Calabrese Wins Sixth National Beach Flags Championship As Hamptons Lifeguards Finish Fifth in California

Amanda Calabrese grew up chasing beach flags in the sand from East Hampton to Montauk. She came of age riding a paddleboard, running sprints on the beach and swimming in the Atlantic Ocean, which, like so many from the Hampton Lifeguard Association, became a home away from home.

Now Calabrese is a six-time national champion in beach flags, lifeguarding’s most exciting event, and while she now calls California home, her allegiance remains with HLA.

“I grew up with everyone from the Hamptons and those are some of my childhood best friends who I only get to see once a year now,” said Calabrese, 24, who after graduating from Stanford University settled nearby in San Francisco. She said this year’s national beach flags competition, held in California over the weekend, was one of the toughest ever.

“It’s a lot of the same faces, but every year there’s a young girl coming up and every year there’s a new stud lifeguard that comes to nationals,” she said. “I always go in nervous. I went in nervous when I was 17 and I go in nervous now. It doesn’t matter how many times you’ve won, how fast you are or how hard you’ve trained. The best part this year was five of the top 16 in the final were girls from HLA.”

And most of those girls, including the four she mentioned — Kiara Williams, Ryleigh O’Donnell, Melina Sarlo and Bella Tarbet — were trained by Calabrese when she worked as an East Hampton Town lifeguard and was an instructor in HLA’s junior lifeguard program.

Last week, lifeguards from both East Hampton and Southampton towns, juniors and professionals, gathered in Hermosa Beach, California, for the United States Lifesaving Association’s National Championships, and the victory by Calabrese was just one of many highlights for HLA.

The junior lifeguard competition, held on Wednesday, August 10, consisted of three divisions — the “A” Division for 14- and 15-year-olds, the “B” Division for 12- and 13-year-olds and the “C” Division for 9- to 11-year-olds. A budding star in beach flags joined Calabrese in also winning a national championship, as Sag Harbor’s Cybelle Curry took home the “B” Division title among girls.

“I was excited to be part of the HLA nationals team for the first time and compete so far away from home,” Curry said upon returning home. “My goal was to bring home a ribbon for the HLA team which would be making the top 10. When I won first place, I was so proud but at the same time surprised that I did it. Seeing the whole USLA competition inspires me to keep working hard so I can be a lifeguard when I get older.”

The Los Angeles County Surf Life Saving Association won the overall competition, finishing with 1,792.125 total points for its 46th title and 33rd in the last 35 years. California State Lifeguard Association finished second and Sussex County, out of Delaware, was third.

HLA was fifth overall, behind Monmouth County, with a total of 355.75 points. The scoring does not include the junior lifeguard tournament, where HLA guards excel every year.

“At the end of the day on Wednesday, when the juniors wrapped up all their events, we do dinner together and discuss all their successes,” said John Ryan Jr., East Hampton Town’s chief lifeguard. “It’s everything they do, kids jumping in on events they wouldn’t normally do and putting in all the hard work. That says something about what these kids are learning. They’re going in there and challenging themselves, and that’s important for us.”

Ryan said the California teams were stacked at every event, and in every age group, and therefore built up huge point totals.

“It’s an amazing trip for these individuals to go and compete,” said Ryan, who counted a total of 82 lifeguards, including juniors, from HLA who made the trip. “This is nationals. This is not a local tournament — you’re competing against the best in the nation.”

Calabrese also finished third alongside Jane Brierley in the open division board rescue, and was on the 4x100 relay team with Tarbet, Sarlo and O’Donnell that finished in third place.

Ryan Paroz scored points for HLA in several open events, including a fourth-place finish in the men’s Ironman, a second in surf ski, a fifth in board rescue, a seventh in the board race and a third as a member of a mixed team in the Taplin relay.

Colin Schaefer, Ethan McCormac, Jack Duryea and Peter Schaefer finished fifth in the men’s 4x100 relay to earn points, with Cameron Burton, Jack O’Sullivan, Luke Ferraro and Owen McCormac finishing 10th in the same event.

Tarbet, Burton, Duryea and Maura Kane-Seitz teamed up for a fifth-place finish in the mixed landline rescue, with O’Donnell, Justin Schafer, Ryan Duryea and Sophia Swanson finishing eighth in the same event.

Mike Bahel won two events, beach flags and the 2,000-meter beach run, among men ages 55 to 59, while Angelika Cruz finished first in the same event for women and won the surf race and the board race among women ages 50 to 54. She also finished second in the run-swim-run.

Ryan, the town’s chief lifeguard, teamed with T.J. Calabrese to finish fourth in the surf boat race among men ages 55 to 59, and Jon Tarbet was fourth in both beach flags and the 2,000-meter run in the 50-to-54 age group. Barry Moore finished second in beach flags among men between 60 and 64.

Kane-Seitz finished ninth in the open American IronWoman and O’Donnell was ninth in the open 2,000-meter run.

Among juniors, Bridget Lockwood also took home a national championship for HLA, winning the “B” Group’s surf swim race.

Other standouts included, in the “A” Division, Liam Knight, Luke Castillo, Rock Hamada, Michael Hren, Anthony Petersohn, Daisy Pitches, Abigail O’Sullivan, Khalila Martin and Lily Griffin.

B Division standouts included Evan Schaefer, Ben O’Sullivan, Tyler Metz, Hudson Goulart, Mia Luna, Allison Farez, Ben Kriegsman, Lylah Metz, Elizabeth Daniels, Lily Early, Ginger Griffin and Lucy Knight.

And in the C Division, standouts were Anya Rana, Oliver Early, Mila Rana, Merritt Bistrian-Emptage, Sierra Metz, Ashlyn O’Donnell, Mason Curry, Molly Grande and Sky Goulart.

Complete results are available online at usla.org.