Bridging the Gap: The Howarths to the South Jerseys
By Celeste E. Whittaker
Molly Quinn was thrilled that she and her twin sister Maura, lifeguards for the Sea Isle City Beach Patrol, won the doubles row championship at the Bill Howarth South Jersey Women’s Lifeguard Championship on Aug. 6 in Ventnor.
That was the first “official” women’s South Jersey championship that has been competed in the South Jersey shore lifeguarding world. Why? At its annual meeting in the spring, the South Jersey Chiefs Association voted to acknowledge the Howarths as the official women’s South Jersey championship.
Molly and Regan McDonnell, both lifeguards for the Avalon Beach Patrol, won the doubles championship in August of 2024 at the Bill Howarth Women’s Lifeguard Invitational (the name was changed this year). While the Avalon Beach Patrol internally has considered that to be the women’s South Jersey championship, it had not been officially recognized as such.
And with the “Quinn Twins” winning the doubles championship this year, that means that in back-to-back years two sets of sisters have won the doubles championships. They have also bridged the gap from what was old to what is now new. The Quinn and McDonnell families have made history by winning a women’s lifeguard championship in South Jersey.
“If it wasn’t going to be us, I am so happy that it was them,” says Molly McDonnell, who finished fifth in doubles with her sister this year. “I love keeping it with the sisters, you’ve just got a certain energy. You’re running doubles, but it’s basically singles. It’s a one-hive mind, so I’m not surprised that they did so well. They were so far ahead of everyone. So incredible …
“Hopefully we encourage other sisters, if they’re on patrol, to row together because it’s magical almost.”
How it happened
The Howarths were first contested in 1995 while the South Jersey Lifeguard championships were first held in 1924.
That inaugural South Jersey Lifeguard championship featured a doubles rowing race. On Aug. 1, 1924, Harry Yates and Jack Woodworth of the Atlantic City Beach Patrol won the event, crossing the finish line 3 seconds ahead of Ocean City’s Charles Schock and Joe Tomlin.
The men and women now have identical events in the South Jersey championships: doubles row, swim, and singles row.
There are some famous brothers in South Jersey lifeguard lore who have competed together, including the Garbutts of Ocean City; the Funks of Ventnor; the Swifts of Margate; the Howarths of Ventnor; the Guenthers of Brigantine, and the McCann brothers of Sea Isle City.
Now some sisters are making history, too.
“Definitely, winning a double was an amazing achievement,” Molly Quinn states. “I enjoyed it so much. The race was tough conditions, really windy and big waves, and it was a challenge. But it was so much fun doing it and everybody else who was doing it because it was a hard race.”
And it meant even more winning it with her sister. Their team finished second overall at the competition.
“We were so excited,” Maura says. “It’s great. You worked and you work out every day, all those hours that paid off and it was great to do it with Molly. … I mean, we worked so hard for it. With Molly, every year, we came close to getting first, but it was never good enough, so this year going in we knew we had a goal of winning. It’s great with the official South Jerseys, and from the start really: ‘All right, let’s get ahead,’ and we got ahead and then after that it was like ‘Don’t let anyone beat you,’ and then when we came in first, what a great feeling.”
The sisters were followed by Julianna Granese and Michelle Burwell of the Atlantic City Beach Patrol in second place.
Twin power, activate
The Quinns’ father, Tim, is a lieutenant with the Sea Isle City Beach Patrol, so they grew up around the lifeguard scene.
The twins both graduated from Mainland Regional High School and spent much of their time in the summers at the beach growing up. It’s in their blood and has been. They are 19 now, but have been around it forever. Their younger sister Lauren, 18, also is on the patrol.
“The beach patrol, it’s just been so good to me as a person,” Tim Quinn told 6abc. “And then to be able to share with my children, it’s just been awesome.”
This was Maura’s fourth summer on the beach patrol and Molly’s third. Their favorite lunch when sitting on the lifeguard stand is a chicken Caesar salad wrap for Maura and mom’s grilled chicken for Molly.
