Avalon defends home beach, repeats as South Jersey lifeguard champions

Posted: August 12th 2025

Gary Nagle (in boat) and David Giulian, both Middle Township High School graduates, helped the Avalon Beach Patrol to victory at the South Jersey Lifeguard Championships by placing second in the doubles row.

By DAVID WEINBERG

For CapeAtlanticLive.com 

AVALON – Dolan Grisbaum wasn’t expecting much at Monday’s South Jersey Lifeguard Championships.

The Avalon swimmer had won the event in 2022, but he didn’t compete last summer while serving a college internship and was considered an underdog behind two-time defending champion Charles Schreiner of Atlantic City and Margate’s Zach Vasser.

“I had no expectations,” Grisbaum said. “Those guys are both great swimmers. I was just going to try my best and hope for the best. I was hoping for third place.”

He succeeded his modest hopes and lowly expectations with an impressive victory.

Grisbaum, a 21-year-old former standout swimmer for Ocean City High School and Boston University, won the race for the second time in four years before a large, boisterous crowd at Avalon’s 35th Street Beach.

“I’m honestly shocked that I won,” he said. “I have no idea how that happened. I didn’t think I was going to win until I won.”

DOLAN GRISBAUM

Grisbaum charged out of the ocean and touched the rope at the finish line in 15 minutes, 34 seconds. Vasser, a Mainland Regional High School graduate who swims for Columbia University, was second in 15:40, followed by Schreiner, from Egg Harbor Township and Boston University, in 15:41.

Grisbaum’s win also helped Avalon earn the team championship for the second straight year and 11th time since 1973.

Avalon scored 12 points. Margate placed second with nine and Longport was third with seven.

Avalon’s depth was the difference. They were the only one of the 15 teams to finish in the top three in all three events.

In addition to Grisbaum, Gary Nagle and David Giulian were second in the doubles row behind Brigantine brothers Joe and Brendan Savell. Avalon’s defending champion singles rower Ryan Finnegan took third this year behind Longport’s Mike McGrath and Margate’s Chris Spiers.

Avalon Beach Patrol Chief Matt Wolf knows a little something about teamwork. As coach of the Middle Township High School wrestling team, he guided the Panthers to the South Jersey Group II team championship this past season, the program’s first-ever title.

“Team championships are just that,” Wolf said. “It’s team first and nobody does teamwork like us.”

Avalon was hosting the event as defending champions for the first time since 2016 and the entire community got behind it through financial and emotional support.

A number of roadside signs greeted competitors and fans as they drove into town. A large crowd lined the beach to watch the races, which were rescheduled from last Friday due to extremely rough surf and rip currents.

Brothers Joe and Brendan Savell of Brigantine opened the races with an impressive win in the doubles row. They finished in 14:42, three seconds ahead of Nagle and Giulian.

It marked Joe Savell’s third straight win in the doubles row. The first two were accomplished with older brother Jack, who did not compete this year. Younger brother Brendan earned his victory.

“I’m so happy to win it with (Brendan),” Joe Savell said. “We’ve been working hard all year and it was great to see it all pay off in the end.”

Joe Savell became the 12th rower to win at least three straight doubles titles in 102 years. Atlantic City’s Harry Yates was the first to accomplish the feat, winning four straight from 1923-26. Margate’s Chuck Gowdy and Chris Graves were the last to do it, earning three in a row in 2018, ’19 and 21. There was no race in 2020. 

The most exciting race of the event came at the end, where McGrath earned a narrow victory over Spiers.

The race was so close that both rowers were initially celebrated as winners. Lifeguards from both patrols rushed into the water, hoisted the boats above their heads and carried McGrath and Spiers to the beach.

McGrath won in six minutes, 28 seconds, followed by Spiers in 6:29.

“Chris is a great rower and he had a pretty good lead at the (turnaround) flag,” McGrath said. “Then we battled on the swells.  I looked over at him as I was crossing and I thought I won it.”

The win was McGrath’s third South Jersey title, following victories in 2016 and 2019, respectively, and allowed him to join some exclusive company.

The 39-year-old (he turns 40 next month) became just the sixth singles rower to win at least three South Jersey titles since the event was added to the races in 1973, joining four-time champions David Funk of Ventnor and Ashton Funk of Margate, and three-time winners Ted Evans of Ocean City, Tim Fetter of Brigantine and Andrew Funk of Ventnor.

Ironically, McGrath’s first South Jersey title came on the same beach as his first. In 2016, he won the event at Avalon while helping Longport earn the first of its sixth consecutive team titles.

“That one was really special,” McGrath said. “Up until that point, Longport had never won a South Jersey Championship in any event.”

In addition to winning the singles, McGrath also teamed with longtime rowing partner Sean Duffy to take fourth in the doubles row.

McGrath and Duffy, 42, have been competing for over 20 years.

“I think Sean and I proved that we still belong, even though we’re obviously the old guys out here,” McGrath said. “At our age, it’s all grit at this point.”