locally, regionally, and nationally according to their age group in both land and water events as individuals and teams. The AA division (ages 16-17) was dominated by 2008 Southwest Region Junior Guard of the Year Ben Lewenstein, a senior at New Roads School in Santa Monica, two-year cadet and seven-year veteran of the Junior Lifeguards program. Lewenstein won the Iron Guard (an individual event consisting of a Run-Swim-Run-Paddle-Run) for the second time and added victories in the Paddleboard Race and the Rescue Race (a simulated rescue event requiring a “victim” and a “rescuer” in which victims swim out to a flag and rescuers swim out to the victim and bring them to shore with fins and lifesaving can). He also took second place in the Swim Relay (with Will Rogers teammates Isabel Casso, Lila Lewenstein, Olivia Kirkpatrick and Tracy Vallasso, an AA cadet from Torrance) and third in the Swim Race and Run-Swim-Run competitions. Casso, an 11th-grader at Marlborough, was first in the AA division?s Rescue Race (she was the “victim” and Ben Lewenstein was the “rescuer”) and Run-Swim-Run, second in the Swim Relay and third in both the Iron Guard and Swim Race. In the A division (ages 14-15), Lila Lewenstein was second in the Swim Relay, seventh in the Iron Guard and Rescue Race (she was the “victim” and Kirkpatrick was the “rescuer”), eighth in the Swim Race and 10th in the Paddleboard Race. Now in her sixth year in the program, she is an incoming freshman at Palisades High. A former Palisadian who now lives in Texas, Kirkpatrick returns to Will Rogers every summer to train in the Will Rogers program. The high school sophomore was second in the Swim Relay and Swim Race, fourth in Iron Guard, fifth in Run-Swim-Run and seventh in the Rescue Race. In the B division (ages 12-13), Tristan Marsh stole the show for Will Rogers. The 13-year-old Paul Revere student was first in the Iron Guard, the Paddleboard Race, the Run-Swim-Run and the Rescue Relay (“saving” fellow B guard Meriel Mitsakos of Venice Beach). Marsh also captured second place in the Swim Race. Marsh and Mitsakos both swim at the club level for Team Santa Monica. Tiana Marsh, a B guard from Will Rogers who will be a seventh-grader at Revere this fall, was injured and only able to compete in the Swim Relay, which took sixth place. Traveling with the juniors was AA/A instructor and Will Rogers competitor Eldin Onsgard, who generously gave his time to coach and encourage his young trainees. The L.A. County team also consisted of two C guards (ages 9-11) from other Southland beaches. Approximately 1,500 professional lifeguards and junior lifeguards competed, representing nine regions: New York, New Jersey, Illinois, Florida, Hawaii, Delaware, Massachusetts, North/South Carolina and California, which had three counties represented.
This page is available to subscribers. Click here to sign in or get access.