And what do they most enjoy about being Sea Isle City lifeguard?
“I enjoy working with my friends and competing in the lifeguard races,” Maura wrote on the Sea Isle City Beach Patrol Facebook page.
Says Molly: “I enjoy being on the beach every day and getting to compete in the lifeguard races, especially the rowing events.”
Both are rising sophomores at the University of Tennessee and compete on the school’s rowing team. Maura is studying accounting and finance; Molly is studying finance and marketing.
“I feel like with all the patrols it’s a family thing, so a decent amount of people have a sibling or a pair of siblings on the patrol and it’s so nice to be able to do it with your family,” Molly Quinn says. “And rowing with your sister is so much fun, paddling with them. It was so much fun when Maura and I were able to get in the boat together.
“… As a kid when we were younger, we didn’t have a house in Sea Isle, but yeah, we were there a lot. We were always at the beach house with the lifeguards seeing my dad and on the beach.”
Maura concurs: “While I was growing up, going to the beach house, seeing all the lifeguards … I always want to be part of the one big family, and then when I was 16 I knew I wanted to do it, and after that it has been the greatest decision ever.”
Sisterly love
The McDonnells, who graduated from Haddonfield Memorial High School where they both won crew and swimming state championships, live in Stone Harbor, while guarding in Avalon, with their family in the summer. They lost their father Brian in January of 2021. He was a huge supporter of their athletic careers.
Says Regan: “We all live down the shore together with my mom, me and my brother and my sister, and so it’s really nice to get this close family time. … Our dad was very important and cherished to us, and so it’s really nice to get these months together and be so close to my siblings.”
Regan, 24, a 2024 Stanford graduate, was part of the Cardinal team that won the NCAA Division I rowing championship in 2023 and was the runner-up in 2024. Molly, 20, is a rising junior on the Georgetown rowing team. Since they are four years apart, the pair said they had seldom rowed together before.
When they took the doubles row title in 2024, it helped Avalon win the overall team championship on a tiebreaker.
“It was such a cool experience,” Molly McDonnell recalls. “We both rowed, but since we’re four years apart, we never got the opportunity to row together since we were younger. We’re super competitive … but I think that’s why we did so well, because it was just like we were having a good time.”
Regan says it was fun competing together and figuring out the boat together and just having fun while doing it.
“We were four years apart, so even though we both rowed in college, we’ve never been on a team together rowing,” she says. “So, it was great to have the shared interest finally together and so we really just enjoyed getting into training and it was nice to see that pay off with the win at the end of the year. It was a lot of fun.
“We both started together. It is our fourth year now, so last year we were in our third year when we started competing.”
They said their closeness helps in competition. They can honestly assess one another’s performance and don’t have to worry about hurt feelings.
The pair explained that the beach patrol job has made them even closer.
“Oh, yeah,” Regan says, “I’d say this job definitely made us closer living together every summer.”
’Best job in the world’
For the two sets of sisters, being on beach patrol has a lot of meaning.
Says Molly Quinn: “The friendships and the people that you meet, there’s nothing like that. No job can beat it, being on the beach with your friends and meeting people on your beaches.”
Regan said she and her sister Molly love lifeguarding and wouldn’t change a thing, either.
“I remember that when I started, I really thought I was only going to do it [lifeguard] one summer,” Regan says. “Our brother [John], who is in between us in age, had done it first and he’s in his sixth year now. So all three of us, the three siblings, all guard. I really was like, ‘I’ll just do a year instead of an internship,’ and I was hooked, and so now I’m back for my fourth year after thinking I was doing one.
“It’s a lot of fun. The people are great. It’s great to spend so much time with my family, my siblings, and now to compete with Molly. …
“There’s a limited time when you can do something like this: You’re young and healthy and can sit on the beach all day and do something like that with your family and friends, so it’s really just like a once-in-a lifetime job. Best job in the world.”