Several standout local lifeguards and junior lifeguards represented the 805 at the United States Lifeguard Championships last week in South Padre Island, Texas.
Charlie Black (Santa Barbara City), Leighton Bell (SB County), Noah Warkentin (Santa Barbara City), Roman Higgins (Cal State Ventura), Wyatt Warkentin (Santa Barbara City) and Skyler Carroll (Santa Barbara City) raced in several events in both the Junior and Open Divisions.
The four-day event in 100-degree weather featured hundreds of competitors from around the country, and the locals emerged with hardware.
In the B Division of athletes ages 12-13, Wyatt Warkentin placed first in the rescue race relay, the surf team relay and the paddle relay.
Meanwhile, he came home with second in the distance swim, the run-swim-run race and the beach flags race. He came in third in the board race relay.
Also in that division, Carroll took first place in the rescue race and the surf team relay. Carroll was also third in both the distance swim and run-swim-run race and second in the paddle board relay.
In the A Division for ages 14-17, Noah Warkentin earned a trio of first-place finishes in the distance swim race, the rescue relay race and the surf team relay race. In the run-swim-run race, he placed second.
Black, in the U19 Division, turned in a strong showing with fourth-place finishes in the surf ski race, the beach flags race and the 90-meter beach sprint.
Higgins had a great week, placing first in the U19 Division in the board paddle race, the surf ski race and the beach flags race. In that division, Higgins also was second in the board rescue relay race.
Meanwhile, Higgins competed in the open division and earned fourth in the board paddle race and ninth in the surf ski race.
Luc Doering (East Beach) and Higgins were selected to represent the United States in the Lifesaving World Championships in Australia from August 29 through September 1.
For full results and more on the United States Lifesaving Association, visit https://www.usla.org/.
