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Queens Lifeguard Team Heads to National Competition in Florida

By Katie Honan | August 3, 2015 4:59pm | Updated on August 4, 2015 8:11am
 Guards Patrick Kilgallen and Thomas O'Neill are on the team of Riis Park lifeguards that's heading to the national championships in Florida.
Guards Patrick Kilgallen and Thomas O'Neill are on the team of Riis Park lifeguards that's heading to the national championships in Florida.
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Courtesy Patrick Kilgallen

NEPONSIT — A group of lifeguards who usually watch the sands at Riis Park will head down to Florida this week for a national championship, where they have a track record dominating the competition as one of the country's smallest, fastest teams. 

Four lifeguards from the U.S National Parks Service at Riis Park — Patrick Kilgallen, Thomas O'Neill, Brian O'Neill and Christian Foti — will compete in the United States Lifesaving Association championships in Daytona Beach, which begins Aug. 6 and runs through the weekend.

The tournament tests running, swimming and other lifesaving skills and draws guards from around the country, including Hawaii, Florida and California. It's been around since the 1960s, an official said.

The Riis Park guards are the only New York City team to compete, and are considered by some to be the "smallest, fastest team in America" for sending only four swimmers, according to Kilgallen, a five-year guard. 

"We only come with four, but we seem to do pretty well," he said.

That's an understatement.

At last year's competition, all four were in the top 25, and Thomas O'Neill had the second-highest number of individual points, behind a guard from Los Angeles County. 

O'Neill, 25, grew up on Long Island but he's protected the Queens beach for eight years. It's a family tradition — his father, Tom, has been the assistant chief at Riis Park for 42 years and his brother Brian will also compete this week in Florida.

Four of the lifeguards stationed at Riis Park will head to Daytona Beach this week to compete in the national championships. (Courtesy Patrick Kilgallen.)

O'Neill, who swam at The Ohio State University and is now a math teacher at Benjamin Cardozo High School in Bayside, said he hopes to beat his record last year and says representing such a small beach brings him pride.

"We want to continue to go down and make a name for ourselves."

After the national championships, he and Kilgallen will compete in Australia for the International Surf Rescue Challenge in Australia on the U.S team.

Kilgallen, 21, grew up in Belle Harbor and is studying to be an engineer at Binghamton University. 

He decided to become a guard Riis Park, which is separate from the Parks Department guards nearby, because they foster a more competitive environment, he said. 

The core four have established themselves nationally within the last few years, surprising many teams that guard year-round at beaches more famous than the "People's Beach" in Queens.

"Certainly with Riis Park they get a lot of bang for their buck," said Tom Gill, a media representative from the USLA who also announces each competitor during the events.

"They all perform very well."

Battling teams like Monmouth County in New Jersey, which includes multiple beaches and dozens of guards, and Los Angeles County, which also sends down more than a handful of competitors, helps keep the team focused, Kilgallen said. 

"We take it as motivation," he said. 

They were relatively unknown a few years ago, but big wins have helped changed that. 

"Everyone knows now that Riis Park is here to play," Kilgallen said.